Lewis Jennings Geerlings was born on May 25, 1904 in Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan. He was the son of Royal Willis Geerlings and Cornelia Peternela Manni Geerlings. CPT Geerlings was with the 57th Bomb Wing HQ and on a Courier ship B-25 # 42-53371 "Deathwind" on 10 May, 1944 en route to Ghisonaccia, Corsica when bad weather caused the pilot to fly off course and the plane crashed into the Mountains of Corsica, killing everyone aboard.

Captain Geerlings' remains were recovered in 1989 and identified in September 2005. He is interred at Arlington National Cemetery. Captain Geerlings' name is permanently inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery and Memorial with a rosette is placed next to his name to mark that the he now rests in the known gravesite.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov