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name
COTEY, Robert Leach - Date of
birth
27 August 1914 -
Age
29 - Place of
birth
Vermont -
Hometown
Vergennes, Addison County, Vermont
Personal info
Military service
- Service
number
17121422 -
Rank
Staff Sergeant -
Function
Ball Turret Gunner -
Unit
856th Bombardment Squadron,
492nd Bombardment Group, Heavy
-
Awards
Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster,
Air Medal
Death
-
Status
Finding of Death - Date of
death
7 July 1944 - Place of
death
Westeregeln, Germany
Grave
-
Cemetery
American War Cemetery Henri-Chapelle -
Tablets of the Missing
* This soldier has been accounted for. A rosette has been placed next to his name.
Immediate family
-
Members
William Cotey (father)
Sarah M. Cotey (mother)
Delores E. (Williams) Cotey (wife)
Plane data
- Serial
number
44-40145 -
Data
Type: B-24J
Destination: Bernburg, Germany
Mission: Bombing of the Junkers-Zweigwerke aircraft factory
MACR: 7231
More information
On the way back from the mission, the Luftwaffe caught the Group without any fighter protection. The 492nd lost a dozen of their planes.The initial MIA report thought the crew might had gone down in the Baltic Sea. Later reports suspected they had gone down in the North Sea. Almost sixty years later the wreckage was discovered near the initial battle zone.
The excavated remains of the crew were sent to Hawaii for DNA identification. Everyone in the crew was positively identified except for S/Sgt Cotey. However his ring and dogtags were found in the wreckage and forensics were able to conclude his remains are among the parts from which DNA could not be extracted.
Leonard Ray was buried in Maryland on 5 October 2007. Robert Flood was buried in Pennsylvania on the following day. Hyman Stiglitz was buried on 28 December 2007 in Tucson, Arizona.
The other four identified through DNA were buried at Arlington National Cemetery on 12 June 2008 along with a mass burial for the entire crew which contains all of the remains that could not be identified.
Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, Terry Hirsch, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.fold3.com, www.492ndbombgroup.com, Sue, The Enterprise and Vermonter - 28 August 1941
Photo source: www.findagrave.com, Peter Schouteten, Sue