Vernal Lee Hurd was born on July 16, 1921 in Talala, Rogers County, Oklahoma. He served in the US Air Corps as a First Lieutenant and Co-Pilot of C-87 Liberator Express #44-39203 based at Jorhat, India. The airplane crashed into a mountain between 3,000-4,000 feet elevation on September 24, 1944.

On November 4, 1944, a search party located the wreck in the hills on the Dafflaghur Tea Estate, about two miles from the village of Teipu, in North-East India. The impact of the Army transport into the mountainside caused a landslide which had partially covered what remained of the airplane.

All four airmen aboard had been killed. No bodies could be identified at that time, but dog tags were found at the burned out wreck scene. Vernal is now buried in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, Lemay, St. Louis County, Missouri, USA in a common grave with his crew. He also has a cenotaph located in Fair View Cemetery, Talala, Rogers County, Oklahoma.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com