2nd Lt. Martin B. Unger
2nd Lt. Martin B. Unger
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2nd Lt. Martin B. Unger—Navigator Letters 1943-44—MIA over Yap Island on June 25, 1944

The letters at the link below were written by Martin B. Unger to his family from March 1943 until June 1944. The letters start in March of 1943 when Martin entered the Army Air Force basic training i
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The letters at the link below were written by Martin B. Unger to his family from March 1943 until June 1944. The letters start in March of 1943 when Martin entered the Army Air Force basic training in Nashville, TN and they end the night before he was shot down and killed (the last letter sent on 24 June 1944). His final letter was written while based with the 13th Air Force & 307th Bomb Group on the Admiralty Islands (Mokerang Field, Los Negros). Martin likely wrote his final letter while sitting in his tent on Los Negros as he prepared for one of the longest bombing missions of the entire war (a 13 hour round trip to Yap Island) the following day.

 

 

Cecile (Martin's sister) provided Pat Ranfranz with the Missing Air Crew Project, www.MissingAirCrew.com, with access to 57 letters from 1943 and 34 letters from 1944. Pat's uncle John R. McCullough was the Ass't Radio Operator on the same plane. The letters are an invaluable piece of Army Air Force (AAF) history that follow Martin from the time he entered the Air Corps on 6 March 1943, throughout his training as a Navigator, and up until his tragic loss on 25 June 1944. The letters provide an insight into someone going through the Army Air Force training during the height of the air war in World War II. In addition, the letters help us understand how an Accountant from New York City, Martin Unger, was transformed into an Army Air Force Navigator who flew numerous missions with the 307th Bomb Group before being lost and listed as KIA/MIA over Yap Island on 25 June 1944.

 

 

Martin’s letters help to put more than a face on one of the 307th Bomb Group members lost in the Pacific. The letters help you feel like you know Martin and can feel his thoughts and dreams that ended too soon. The letters have pushed Pat Ranfranz to work even harder to locate the Coleman plane and to document the life and times of the Coleman crew members who were lost so many years ago.

 

 

The letters were sent from the following locations:

 

 

March 1943 to April 1943: Nashville Army Air Center (A.A.F.C.C.),

Thompson Lane, Nashville, Tenn

 

 

April 1943 to October 1943: Navigation School, Monroe, Louisiana

 

 

October 1943 to February 1944: Army Air Base, Pueblo, Colorado

 

 February 1944 to June 1944: Overseas

 

 

View the letters at the following link:

 

2nd Lt. Martin B. Unger—Navigator Letters 1943-44:

 

http://www.missingaircrew.com/crew/unger/letters/

 

 

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