Paris Goes To War

War came Paris, Texas on December 7, 1941. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declarations of war of the Axis countries of Japan, Germany and Italy against The United States brought World War II literally to the doorsteps of Paris.

The U.S. response to war hit Paris like a tidal wave and the results were everlasting.

This small East Texas town responded as hundreds of small towns across America did. Its sons, daughters and citizens joined the war effort.

But Paris began to develop its own uniqueness with the opening of Camp Maxey just a few miles north of the city limits in 1942. Two major divisions, the 102d Infantry Division and the 99th Infantry Division, trained there. It is estimated that over 200,000 troops and civilians trained and worked at Camp Maxey during its short 4 years of existance.

Camp Maxey was also selected as a site, as were many other training camp sites in Texas, to house German prisoners-of-war. More than 6,000 Germans were hosted there until well after the last shots of anger were fired in Europe in 1945.

Paris, as was the whole country, was like a stirred pot. The young men and women who came to Camp Maxey to train spent their leaves in town. Many of them met, courted, and married local men and women. Likewise, Paris sons and daughters who left were meeting their future spouses. The long historic ties that had held Paris together as a tight community were stretched around the world.

To and from Paris the letters streamed in and out from friends and families: from the battle fronts, from far-away hometowns, from Washington D.C., to Europe, to The Pacific and literally all points of the globe.

Sad news of soldiers being killed, exciting news of the birth of a new baby, common news about town gossip all swirlled around this small town of Paris. Paris was making its contribution to march the country toward victory.

In 1941 Paris Goes To War.


How To Add A Story & Pictures To Paris Goes To War

If you have stories, pictures or items of interest to contribute to these web pages, please email them to steelyfamilias@yahoo.com. You can send written articles in doc or pdf formats and pictures are preferred in jpg format. Contributions will be posted according the their relevance to Paris, Lamar County, Camp Maxey and World War II. All contributions may be used on these blog web pages as well as any future publications that may appear on the subject.

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

In Memory of 1st Lt. James P. Gullion, Paris Texas, KIA 408th Bomber Squadron, 22nd Bomber Group, Heavy





James P. Gullion
First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Forces
Service # 0-803142
408th Bomber Squadron, 22nd Bomber Group, Heavy 
Entered the Service from: Texas
Died: 25-Feb-46
Missing in Action or Buried at Sea
Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery
Manila, Philippines  
Awards: Air Medal, Purple Heart


NEWS RELEASES from the United States Department of Defense
No. 338-06 IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Apr 21, 2006  
Media Contact: (703)697-5131 Public/Industry(703)428-0711
Airmen Missing In Action From WWII are Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of eleven U.S. airmen, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

They are Captain Thomas C. Paschal, El Monte, California; First Lieutenant Frank P. Giugliano, New York, New York; First Lieutenant James P. Gullion, Paris, Texas;  Second Lieutenant Leland A. Rehmet, San Antonio, Texas; Second Lieutenant John A. Widsteen, Palo Alto, California, Staff Sergeant Richard F. King, Moultrie, Georgia; Staff Sergeant William Lowery, Republic, Pennsylvania; Staff Sergeant Elgin J. Luckenbach, Luckenbach, Texas.; Staff Sergeant Marion B. May, Amarillo, Texas.; Sergeant Marshall P. Borofsky, Chicago, Illinois; Sergeant Walter G. Harm, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; all U.S. Army Air Forces.

The group remains of the entire crew are to be buried today at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, DC, as are the individual remains of each man with the exception of King, Giugliano and Widsteen, whose families have elected hometown burials.

On April 16, 1944, Paschal and Widsteen were piloting a B-24J Liberator with the other nine men aboard.  The aircraft was returning to Nadzab, New Guinea after bombing enemy targets near Hollandia.  The plane was last seen off the coast of the island flying into poor weather.

The loss was investigated following the war and a military board concluded that the aircraft had been lost over water and was unrecoverable.

In early 2001 a team of specialists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) interviewed a native of Papua New Guinea who claimed to have found the aircraft crash and recovered identification media for May and Harm.  The team surveyed the site in 2002 and found wreckage that matched Paschal's aircraft tail number along with human remains.  They also took custody of remains previously collected by the villager.

Later that year, two additional JPAC teams excavated the crash site and recovered additional human remains and crew-related artifacts. Identification tags were found for Luckenbach, May and Paschal. Other crew-related materials found were consistent with items used by the Army Air Forces around 1944.

Mitochondrial DNA obtained from dental and bone samples was one of the forensic tools used by JPAC scientists and Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory specialists to identify the airmen.

For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO website at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo [http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo] or call (703)-699-1169.
Eleven U.S. airmen, including four Texans, killed in the World War II crash of a B-24J Liberator bomber 62 years ago in the South Pacific will be honored in burials at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, 22 April 2006.

The Pentagon's Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced Thursday that the remains of all 11 men had been positively identified and were being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

Eight of the men will be buried individually at Arlington with positively identified remains; the families of the other three chose hometown burials. In addition to those individual burials, there will be a burial at Arlington on Friday of "group remains" _ bone fragments associated with the crew that could not be positively identified with any of the 11 individuals.

The pilots of the B-24J were Captain Thomas C. Paschal of El Monte, California, and Second Lieutenant John A. Widsteen, of Palo Alto, California.

The other nine were:
First Lieutenant Frank P. Giugliano, of New York, New York; 
First Lieutenant James P. Gullion, of Paris, Texas; 
Second Lieutenant Leland A. Rehmet, of San Antonio, Texas; 
Staff Sergeant Richard F. King, of Moultrie, Georiga; 
Staff Sergeant William Lowery, of Republic, Pennsylvania; 
Staff Sergeant Elgin J. Luckenbach, of Luckenbach, Texas; 
Staff Sergeant Marion B. May, of Amarillo, Texas; 
Sergeant Marshall P. Borofsky, of Chicago;
Sergeant Walker G. Harm, of Philadelphia.

All were members of the U.S. Army Air Forces.

The bomber was returning to Nadzab, New Guinea, on April 16, 1944 after bombing enemy targets near Hollandia when it crashed. It was last seen off the coast of New Guinea flying into poor weather, the Pentagon said.

Remains were recovered in 2002 by a team of specialists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, acting on information provided by a native of Papua New Guinea who reported finding the aircraft crash site.


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