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Dean Troy Leonard “Cotton”

Name:
Troy Leonard “Cotton” Dean
Rank:
First Lieutenant
Serial Number:
Unit:
377th Fighter Squadron, 362nd Fighter Group
Date of Death:
2011-02-28
State:
Texas
Cemetery:
Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, Texas
Plot:
Section 50A
Row:
Grave:
Site 72
Decoration:
Comments:

Troy Leonard “Cotton” Dean was born on November 20, 1919 in Dunn, Texas. He served in the 377th Fighter Squadron, 362nd Fighter Group as a First Lieutenant during World War II.

On March 24, the day of Operation Varsity, the group launched 56 planes in support of the crossing of the Rhine. Their patrols in support of the airborne invasion failed to bring the sighting of a single enemy plane. The next day, the 362nd put a blanket on the rail lines running northeast of Frankfurt. The group destroyed 22 locomotives, 74 rail cars, two trucks, and a flak position. 1LT Dean, on his first mission, was hit; his tenure with the squadron was so brief no one had learned his first name. "He was flying Red Two on an armed recce east of the Rhine while bombing a marshalling yard," reported Lt. Charles Stewart, a member of his flight. "He followed Red Leader too close and went too low over the target, being caught in Red Leader's bomb blast. 1LT Dean's plane was on fire and he bailed out. He was at an altitude of approximately 1,000 feet. I saw him get out of his chute and run to a nearby woods." Dean was captured and spent the rest of the war as a POW.

As the German soldiers marched the captives through late March and early April, it became increasingly obvious that the war for Germany was lost. German farmers, seeing the cruelty and overwhelming condition of the prisoners began at last to show compassion. At the head of the column, those farmers handed out potatoes to the starving captives, who ate some and tried to share. However, the column was long and the captives were numerous, and the potatoes were not enough to sustain everyone. Cotton, assuming responsibility for 28 starving men, began to gather the peels of those potatoes and tuck them away in his pockets. As the column would halt, he would pass out those simple meager rations of potato peels to insure that those men would have enough nourishment to last through another night and trudge through another day, a selfless heroic act that would enable the survival of men whose welfare he placed above his own. Cotton's P-47 went down just a few miles Northeast of Frankfurt, Germany, on March 25, 1945, and he was liberated from Stalag VIIA at Moosburg on April 29, 1945. He had been force-marched 250 miles across Germany before being freed along with thousands of fellow soldiers by Patton's 14th Armored Division.

Dean died on February 28, 2011, at the age of 91, in Lubbock, Texas. He is now buried in the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, USA.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, Thunderbolts Triumphant, The 362nd Fighter Group vs Germany's Wehrmacht