Tuskegee Airmen Fred Brewer P-51 (43-25108) 'Travelling Lite' Memorial Cross
Details:
Just off the trail near the stream bed.
Statue
A cross made with portions of a P-51 thought to be that of the P-51 (43-25108) 'Travelling Lite' that was flown by the Tuskegee Airmen Fred L. Brewer. The cross includes a small information sign/plaque written in the local dialect of Friulano. The cross was made by the local artist Luigi Costantini and is the work is known as “Cristo Crocifisso” (Crucified Christ).
From the POW/DPAA Website:
On August 10, 2023, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Second Lieutenant Fred L. Brewer Jr., missing from World War II.
Second Lieutenant Brewer, who joined the U.S. Army Air Forces from North Carolina, was a Tuskegee Airman and member of the 100th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group. On October 19, 1944, he piloted a single-seat P-51C Mustang (tail number 43-25108, nicknamed "Traveling Lite") out of Ramitelli Air Field in Italy as one of fifty-seven fighters on a bomber escort mission over enemy targets in Regensburg, Germany. The flight left Ramitelli and split into three groups over the Udine area of Italy to continue on to the target area. However, heavy cloud cover forced nine fighters to return to Ramitelli early, and none of the other fighters could locate their bomber aircraft or the target. Forty-seven fighters eventually returned to base, and 2nd Lt. Brewer was not among them. Reports from other pilots on the mission indicate that 2nd Lt. Brewer had been attempting to climb his aircraft out of the cloud cover but stalled out and fell into a spin. After the war, a body was recovered by U.S. personnel from a civilian cemetery in the area, but the remains could not be identified using techniques available at the time and were interred as an unknown. In 2011, researchers examined the case of those unknown remains and discovered that an Italian police report indicated they were recovered from a crashed fighter plane on the same day as 2LT Brewer's disappearance. German wartime records corroborated this information. In June 2022, the remains were disinterred and sent to a DPAA laboratory for further study. The totality of evidence allowed a positive identification of the remains as those of 2LT Brewer.
Second Lieutenant Brewer is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery in Impruneta, Italy. He was buried in his hometown in North Carolina in 2023.
Photo Credits: Archivio Storico Fotografico Moggese , Municipality of Moggio Udinese.
Director contact person: Domenico Segala - Images: ASFM - Fund T.Segala and G. Cividino.
Special thanks to G. Marini for assistance with this memorial. Giuseppe is a local historian of World War II allied aviation in Campomarino (Molise region, Italy ) and discoverer of Ramitelli, Madna and Martino airfields.
Monument Text:
The text on the plaque is written in the local dialect, Friulano, by the artist Luigi Costantini (who passed away in 2023). The text sates the "Crucified Christ" was made of parts of an American P-51 and includes a prayer in memory of the fallen of all wars.
