George Omer Loranger was born at Canterbury, Merrimack County, New Hampshire on April 23, 1922. His parents were Omer John Loranger (5 Oct 1879 – 26 Aug 1947), who was born at Tingwick, Quebec, Canada and immigrated to America in 1884; and Margaret Evelyn (Finley) Loranger (later Gaudette) (6 Aug 1900 – 19 Oct 1974), who was born at Canterbury, New Hampshire. His father was a veteran of the Spanish–American War, and became a naturalized US citizen on November 3, 1900. His parents married at Tilton, Belknap County, New Hampshire on January 24, 1921. His father was a weaver and a farmer.

He had at least three siblings: Leon F. Loranger (19 Feb 1924 – 31 May 1924), Albert John Loranger (21 Nov 1925 – 13 Jun 2004), and Grace Ellen Loranger (10 Jul 1930 – 11 Aug 1930). The family lived initially at Tilton, and moved to Northfield, Merrimack County, New Hampshire in 1924. By 1942 the family home was on Rural Route 1 in Tilton, New Hampshire.

He completed four years of high school and worked as a bookkeeper and cashier. He was single, without dependents, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army at Manchester, New Hampshire on June 9, 1942. His home of record is listed as Merrimack County, New Hampshire. He completed Army Air Forces pilot training in Class 43-H, and received his wings and commission on August 30, 1943. He went on to four-engine heavy bomber transition training in the B-24 'Liberator' bomber, in order to qualify as pilot in command of that aircraft type.

He was assigned a crew, and by December 1943 began B-24 crew training at Davis-Monthan Field in Tucson, Arizona. In January 1944 the Loranger crew was assigned to the 837th Bomb Squadron, 487th Bomb Group, at Alamogordo Army Air Base, New Mexico. There they completed B-24 crew training and deployed with the Group to England in March 1944.

B-24H 41-28813 crew:
• George O. Loranger – 2/Lt – Pilot – O-811221
• Wendell P. Sargent – 2/Lt – Copilot – O-814983
• Harold E. Nelson – 2/Lt – Navigator – O703782
• Willard J. Taylor – F/O – Bombardier – T-123086
• Paul J. Bleifus – S/Sgt – Engineer – 35275785
• Victor L. Gollhofer – Sgt – Radio Operator – 37381187
• Robert Guthrie – S/Sgt – Gunner – 20510681
• Ralph F. Kampschmidt – Sgt – Gunner – 7498270
• William H. Gordy – Sgt – Armorer/Gunner – 32754551
• Paul W. Hutchinson – T/Sgt – Passenger – 13125883

They flew B-24H 41-28813 from Alamogordo, New Mexico to Lavenham, England via the southern Atlantic ferry route—a journey of about 10,000 miles—and arrived in England by mid-April 1944. T/Sgt Hutchinson was a senior clerk-typist who flew as a passenger. The 487th Bomb Group was based at Army Air Forces Station 137 near Lavenham, Suffolk, England, and was part of the 8th U.S. Army Air Force in Europe.

On June 10, 1944, Lt Loranger took off from Station 137 in B-24H 41-29553 without a qualified minimum crew, and engaged in unauthorized low flying (buzzing). He and Staff Sergeant Jason W. Jones Jr were killed when the aircraft struck a tree and crashed near Poslingford, England, about 10 miles west of the airfield. Lt Loranger and S/Sgt Jones were the only men aboard the aircraft.

The two men were buried at Cambridge American Cemetery. Lt Loranger's remains were returned to the United States and reinterred in the Loranger family plot at Saint Johns Cemetery, Tilton, New Hampshire in 1948.

Source of information: Paul M. Webber, www.findagrave.com