Memorial

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Lawrence E. Crandall graduated from Lawrence Central High School and was employed by the quartermaster department at Fort Benjamin Harrison.

He enlisted in Indianapolis, Indiana on 5 April 1943. He received basic training at Camp McCall, North Carolina before he was sent overseas in August 1944.

T/5 Crandall was a passenger of the CG-4A glider with serialnumber 43-41136 with destination Wesel, Germany.

Of the two crew members and three passengers, only the crew survived.

The glider carried a jeep and three members of the 224th Airborne Medical Company as passengers. According to the pilot, the glider was shot out of control and was fired upon all the way to the ground by machine gun fire, hitting the gas cans of the jeep, causing a fire. He managed to crash land. All passengers were killed in the air. The glider was practically demolished in the air. He was told by a German medic, doctor, that he had picked up three soldiers dead in the glider and took their dog tags.

T/5 Crandall was initially buried in a temporary grave at Margraten on 16 April 1945. He was given his finale resting place on 28 January 1949.