Samuel Hansard was a pilot, assigned to the 55th Fighter Group / 338th Fighter Squadron on 29 February 1944. He is credited with one Ju88 destroyed on the ground near Magdeburg, Germany on 21 May 1944 and one Me109 destroyed in air combat over Danville, France, on 10 August 1944. On 26 August 1944, he was flying on a P-51D (probably Serial 44-14050 which had been assigned to him) on an escort mission of bombers to Ludwigshafen, Germany. On the way back to base, Hansard and Squadron mates Samuel D. Gevorkian and John E. Kester strafed a railway depot in Nancy France. Flying over Belgium in the vicinity of Ghent on a flight path to the Belgian seaport of Zeebrugge, they flew through a violent thunderstorm. Flying on, they didn't notice that their navigational instruments had been put out of order and, following the readings on their compass, they headed South instead of North. Fearing to be too short on fuel, Kester and Gevorkian decided to crash-land their planes on a beach and they landed a few hundred meters from each other. It was only later that they found out they had landed in the South of France, near Cap Ferret, West of Bordeaux. They were helped by French patriots and both managed to evade. Lt Sam Hansard was seen by witnesses to have continued flying towards the sea, which he most certainly thought to be the Channel, hoping to reach England, and is reported to have crashed in the Bay of Biscay. Nor his Mustang nor his body were ever found. No Missing Air Crew Report is linked to his loss. Some sources mention that he would have been recovered by an English naval vessel and presumably buried at sea. He is still officially listed as Missing In Action (MIA) and he is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Cambridge American Cemetery in Cambridge, England, as well as at the Memorial Park Cemetery in Borger, Texas.

His Purple Heart was presented posthumously to his parents in January 1945. In September of the same year, they also received his posthumous Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal with 5 oak leaf clusters.

► See the pages for Samuel Gevorkian and John Kester at http://www.evasioncomete.be/fgevorksd.html and http://www.evasioncomete.be/fkesterje.html