Russell William Abendschoen was born on May 25, 1921, in York, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Frank Rudolph Abendschoen and Alverta Lenhart Abendschoen. His family moved from York County to Detroit when he was young.

Russell William entered the service on December 30, 1939, with enlistment for the Chemical Warfare Service of the US Army. He was serving in the 309th Troop Carrier Squadron, 315th Troop Carrier Group, as a Technical Sergeant and Air Engineer at the time of his death. He was a member of a five-man crew on a C-47A #42-93029 Skytrain cargo plane.

On September 21, 1944, after leaving the drop zone, the plane crashed. Abendschoen and his crewmates had just dropped off 15 Polish paratroopers south of Arnhem when flames started shooting from their C-47 plane. According to eyewitness accounts, the plane crashed and burned before anyone could escape.

In 1945 and 1946, Dutch citizens recovered some of the remains of the soldiers and buried them in a nearby cemetery. A few years later, U.S. military officials moved them to Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in Kentucky. Buried under a single stone are the remains of Abendschoen as well as his four crewmates: 1st Lt. Cecil W. Biggs of Teague, Texas; 1st Lt. William L. Pearce of San Antonio, Texas; 2nd Lt. Thomas R. Yenner of Kingston, Pa., and Staff Sgt. George G. Herbst of Brooklyn, N.Y. TSgt Abendschoen's final resting place is now in the Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Arlington County, Virginia, USA.

Source of information: http://arlingtoncemetery.net, www.americanairmuseum.com, https://monument.marketgarden.com, https://www.baltimoresun.com