Cecil Dean Stout was born March 21, 1922, in rural Calhoun County, Iowa, near Rockwell City. Second of 10 children. In 1939 his farming family moved to the eastern foothills of Oregon's Coast Range, near the logging town of Willamina. Graduated that year from Willamina High School.



Was in Portland to see a movie with his father on Dec. 7, 1941, when they heard of the Japanese attack that morning on Pearl Harbor. Told his father on drive home he wanted to join Army Air Forces. Enlisted in Portland on March 19, 1942, two days before turning age 20. Trained at Santa Ana, Calif.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Tucson, Ariz.; and El Paso, Texas. (Though the 389th Bomb Group also subsequently trained at Denver, no record of his having been there has been found.)



Awarded his bombardier's wings and second-lieutenancy Dec. 12, 1942, at Albuquerque. Had wanted to be a pilot but was deemed to lack adequate visual depth perception.



Had been in England with his bomb group nine days when involved in fatal accident. On a training mission on June 25, 1943, was aboard B-24D No. 42-40774 when it collided in the air with another B-24.



One death resulted, that of the navigator on Stout's plane, 2nd Lt. Charles B. Quantrell, 26, of Rockville Centre, N.Y. Stout suffered a leg injury and a lip deformity that prompted him to grow a mustache.



The incident is described, without naming the date or the casualties, on pages 68-69 of the 1978 memoir BOMBER PILOT by Phil Ardery, a 564th BS pilot who stayed on the ground that day. A more detailed description appears in chapter 3 of an unpublished autobiography of Harold James, the pilot of Stout's bombing crew.



Stout was treated in the nearby Twelfth Evacuation Hospital. If not incapacitated he probably would have been with his crew on the infamous, costly raid at Ploesti, Romania, on Aug. 1, 1943. The plane on that trip was interned in Turkey.



Stout would also fly missions in YOURS TRULY (B-24J No. 42-100167, Code No. RR:L).



Stout flew on 30 missions before returning to the United States in mid June 1944, about a month after being awarded the DFC. Had been promoted to first lieutenant March 6 of that year.



Back in the States, he was stationed in southern California assigned to the Fourth Air Force. He enrolled in a bomb-instructor course at Midland, Texas. Was honorably discharged from AAF Oct. 9, 1945. Separation was at Fort Lewis, Wash. That winter he studied Russian in New York City.



The following summer he found employment by the U.S. War Department's American Graves Registration Service. Hired as a typist. Was assigned to Maastricht, The Netherlands, and later Liege, Belgium, where he served as personnel chief. On Dec. 19, 1947, he married a Dutch woman who was also employed by the U.S. War Department, Emmy de Wijs.



AGRS's mission was to locate and acquire the bodies of dead servicemen and give them a proper burial, either in the United States or Europe.



Returned to the U.S.A. about November 1949. Cecil and Emmy settled in Salem, Ore., not far from Cecil's family, before moving to San Francisco the following year. There Cecil went to work as a bill collector for the famous musical-instruments retailer Sherman-Clay Co.



Their only child, David C. Stout, was born in San Francisco in June 1952.



Cecil and Emmy divorced in 1972. The following year he married Betty Fong in San Francisco, and two years later the couple moved to Sacramento, where Cecil was employed by another music company, American Sound. Retired in the early 1980s.



Cecil was an avid reader and bird-watcher. In the context of his interest in nature he considered himself a Darwinian, one who believes in survival of the fittest. Took an interest in his friends, parents, siblings, and his siblings' children. Enjoyed thoughtful comment and conversation, either spoken or written. From 1969 until his death 28 years later he corresponded regularly with a nephew, Ray R. Stout.



Died of lung cancer June 15, 1997, at a convalescent center in Carmichael, Calif., a suburb of Sacramento.