Memorial

More information

Statement from 1st Lt Johnson T. Morgan:
"I was leading second element of white flight on an armed recon mission on December 29, 1944 in the vicinity of Donnange when Lt John R. Dyer was hit by 20 mm light flak. I saw him losing gasoline and called on the radio telling him that he was hit and to head out, and at the same time I saw his plane starting to burn. I told him he was burning and to jump. Lt Dyer made no attempt to jump the ship or answer on the radio. The ship rolled over slowly and hit the ground, going straight down and exploded."

His flight leader had seen the plane burning and radioed Lt Dyer to bail out, but another airman from that mission testified that he never saw Lt Dyer leave his plane. Still, that account did not prevail in the official record. Instead, military investigators concluded the other airman's view was obscured and he couldn't see Dyer escape. That inquiry quoted witnesses saying Dyer floated to earth in his open parachute and was captured. The Army had concluded since Dyer's body was never found that he was murdered and buried by the Germans.

But after reopening the case, the Army notes that the physical description of the pilot and the account of his capture matched that of another pilot taken prisoner the month after Dyer's plane went down. Witnesses probably confused the airmen, since the rails of both planes bore similar ID numbers.

His plane went down in a bog and was lost until some time in the 90s, when some of his teeth were found.

He was given his final resting place at the Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery in Cheltenham, Prince George's County, Maryland on 26 May 2004.