First Lieutenant Frank B. Morgan

First Lieutenant (1st LT) Frank B. Morgan was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania on January 28, 1920, to Samuel and Edna Grace Morgan.[1]  Samuel Morgan was a first generation American of Northern Irish descent, working in the publishing industry as an editor and linotype operator.[2]  Edna Grace Morgan (née Black) was a native of Pennsylvania and appeared to be a housewife based on census evidence. Frank was the youngest of three boys, his siblings were Samuel Cree Morgan (1909-1990) and James Alexander Morgan (1912-1982).[3] The Morgan’s owned a home on 17 Clopper Street in Greensburg, where Frank lived until he entered active service.[4]  On December 6th 1939, Frank’s father passed at the age of 71; he was 19 at the time.[5] 

Frank earned a high school diploma and census records suggest that he attended college due to his designation as a student in the survey. Based on evidence that his brother Samuel Cree Morgan completed at least 4 years of college, it would be reasonable to assume that Frank followed the tradition.[6]  Frank’s appearance cannot be determined through photographs, but his draft registration reports that he had blue eyes, blonde hair, weighed 200 pounds, and stood at 5’10”. [7]

Available records do not reveal whether 1st LT. Morgan (O-750431) entered the military by draft or enlistment; however, records reveal that he entered active service on April 27, 1942, out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the age of 22.[8] Leaving out of MacDill in Tampa, 1st LT. Morgan served with the 555th Bomber Squadron, a unit within the 386th Bomber Group. The 386th Bomber Group flew B-26 Marauders and fought on the Western Front in six major campaigns: Air Offensive-- Europe (July 1942 - June 1944), Normandy (June 1944 - July 1944), Northern France (July 1944 - September 1944), Rhineland (September 1944 - March 1945), Ardennes (December 1944 -January 1945), and in Central Europe (March 1945 - End of War). Frank and his bomber group took part in 409 missions, 12,496 sorties, attacked 433 targets and dropped 18,287 tons of bombs. Frank’s squadron attacked targets of strategic interest, such as bridges, airfields, marshalling yards, flying bomb sites, communications centers, village and troop defense, coastal guns and shore defenses, and supply depots and dumps. Of the 409 missions flown by the 386th, enemy fire shot down 49 aircraft. Over twice that number crash landed returning back to base, and 175 killed or missing in action. [9]

1st LT. Morgan served his country with distinction, earning an Air Medal with Eight Oak Leaf Clusters.[10] He died on December 20, 1944, four days into the Ardennes campaign.[11]  His death is listed as non-battle related, suggesting that he may have been one of the many B-26 that crashed at takeoff, or upon landing.[12] 1st LT. Morgan died just before the end of the war at the age of 24. Morgan rests at Plot B Row 39 Grave 46 in Epinal American Cemetery France and his family organized a second memorial at Parker Presbyterian Cemetery in Pennsylvania.[13] He was survived by his mother and two brothers. For the loss of her son, Edna G. Morgan received a sum of $500.[14]