Richard W. Perkins was born on May 15, 1914 in South Orange, New Jersey. He served in the US Army as a Corporal during World War II. On May 23, 1945, he was a passenger on Flight C-46D (4-77507) which was taking 41 American soldiers that were ill, injured, or repatriated prisoners of war to hospitals in the Paris, France area and was then eventually going to take them all back to the United States. This flight occurred after Germany's surrender on May 7, 1945. However this C-46, for unknown reasons, developed a fire in one of it's two engines and crashed near the village of Taillefontaine, near Paris. All men aboard were killed in the crash. CPL Perkins died at the age of 31 and is now buried in the same grave with the other passengers of the aircraft in Zachary Taylor National Cemetery, Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky, USA.