1st Lt. Howard L. Dickson was a ground personnel Air Gunnery Instructor, not cleared as a flight officer. Yet, he desperately wanted to be part of the hugely important, but dangerous, mission to destroy the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania. So, when one of the noncom gunners was restricted from going on the Ploesti mission as punishment for stealing some whiskey, Lt. Dixon, even though he was an intelligence officer without flying status, he gladly took the gunner's place on the B-24D, 42-40612, Euroclydon The Storm, logging his 21st mission, officially, as an observer, but, in reality, flying as a gunner replacement. Lt. Dixon was and most of his crewmen, were killed in action after, Euroclydon, took two devastating flak hits, one that blew open both extra 400 gallon gasoline tanks in the bomb bay, and another hit in the airplane's nose section, exploding the nose and the rest of the airplane into flames. The pilots, badly wounded, tried to raise the nose and climb up to, at least, 300 feet so the crewmen would have a slim chance to bail out. And several did manage to bail out successfully. Evidently stuck in his gun turret, Dixon was one of those unable to get out of the burning plane and was KIA when it crashed into the ground. 10 KIA. 2 POW. 1 WIA - POW.



Awards: Distinguished Flying Cross - Air Medal with 5 Oak Leaf Clusters - Purple Heart - European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with 2 Bronze Stars - WWII Victory Medal

"On August 23, 2022, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of First Lieutenant Howard L. Dickson, missing from World War II.

First Lieutenant Dickson entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Ohio and served in the 409th Bombardment Squadron, 93rd Bombardment Group. On August 1, 1943, Operation TIDAL WAVE, a bombing raid against the oil refineries around Ploiești, Romania, was launched. One hundred and seventy-seven B-24 Liberators took off from Benghazi, Libya, for the raid. 1LT Dickson was a gunner instructor on one Liberator (serial number 42-40612, nicknamed “Euroclydon the Storm”) that was one of fifty-one planes that failed to return. His remains were not identified following the war. Operation TIDAL WAVE, while successfully damaging the Ploiești oil refineries, cost the lives of hundreds of USAAF airmen, many of whom were interred by Romanian citizens into the Bolovan Cemetery in Ploiești. During postwar operations there, the American Graves Registration Command exhumed unknown remains that were eventually reinterred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery. In 2017, DPAA began exhuming those unknowns for comparison with the unaccounted-for airmen lost during Operation TIDAL WAVE. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established an association between one set of these unknown remains and 1LT Dickson.



1st LT Dickson will be interred at Arlington Cemetery"

https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000001R7aDiEAJ&n…;