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Personal info

Full name
PACK, Jessie Orville
Date of birth
23 January 1921
Age
23
Place of birth
Grayson County, Texas
Hometown
Sherman, Grayson County, Texas

Military service

Service number
38222601
Rank
Technical Sergeant
Function
Engineer
Unit
613th Bombardment Squadron,
401st Bombardment Group, Heavy
Awards
Distinguished Flying Cross,
Air Medal with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
8 May 1944
Place of death
Dümmer Lake, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Margraten
unknown

Immediate family

Members
Jessie E. Pack (father)
Mary C. (McAlister) Pack (mother)
Alvin H. Pack (brother)
Samuel E. Pack (brother)
Annie I. Pack (sister)
Arville Pack (brother)
Mary C. Pack (sister)
Edna R. (Stovall) Pack (wife)

Plane data

Serial number
42-30855
Data
Type: B-17F
Nickname: Ol Massa
Destination: Berlin, Germany
Mission: Bombing of the city
MACR: 4586

More information

T/Sgt Jessie O. Pack attended college and was employed as a draftsman at the US Engineer Office in Denison.

He enlisted in Dallas, Texas on 9 September 1942.

According to witnesses, the plane was hit by a flak burst just outside the waist window or in the plane itself. The bottom part blew off. The tail section went one way and the frontal section another.

Statement from Edward J. Rice, Left Waist Gunner:
"About 100 miles from Holland it happens. A loud, hard, explosion toward the front of our plane. The plane was flying level as die, but the whole tail was gone. Just a great big hole looking out at the sky. The blast blew everything toward the front of the plane, the plane can't fly this way. I ran straight out into space thru the open fuselage, the plane was diving straight down. It nosed into the ground and exploded, fire and smoke shot skyward."

According to 1st Lt Cyrus P. Bennett, the Germans told him there were eight bodies in the wreckage. They were initially all buried at the cemetery of Achmer.

One picture shows his wife receiving his Distinguished Flying Cross at Perrin Air Base in Sherman, Texas.

Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, Peter Schouteten, C. J. Ransom, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.ancestry.com - Jones Family Tree, www.fold3.com - MACR

Photo source: Peter Schouteten, C. J. Ransom