Menu
  • Abous us
  • Search database
  • Resources
  • Donate
  • Faq

Clegg William Glifford

Name:
William Glifford Clegg
Rank:
First Lieutenant
Serial Number:
O-673319
Unit:
317th Troop Carrier Squadron, 2nd Air Commando Group
Date of Death:
1944-12-05
State:
Kentucky
Cemetery:
Jefferson Barracks National Cem., Missouri
Plot:
Section 82
Row:
Grave:
64B
Decoration:
Comments:

William Glifford Clegg was born on November 9, 1919 in Texas. He served as a First Lieutenant in the 317th Troop Carrier Squadron, 2nd Air Commando Group during World War II. Pilot of C-47A Skytrain #43-15698. He was killed when his transport collided with a mountaintop in Kuyung, Burma, December 5, 1944. All four Americans and 23 Chinese Army troops aboard perished.

Army engineers were led to the crash scene by local tribal people on December 17, 1944. The bodies of the crash victims were too badly burned and dismembered to make individual identification possible. The Burma Road Engineers buried the American flyers near the crash scene and placed small wooden crosses on the grave and a gun salute with a volley of six shots was conducted. There was no method available to identify any of the Chinese troops. It was not possible at the time to remove the bodies of the American flyers from off the mountaintop. Recovery was later made and the airmen were re-interred in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, Lemay, St. Louis County, Missouri, USA on November 19, 1947.

William was one of over 2000 Americans who lost their lives defending China from their Japanese invaders from 1941-1945. He is commemorated on the The Monument to the Aviation Martyrs in the War of Resistance Against Japan in Nanjing, China.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com