Wayne L. Zell was born on February 25, 1924. He was the son of Marguerite I. Bentley Zell. He served in the 80th Tank Battalion, 8th Armored Division as a Technician 4th Grade 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. T4 Zell is now buried in the Forest Hill Cemetery, Shelbyville, Shelby County, Indiana, USA.