Edward Francis “Ed” Hautman was born on October 2, 1919, in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio. He was the son of John William Hautman and Anna Dorothy Adam Hautman. He served in the 703rd Bomber Squadron, 445th Bomber Group, Heavy, as a First Lieutenant and Pilot of B-24 #42-109789 nicknamed "Mairzy Doats" during World War II.

On September 27, 1944, “Mairzy Doats” departed RAF Tibenham, England, on a bombing mission against targets in the Kassel, Germany area. During the operation, the 445th Bomb Group became separated from the main bomber stream and was left exposed to concentrated German fighter attacks without effective escort. In the intense aerial battle that followed over central Germany, Mairzy Doats was shot down and crashed in enemy-held territory. The loss was officially recorded in a U.S. Army Air Forces Missing Air Crew Report and formed part of the catastrophic Kassel mission, one of the heaviest single-day losses suffered by a U.S. heavy bombardment group in the European air war.

1Lt Hautman was declared Missing in Action and his name is memorialized in the Tablets Of The Missing in the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial, Henri-Chapelle, Arrondissement de Verviers, Liège, Belgium.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, U.S. Army Air Forces Missing Air Crew Report (MACR), weremember.abmc.gov