Past strawberry fields and citrus groves, past pasture fences and dirt roads, two representatives from the United States Army drove to the Lithia home of Sandy Shirley on a sunny January afternoon. Twelve miles outside of Plant City, First Sgt. Rudolph Neal and Jeannette Bogle had traveled even further from Miami and Kentucky.
They were there to relay some news. But it was news that would start out 2015 the right way.
The country home smelled like apple cinnamon and vanilla ice cream as they stepped inside. Receiving a warm reception from Shirley and her oldest daughter, Janda Fussell, they were also greeted by the family’s pastor, Dr. Dan Middlebrooks.
Sitting on the couch, Bogle asked Shirley to sit next to her. She spoke with a smile: Shirley’s second cousin, First Lt. James Frank Gatlin Jr., had finally been identified. He would now be able to be put to rest after being missing in action since World War II.
Shirley never knew Gatlin, who was from Live Oak and served in the Army Air Forces when he was 26. But she, and the rest of her family, are grateful that they will be able to celebrate the life and heroism of a great American pilot at Bushnell National Cemetery.
“It’ve very touching,” Fussell said. “It’s very moving to think that — even though he’s a distant relative — he’s still an American hero.”
The American Hero
With a stack of paperwork in her lap, Bogle began telling the horrific story of the last day Gatlin spent on earth.
It was a stormy day December 23, 1944 when 30 aircraft from the 391st Bombardment Group and the 575th Bombardment Squadron took off from their base in Northern France to rendezvous with Allied Forces in Belgium. Gatlin was piloting a Martin B-26 Marauder nicknamed “The Silver Dollar.” In October, the unit had been tasked with the mission to bomb German industrial areas, transportation and fuel supply systems like railroads, fuel stations and factories.
More than two weeks of bad weather had delayed one specific mission to destroy a railroad viaduct at Ahrweiler. Once it had let up slightly, the unit decided it was their one chance.
But the Allied Forces weren’t in Belgium when they arrived. They were suppose to provide fighter jets for protection. The unit made the fateful choice to continue with the mission anyways.
Several miles from the target, they were attack by German forces. Because of the stress, the first attempt was unsuccessful. Going in for another shot, they hit the target. But when they started to return back to base, another attack by the Germans became a devastating struggle for survival. The heaviest losses sustained by the 391st during a single operation occurred during this mission.
Gatlin’s B-26 was one of the planes that received a direct hit. A fire started in the bomb bay, eating up the plane with a flickering fury. Gatlin, staying true to his service, sounded the alarm, letting the other five crew members, gunners William Weissker, Milton Cowart and Joe Sanchez, navigator John Adair, and co-pilot Stephen Biezis, know they needed to evacuate.
Three were able to parachute out. One chute never deployed. Another caught on fire. Only Adair survived, getting hung up in a tree and captured by the Germans. Gatlin and Biezis went down with the plane.
After Adair was turned over to the U.S., he recounted the story, preserving its spot in history. It wasn’t until then that he learned he was the sole survivor. Before he had jumped, he looked back at Gatlin and Biezis. After landing, he watched the plane take a quick dive. He never saw the impact.
Nearby townspeople did see the crash, however, and they went out to help survivors. What they found was wreckage and charred remains. They put the dead to rest in their own municipal cemetery.
When the American team came in and took the remains, no paperwork was filed. And so, the crash site and those who died there remained a mystery.
That was, until 1997.
An International
Investigation
It was a once-in-a-lifetime correspondence when an American World War II enthusiast was contacted by a man in Germany in 1997. He had collected personal affects and airplane parts from a B-26 crash he thought knew the location to. He also was in contact with several witnesses and knew of some possible graves.
The enthusiast contacted Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command to look into the claim. In 1999, JPAC sent a team out to talk with the German tipster and witnesses. They had Biezis’ identification bracelet, in addition to airplane parts and bones, and led JPAC to where they found the artifacts.
JPAC continued to work on the case and in 2007 sent another team to do more interviews. In 2013 and 2014, a team excavated the site. By looking at the scarring on the trees, the team could tell where the impact was. It was able to find a whistle, watch and ring. It also found bones and teeth. The teeth were too far decomposed to get any DNA from them. But part of a mandible was salvageable. JPAC took it to Hawaii, to the command’s Central Identification Laboratory, to try and find matches.
After testing two of Gatlin’s female first cousins on the maternal side, JPAC got a direct match. That normally doesn’t happen. As many as twenty matches can be found on the first test.
Homecoming
Sitting across from each other, Shirley and Fussell couldn’t believe that after all these years and with just one small bone, their relative was finally identified. And once they found out that Gatlin’s cousin, Cornelia, used to write letters to him, they were even more excited to grow their family.
“Can you tell her to call us?” Shirley asked. “Does she have any pictures?”
Cornelia’s DNA was used to identify Gatlin. She lives in Wyoming.
“It’s very exciting, especially knowing that Cornelia wrote to him back and forth,” Fussel said. “It will give us more insight to James not just as the American hero we know, but James the person.”
Although the full story of Gatlin has been uncovered at long last, Fussell knew something was brewing even before the Jan. 9 meeting with Bogle and Neal.
Several years ago, while she was visiting with her grandma, Wilma Shiver, the phone rang. In a plot that belongs in a Blockbuster movie, Fussell learned from JPAC that Shiver had a first cousin, Gatlin, and that they needed some DNA from the paternal side to confirm that the remains they had were indeed Gatlin.
Fussell became the point of contact.
“Our family took an interest,” Fussell said. “Then we didn’t hear anything for a year. Based on what we knew, I didn’t expect the news this soon. Especially not in Granny’s life.”
Shiver was recently admitted to the hospital and signed power of attorney over to her daughter, Shirley, to bring Gatlin home.
His funeral is planned for the end of the month at Bushnell and will include a full-size casket Shirley picked out, military honors and the presentation of awards, including a purple heart.
Now that his story is known, the family has plans for his existing plaque at a family plot at Clayland Baptist Church in Live Oak. Gatlin’s mother and father, siblings, aunt and uncle, and others are all buried there. He joined them in spirit, with a commemoration that said he was missing in action.
Fussell wants to change that, however. Gatlin once was lost, but now he is found.
Contact Amber Jurgensen at ajurgensen@plantcityobserver.com.