FTO William Eugene Kern was born in Chicago, Illinois, on January 24, 1921, to William J. Kern and Alice Jeanette Collins-Kern, and had three sisters. His family resided at 1513 South Mango Avenue, Forest Park, Illinois, and his father was a policeman for Forest Park. William graduated from Saint Bernadine School, Forest Park, and Proviso Township High School in 1939. He worked in a payroll department of a company. When he enlisted, he indicated that he completed four years of high school, but other sources state he attended night school at the Armour Institute of Technology, in Chicago, for two years.
On January 5, 1942, he enlisted in the US Army Air Corps and was given the serial number 16 037 253. The one at the beginning of the number indicated he enlisted. Information on his training is lacking. He did well on the Army General Classification Test and was offered the opportunity to train as a pilot. It is known he trained at Fort Morgan, Alabama, and Fort Sumner, New Mexico. The only known place where he trained as a pilot was at the Victorville Airfield, California. It was stated that he volunteered to train as a glider pilot which was considered a suicidal assignment. After completing his training, he resigned as an enlisted man and was commissioned a Flight Officer. His serial number was T 000 806. Flight Officers served as rated pilots, navigators, flight engineers, bombardiers and glider pilots. William qualified as a glider pilot in June 1942.
After completing his training, William assigned to the 79th Troop Carrier Squadron, 436th Troop Carrier Group when it was activated on April 1, 1943, at Baer Field, Indiana. The 436th moved to Alliance Army Airfield, Nebraska, on May 2, 1943. and Laurinburg-Maxton Airfield, North Carolina, on August 1, 1943. It went overseas in December 1943, and was stationed at Bottesford, England, in January 1944, before moving to Membury, England on March 3, 1944. The group is known to have flown C-47s which were used to deployed paratroopers. It also flew gliders.
During his time with the 79th Troop Carrier Squadron, his unit flew missions during D-Day carrying the 82nd Airborne. It also took part in Operation Dragoon which was he invasion of southern France on August 15, 1944. He appears to have flown a glider carrying troops. According to documents, he was piloting a glider carrying supplies to troops in northern Italy. His co-pilot was FTO Robert Hardin. One report states that his glider was hit by enemy fire from the Island of Capraia, Italy, and went down in the Mediterranean Sea. Some sources state the plane disintegrated before hitting the water. FTO Robert Hardin’s body washed ashore and two days later he was buried at the United States Military Cemetery, Vada, Italy. William’s body was never found.
His parents received a letter from another pilot in his squadron who was his friend. He told William’s parents that the gliders were preparing to land behind enemy lines when he had saw William’s plane go down. According to the letter, the gliders were flying in formation and that his plane was the seventh in the formation right behind William’s plane. He stated that William’s plane suddenly dove toward the ground and crashed. According to the pilot, William was killed instantly.
After the war in 1948, the American Graves Registration Service sent a team to the area where the plane went down and interviewed the civilian population from Lecce, Italy to the French border. They also searched on the islands off the coast. They visited the local towns and churches and were told no Americans had been buried in any of the cemeteries. On July 8, 1948, FTO William E. Kerns was declared non-recoverable.
After the war, his name was placed on the Wall of the Missing at the Sicily Rome American Cemetery, Nettuno, Italy. His parents had a memorial headstone placed in Memorial Section C, Arlington National Cemetery – Arlington, Virginia
