Memorial

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Lt Alton B. Wroten joined the Air Corps of the Army of the United States in Jackson, Mississippi on 13 October 1942.

The mission took place on 23 December 1944.

According to a crew member of another B-26 in the same flght, the airplane left the formation, probably after being hit by flak.

The entire crew of six men was killed.

Lt Alton B. Wroten was declared officially dead one day and one year after he was reported missing in action.

He is remembered at O'Zion Baptist Church Cemetery in Meadville, Franklin County, Mississippi with a memorial marker.

A family member, Jamie Wroten, wrote the following:

He grew up about 15 minutes from a very small town (around 500 people now), but still "rural", even by the standards of his time. Alton was born at home on Jan. 24, 1924. We still have his old guitar that he carved his girlfriend's names into. The "Mayflower" replica that he built for his senior project, rattles that he whittled from a chunk of wood, his old knife, his pipe, and other small things that we still look at and imagine what he would have been like. The most impressive part though, is that at 20 years old (not yet 21) he was the co-pilot of a Martin B26 Marauder that was downed on Dec. 23, 1944. It blows my mind to think that a kid who grew up in the middle of nowhere, went from a poor, sharecropper-to-be to a HERO that saw the world.

There were 6 passengers aboard the flight. Out of the 6, 3 of them were identified and buried. He was classified as MIA, and as of right now, his remains still haven't been located. We have the personnel file from the Army that includes everything from his dental records, his list of belongings, and letters that my great grandmother sent him, and sent to his superiors after his status of MIA.

"Have you found any evidence of my son?"
"I spoke with one of the other mothers, and they said their son was with him and located"
"All of his belongings weren't in the box we received. The inventory said that had 4 white shirts and we only got 3"

It's difficult to imagine clinging onto something as insignificant as a white t-shirt, but when the items coming back in the box are all you will have, it hits a little different.

Our prayer is that someday we are able to get him home.