GAWLAS, RALPH Aug 9, 1943 age 19 DNB South Carolina

RALPH W. GAWLAS  b. Dec 4, 1923 Michigan d. Aug 9, 1943

Died Non Battle Sumpter, South Carolina

2 Lt O-806829 US Army Air Force 10^th Bomber Force Training Group

 

Redford HS photo

Buried Grand Lawn Cemetery, Detroit

Parents: Charles Paul & Gertrude Marie (Ribolin)

Siblings: Charles Garrett, Frederick H., Robert J.
Spouse: Payne Elizabeth Jernigan

Father Charles was born in Scranton, PA and mother Gertrude in New York, so there is a migration pattern seen often in Detroit families of that time. They settled in Detroit before WWI where Charles registered for the draft. He was a time keeper at Detroit Axle and noted he had bad eyes. Gertrude was pregnant at the time. Timekeeping was a professional he continued at various area factories. His own parents immigrated from Austria, the Polish and the German sections, in the 1880’s and the family continued the pattern of westward migration in the U.S. While Charles died in Detroit in 1984, Gertrude died in Northville at 99 years of age (1898-1997), where son Robert lived.

Ralph center in ROTC uniform

In 1940 the family with 4 sons also had a lodger in their house at 17157 Braile, a neighborhood a block north of the high school. The house seemingly is gone - so many homes are missing house numbers it’s hard to determine which is 17157; might be the unnumbered empty lot in between. They moved a couple times within the same neighborhood.

3 of the sons were in the military. Young Robert was too young to serve; he graduated Redford in 1950. In 1952 he owned the Redford Stamp Shop at 17237 Redford Ave.

Ralph enlisted June 15, 1942 in Detroit having graduated from Redford and completed his freshman year at Wayne University. He was 5’5” and 156 lbs., an office clerk at Axle Mfg. In a short time he became a pilot and flight instructor. His training was at Randolph Field, Texas, class 43-J.  He went on to as a flight instructor at Shaw Field, South Carolina.

April 17, 1943 he married Payne Elizabeth Jernigan of Alabama in Alabama.  A few months later on Aug 9 he crashed his plane in a cornfield near Sumter, South Carolina. An article in the Anniston Star, Anniston, Alabama describes the crash:  

PLANE CRASHES SUMTER, S. C., Aug. IQ.-OI.B--Two fliers were killed early yesterday afternoon when their plane crashed about five miles from the air field Shaw Field officials announced today. Killed In the crash ware 2nd Lt. Ralph W. Gawlas, 19 and Cadet Harvey E. Mumford, 26. Lt. Gawlas is survived by his mother, Mrs. Gertrude P Gawlas (11210 Braile Ave.), Detroit, Mich., and his widow, Mrs. R. W Gawlas (Cooks Road Route No. 4), Montgomery. Ala. Cadet Mumford is survived by a sister, Mrs. Alvln Grotke Buffalo (note the Braile address should be 17210).

At age 19 Lt Gawlas was already a pilot and  instructor! It seems incredible they could qualify so young. Pilots and crews had a terribly high mortality rate, evidenced by the 23  airmen killed in this memorial group

Payne remarried in Alabama in Dec 1945.