Raymond Howard served as a co-pilot with the 71st Troop Carrier Squadron of the 434th Troop Carrier Group. In the early hours of D-Day, 6 June 1944, Howard was co-piloting C-47 #43-15101 on a glider mission over the Cherbourg Peninsula when the aircraft was hit by flak and burst into flames. The crew were too low to bail out and the pilots managed to land the aircraft.



Everyone survived the landing but Howard was shot about ten minutes afterwards when the crew walked into a German ambush. Sgt John Beckley, also wounded in the attack, saw Howard fall into swampy ground and did not see him again. After the war, Howard was reburied in Normandy American Cemetery.