Michael Khoury served as a radio operator with the 549th Bomb Squadron of the 385th Bomb Group out of Great Ashfield, England. On 17 August 1943, he was flying in B-17 42-5914 'Sack Time' when it was shot down near Frankfurt, Germany. Khoury was taken as a Prisoner of War and held in Stalag Luft XVIIb until the end of the war.



Both of Michael's parents had emigrated from Syria to the United States. In the 1930s, his father, Mike, ran a dry goods store in Sulphur, LA. After his father died in 1938, Michael, as the eldest son, became the main wage earner for his family.



In 1940, Michael was still living in Sulphur and working as an oil field worker to support his mother, Amelia Abraham Khoury and his two younger brothers, Eddie and Sidney.



Michael's youngest brother, Sidney, who served as an officer in the US Marines, died shortly after the end of World War II in November 1945.



After the war, Michael married Yvonne John and they raised two sons in Lake Charles, LA where he owned and ran Khoury's Liquor Store. He died in 2003.