Lt. Col. Thomas Lynch, Air Ace, Killed In Action
Item
-
Title
-
Lt. Col. Thomas Lynch, Air Ace, Killed In Action
-
Date Created
-
1944-03-11
-
Creator
-
The Bethlehem globe-times. (Bethlehem, Pa.) 1925-1977
-
Identifier
-
ww2-7949
-
Description
-
Clipping extracted from The Bethlehem globe-times pertaining to WWII military personnel from the Lehigh Valley, part of the BAPL WWII Newspaper Clipping Collection.
-
Digital Format
-
application/pdf
-
Clipping
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
Bethlehem Area Public Library
-
Contributor
-
Entries added in 2013 funded in part with Federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the Office of Commonwealth Libraries.
-
Date Submitted
-
2013-04-01
-
Type
-
Text
-
content
-
March 11, 1944
Lt. Col. Thomas Lynch, Air Ace, Killed In Action
PTTSBURGH, (AP)—Lt. Col. Thomas Lynch, Army Air Forces hero from Catasauqua, Pa., with 20 Japanese planes to his credit, was killed in action over New Guinea last Wednesday, the War Department notified his wife here today.
No details of the air battle in which he met death were contained in the terse message from the war department, a member of his wife’s family said.
Mrs. Lynch, almost prostrated by the shock, left two letters from her husband unopened. They arrived shortly after the telegram.
Their wedding during his brief furlough last Fall climaxed a romance that began at a college dance four years earlier. Col. Lynch returned to the Pacific Theater after their honeymoon—the area in which all of his air exploits were accomplished.
The report he had shot down his 20th Jap plane came from the war department the same day of his death, March 8. It was his fourth aerial victory since returning to the South Pacific Theater.
Col. Lynch, who was 27, was the second University of Pittsburgh flying ace—and also the second Lieutenant Colonel—to lose his life.
The first was Lt. Col. Boyd D. (Buzz) Wagner, of Johnstown, who also had 20 Japanese planes to his credit. He was killed when his plane crashed in a Florida pasture while on a tour of duty in the United States.
At the time Col. Wagner, then 26, was the youngest Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army.
[PICTURE]
[CAPTION] LT. COL. AND MRS. LYNCH
