Rapport Stephen Paul Jr.

Name:

Stephen Paul Jr. Rapport

Rank:

First Lieutenant

Serial Number:

Unit:

569th Bomber Squadron, 390th Bomber Group

Date of Death:

2014-12-13

State:

New York

Cemetery:

Barrancas National Cemetery, Pensacola, Escambia County, Florida

Plot:

PLOT SECTION C-11 ROW A SITE 2

Row:

Grave:

Decoration:

Comments:

Stephen Paul Rapport Jr. was born on in October 25, 1918 and was from New York.

On August 17, 1943 he was the Pilot on the B-17 “Battle Queen-Peg of my Heart” (42-30315) of the 569th Bomber Squadron, 390th Bomber Group- “Wittan's Wallopers”, 8th US Air Force flying out of Framlingham (Airfield 153) Airfield on a bombing mission to Regensburg, Germany. Per Missing Aircraft Report (MACR) 391, “Battle Queen”, along with another 126 B-17 Bombers escorted by 207 P-47 Fighters took off to bomb the industrial center of Regensburg. The plan for the planes was to turn south after the bombing raid and land in bases in Northern Africa. After the bombing run, “Battle Queen” damaged by enemy fighters and hit by flak decided to make an emergency landing in Switzerland. The plane landed in a potato field outside the small town of Utzenstorf. The entire crew were taken as “internees” by Switzerland (considered POWs as of 2013) until the end of the war.

FROM FIND A GRAVE: Lt. Col. Stephen P. Rapport of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., died Dec. 13, 2014, at his home. He was preceded in death by his wife, Marjorie (Peg) Rapport. They had three children, Dorann (Lamar) Frazer of Alexander City, Ala., Jonelyn Rapport, Fort Walton Beach, and Douglas (Ann) Rapport of Simsbury, Conn.; four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. Steve joined the Army Air Corps in 1939 and served in Panama, Trinidad, and England. He served as a bomber pilot with the 8th Air Force with missions over Germany. In March 1944, he was one of six American pilots interned in Switzerland involved in a Prisoner of War (POW) exchange for six German POWs. Discharged in 1946, Steve remained with the Air Force Reserve and later served as a civil service Air Force Reserve training officer and instructor pilot with the Reserve. He retired from the Air Force Reserve in 1971, with 31 years of military service. Both Steve and Peg were born in the Rochester, N.Y., area and later moved to Connecticut where Steve was based at Bradley Field, then Westover Air Force Base before retiring to Florida in 1975.