Son of Mr and Mrs Reed H Dominy, Center, TX; husband of Melba Rousseau, graduate of SFA. Entered Army Air Corps 1941, trained at Tulare, CA. Awarded Commission and Pilots Wings at Williams Air Field, Arizona. Served in ETO as Operations Officer. Awarded Air Medal, 2 Oak Leaf Clusters and Purple Heart.
Killed in Action in April 1944, over Germany.
This was my mother's step-father's son. (my mother's step-brother who passed away before her mother and step-father were ever married)
As of this date, November 28, 2011, Reed H Dominy is still listed as MIA, remains never found. His father anxiously awaited for the day he could lay his son to rest , but that day never came before his father died. MY wish is that his remains are found in my lifetime.
A HUGE THANK YOU to Robert E Lee for all his help in all the information and the pictures that were obtained via military websites.
REST IN PEACE, UNCLE REED.... Your earthly body may not have been found, but you are in Heaven with your mom, dad, and sister.
I have included this story from the Groveton News... regarding Reed H Dominy, in hopes that others will see it and be able to give me more information regarding my step-uncle. Thank you, Robert E Lee for providing me with this information.
Groveton News - Local News
Stories Added - December 2008
Copyright 2008 - Polk County Publishing Company
Honoring World War II Veterans
Groveton News - December 2008
By DAN BARNES
April 1944 saw the death of 27-year-old pilot Captain Reed Harwood Dominy (0-724522). Born November 21, 1916, Captain Dominy was the son of Reed Hughes and Maude Inez Baker Dominy, farmers in Trinity County's Precinct #1. They also had one daughter, Mabel.
Reed graduated from Grove-ton High School in 1934, was on the football team, and was President of his Senior Class. For a time before the war, Reed Dominy attended school at Stephen F. Austin State Teacher's College in Nacog-doches. He apparently graduated, for prior to his military induction, he earned a living teaching school in Longview.
During this time Reed married Melba Dominy and they had one daughter, Mary Margaret.
As with all Army Air Corps officers I investigated, military induction information, so easily found on most World War II Army veterans, is not available for officers unless they first entered the service as an enlisted man. I have also been unable to locate any details on Reed's military or flight training.
I do know that he entered service out of San Augustine County.
My earliest information on him was a local story that he was listed as Missing in Action when the P-38 fighter he was piloting was shot down over the English Channel. Air Corps records I finally found told a slightly different, more detailed story, however. They indicate that Reed was attached to the 8th Air Force's 385th Fighter Squadron, 362th Fighter Group, 67th Fighter Wing.
The 364th's squadrons arrived in England between January and February 1944, barely two months before Reed's death. Initially all the squadrons of this Group seem to have flown the longer service Lockheed P-38 "lightening" fighter, but after Reed's death some or all of the Group's pilots changed over to the state of the art North American P-51-D, or "Mustang".
Dominy's unit was stationed at Honington, England, and was assigned to the 8th Air Force's fighter arm, Maj. General William Kepner's VIII Fighter Command. VIII Fighter Command should not be confused with the 9th Tactical Air Force, also stationed in England during the later stages of the war. The 9th's main function was to supply close air support with fighters and medium bombers for Allied ground troops battling in northern Europe.
The VIII Fighter Command on the other hand, was in England primarily to assist the Allied strategic air program of bombing German targets in Europe. To accomplish this task, they were, as "Little Friends", to protect their "Big Friends", the 8th's B-17 and B-24 bombers while the latter flew missions against major Axis objectives. In this endeavor the destruction of the German Air Force, a major threat to the bombers as well as to any successful Allied ground forces' assault on Hitler's Europe, was also of prime importance.
Reed's unit first flew in combat on March 3, 1944, and soon settled into a routine of escorting the heavy bombers. As D-Day approached, however, General Kepner introduced a new tactical wrinkle for his fighter planes. He had noticed that, seemingly at every opportunity, whenever they were freed from escorting bombers during a strategic mission and their fuel would allow, his pilots routinely engaged in unassigned, ad hoc attacks on any airborne or ground bound Axis target of opportunity they found in occupied Europe. This Kepner termed "unorganized guerilla warfare" and in short order he proposed to "organize" it.
As his plan evolved, on days when military conditions, especially the weather, freed his fighters from all escort duty, he dispatched them by the hundreds in low level sweeps of whole areas of the continent in search of significant enemy targets, especially German Air Force resources on the ground or in the air, and ground transportation assets such as trains or military convoys.
For the Allies it was to prove a very dangerous, costly, but effective form of attrition warfare.
On April 15, 1944, Captain Reed Dominy was killed in action while engaged in a massive 616 plane "fighter sweep" of France and Germany. Assigned to target the German town of Luneburg, his P-38-J sent down at 15:15, southeast of Dummer Lake, Germany.
Though the circumstances of his death remain unknown, the fact that no enemy aircraft were reported in the area suggests that the cause of his dis-appearance was anti-aircraft fire. Of the 132 P-38's sent on the mission, 11 were lost.
Reed Dominy's body was never recovered. For his military service he was awarded the Air Medal with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters and is listed on the memorial wall at the American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands. At Glenwood Cemetery in Groveton a memorial stone for Reed Harwood Dominy rests near the graves of his parents.
Burial here
Killed in Action in April 1944, over Germany.
This was my mother's step-father's son. (my mother's step-brother who passed away before her mother and step-father were ever married)
As of this date, November 28, 2011, Reed H Dominy is still listed as MIA, remains never found. His father anxiously awaited for the day he could lay his son to rest , but that day never came before his father died. MY wish is that his remains are found in my lifetime.
A HUGE THANK YOU to Robert E Lee for all his help in all the information and the pictures that were obtained via military websites.
REST IN PEACE, UNCLE REED.... Your earthly body may not have been found, but you are in Heaven with your mom, dad, and sister.
I have included this story from the Groveton News... regarding Reed H Dominy, in hopes that others will see it and be able to give me more information regarding my step-uncle. Thank you, Robert E Lee for providing me with this information.
Groveton News - Local News
Stories Added - December 2008
Copyright 2008 - Polk County Publishing Company
Honoring World War II Veterans
Groveton News - December 2008
By DAN BARNES
April 1944 saw the death of 27-year-old pilot Captain Reed Harwood Dominy (0-724522). Born November 21, 1916, Captain Dominy was the son of Reed Hughes and Maude Inez Baker Dominy, farmers in Trinity County's Precinct #1. They also had one daughter, Mabel.
Reed graduated from Grove-ton High School in 1934, was on the football team, and was President of his Senior Class. For a time before the war, Reed Dominy attended school at Stephen F. Austin State Teacher's College in Nacog-doches. He apparently graduated, for prior to his military induction, he earned a living teaching school in Longview.
During this time Reed married Melba Dominy and they had one daughter, Mary Margaret.
As with all Army Air Corps officers I investigated, military induction information, so easily found on most World War II Army veterans, is not available for officers unless they first entered the service as an enlisted man. I have also been unable to locate any details on Reed's military or flight training.
I do know that he entered service out of San Augustine County.
My earliest information on him was a local story that he was listed as Missing in Action when the P-38 fighter he was piloting was shot down over the English Channel. Air Corps records I finally found told a slightly different, more detailed story, however. They indicate that Reed was attached to the 8th Air Force's 385th Fighter Squadron, 362th Fighter Group, 67th Fighter Wing.
The 364th's squadrons arrived in England between January and February 1944, barely two months before Reed's death. Initially all the squadrons of this Group seem to have flown the longer service Lockheed P-38 "lightening" fighter, but after Reed's death some or all of the Group's pilots changed over to the state of the art North American P-51-D, or "Mustang".
Dominy's unit was stationed at Honington, England, and was assigned to the 8th Air Force's fighter arm, Maj. General William Kepner's VIII Fighter Command. VIII Fighter Command should not be confused with the 9th Tactical Air Force, also stationed in England during the later stages of the war. The 9th's main function was to supply close air support with fighters and medium bombers for Allied ground troops battling in northern Europe.
The VIII Fighter Command on the other hand, was in England primarily to assist the Allied strategic air program of bombing German targets in Europe. To accomplish this task, they were, as "Little Friends", to protect their "Big Friends", the 8th's B-17 and B-24 bombers while the latter flew missions against major Axis objectives. In this endeavor the destruction of the German Air Force, a major threat to the bombers as well as to any successful Allied ground forces' assault on Hitler's Europe, was also of prime importance.
Reed's unit first flew in combat on March 3, 1944, and soon settled into a routine of escorting the heavy bombers. As D-Day approached, however, General Kepner introduced a new tactical wrinkle for his fighter planes. He had noticed that, seemingly at every opportunity, whenever they were freed from escorting bombers during a strategic mission and their fuel would allow, his pilots routinely engaged in unassigned, ad hoc attacks on any airborne or ground bound Axis target of opportunity they found in occupied Europe. This Kepner termed "unorganized guerilla warfare" and in short order he proposed to "organize" it.
As his plan evolved, on days when military conditions, especially the weather, freed his fighters from all escort duty, he dispatched them by the hundreds in low level sweeps of whole areas of the continent in search of significant enemy targets, especially German Air Force resources on the ground or in the air, and ground transportation assets such as trains or military convoys.
For the Allies it was to prove a very dangerous, costly, but effective form of attrition warfare.
On April 15, 1944, Captain Reed Dominy was killed in action while engaged in a massive 616 plane "fighter sweep" of France and Germany. Assigned to target the German town of Luneburg, his P-38-J sent down at 15:15, southeast of Dummer Lake, Germany.
Though the circumstances of his death remain unknown, the fact that no enemy aircraft were reported in the area suggests that the cause of his dis-appearance was anti-aircraft fire. Of the 132 P-38's sent on the mission, 11 were lost.
Reed Dominy's body was never recovered. For his military service he was awarded the Air Medal with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters and is listed on the memorial wall at the American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands. At Glenwood Cemetery in Groveton a memorial stone for Reed Harwood Dominy rests near the graves of his parents.
Burial here
Son of Mr and Mrs Reed H Dominy, Center, TX; husband of Melba Rousseau, graduate of SFA. Entered Army Air Corps 1941, trained at Tulare, CA. Awarded Commission and Pilots Wings at Williams Air Field, Arizona. Served in ETO as Operations Officer. Awarded Air Medal, 2 Oak Leaf Clusters and Purple Heart.
Killed in Action in April 1944, over Germany.
This was my mother's step-father's son. (my mother's step-brother who passed away before her mother and step-father were ever married)
As of this date, November 28, 2011, Reed H Dominy is still listed as MIA, remains never found. His father anxiously awaited for the day he could lay his son to rest , but that day never came before his father died. MY wish is that his remains are found in my lifetime.
A HUGE THANK YOU to Robert E Lee for all his help in all the information and the pictures that were obtained via military websites.
REST IN PEACE, UNCLE REED.... Your earthly body may not have been found, but you are in Heaven with your mom, dad, and sister.
I have included this story from the Groveton News... regarding Reed H Dominy, in hopes that others will see it and be able to give me more information regarding my step-uncle. Thank you, Robert E Lee for providing me with this information.
Groveton News - Local News
Stories Added - December 2008
Copyright 2008 - Polk County Publishing Company
Honoring World War II Veterans
Groveton News - December 2008
By DAN BARNES
April 1944 saw the death of 27-year-old pilot Captain Reed Harwood Dominy (0-724522). Born November 21, 1916, Captain Dominy was the son of Reed Hughes and Maude Inez Baker Dominy, farmers in Trinity County's Precinct #1. They also had one daughter, Mabel.
Reed graduated from Grove-ton High School in 1934, was on the football team, and was President of his Senior Class. For a time before the war, Reed Dominy attended school at Stephen F. Austin State Teacher's College in Nacog-doches. He apparently graduated, for prior to his military induction, he earned a living teaching school in Longview.
During this time Reed married Melba Dominy and they had one daughter, Mary Margaret.
As with all Army Air Corps officers I investigated, military induction information, so easily found on most World War II Army veterans, is not available for officers unless they first entered the service as an enlisted man. I have also been unable to locate any details on Reed's military or flight training.
I do know that he entered service out of San Augustine County.
My earliest information on him was a local story that he was listed as Missing in Action when the P-38 fighter he was piloting was shot down over the English Channel. Air Corps records I finally found told a slightly different, more detailed story, however. They indicate that Reed was attached to the 8th Air Force's 385th Fighter Squadron, 362th Fighter Group, 67th Fighter Wing.
The 364th's squadrons arrived in England between January and February 1944, barely two months before Reed's death. Initially all the squadrons of this Group seem to have flown the longer service Lockheed P-38 "lightening" fighter, but after Reed's death some or all of the Group's pilots changed over to the state of the art North American P-51-D, or "Mustang".
Dominy's unit was stationed at Honington, England, and was assigned to the 8th Air Force's fighter arm, Maj. General William Kepner's VIII Fighter Command. VIII Fighter Command should not be confused with the 9th Tactical Air Force, also stationed in England during the later stages of the war. The 9th's main function was to supply close air support with fighters and medium bombers for Allied ground troops battling in northern Europe.
The VIII Fighter Command on the other hand, was in England primarily to assist the Allied strategic air program of bombing German targets in Europe. To accomplish this task, they were, as "Little Friends", to protect their "Big Friends", the 8th's B-17 and B-24 bombers while the latter flew missions against major Axis objectives. In this endeavor the destruction of the German Air Force, a major threat to the bombers as well as to any successful Allied ground forces' assault on Hitler's Europe, was also of prime importance.
Reed's unit first flew in combat on March 3, 1944, and soon settled into a routine of escorting the heavy bombers. As D-Day approached, however, General Kepner introduced a new tactical wrinkle for his fighter planes. He had noticed that, seemingly at every opportunity, whenever they were freed from escorting bombers during a strategic mission and their fuel would allow, his pilots routinely engaged in unassigned, ad hoc attacks on any airborne or ground bound Axis target of opportunity they found in occupied Europe. This Kepner termed "unorganized guerilla warfare" and in short order he proposed to "organize" it.
As his plan evolved, on days when military conditions, especially the weather, freed his fighters from all escort duty, he dispatched them by the hundreds in low level sweeps of whole areas of the continent in search of significant enemy targets, especially German Air Force resources on the ground or in the air, and ground transportation assets such as trains or military convoys.
For the Allies it was to prove a very dangerous, costly, but effective form of attrition warfare.
On April 15, 1944, Captain Reed Dominy was killed in action while engaged in a massive 616 plane "fighter sweep" of France and Germany. Assigned to target the German town of Luneburg, his P-38-J sent down at 15:15, southeast of Dummer Lake, Germany.
Though the circumstances of his death remain unknown, the fact that no enemy aircraft were reported in the area suggests that the cause of his dis-appearance was anti-aircraft fire. Of the 132 P-38's sent on the mission, 11 were lost.
Reed Dominy's body was never recovered. For his military service he was awarded the Air Medal with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters and is listed on the memorial wall at the American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands. At Glenwood Cemetery in Groveton a memorial stone for Reed Harwood Dominy rests near the graves of his parents.
Burial here
Killed in Action in April 1944, over Germany.
This was my mother's step-father's son. (my mother's step-brother who passed away before her mother and step-father were ever married)
As of this date, November 28, 2011, Reed H Dominy is still listed as MIA, remains never found. His father anxiously awaited for the day he could lay his son to rest , but that day never came before his father died. MY wish is that his remains are found in my lifetime.
A HUGE THANK YOU to Robert E Lee for all his help in all the information and the pictures that were obtained via military websites.
REST IN PEACE, UNCLE REED.... Your earthly body may not have been found, but you are in Heaven with your mom, dad, and sister.
I have included this story from the Groveton News... regarding Reed H Dominy, in hopes that others will see it and be able to give me more information regarding my step-uncle. Thank you, Robert E Lee for providing me with this information.
Groveton News - Local News
Stories Added - December 2008
Copyright 2008 - Polk County Publishing Company
Honoring World War II Veterans
Groveton News - December 2008
By DAN BARNES
April 1944 saw the death of 27-year-old pilot Captain Reed Harwood Dominy (0-724522). Born November 21, 1916, Captain Dominy was the son of Reed Hughes and Maude Inez Baker Dominy, farmers in Trinity County's Precinct #1. They also had one daughter, Mabel.
Reed graduated from Grove-ton High School in 1934, was on the football team, and was President of his Senior Class. For a time before the war, Reed Dominy attended school at Stephen F. Austin State Teacher's College in Nacog-doches. He apparently graduated, for prior to his military induction, he earned a living teaching school in Longview.
During this time Reed married Melba Dominy and they had one daughter, Mary Margaret.
As with all Army Air Corps officers I investigated, military induction information, so easily found on most World War II Army veterans, is not available for officers unless they first entered the service as an enlisted man. I have also been unable to locate any details on Reed's military or flight training.
I do know that he entered service out of San Augustine County.
My earliest information on him was a local story that he was listed as Missing in Action when the P-38 fighter he was piloting was shot down over the English Channel. Air Corps records I finally found told a slightly different, more detailed story, however. They indicate that Reed was attached to the 8th Air Force's 385th Fighter Squadron, 362th Fighter Group, 67th Fighter Wing.
The 364th's squadrons arrived in England between January and February 1944, barely two months before Reed's death. Initially all the squadrons of this Group seem to have flown the longer service Lockheed P-38 "lightening" fighter, but after Reed's death some or all of the Group's pilots changed over to the state of the art North American P-51-D, or "Mustang".
Dominy's unit was stationed at Honington, England, and was assigned to the 8th Air Force's fighter arm, Maj. General William Kepner's VIII Fighter Command. VIII Fighter Command should not be confused with the 9th Tactical Air Force, also stationed in England during the later stages of the war. The 9th's main function was to supply close air support with fighters and medium bombers for Allied ground troops battling in northern Europe.
The VIII Fighter Command on the other hand, was in England primarily to assist the Allied strategic air program of bombing German targets in Europe. To accomplish this task, they were, as "Little Friends", to protect their "Big Friends", the 8th's B-17 and B-24 bombers while the latter flew missions against major Axis objectives. In this endeavor the destruction of the German Air Force, a major threat to the bombers as well as to any successful Allied ground forces' assault on Hitler's Europe, was also of prime importance.
Reed's unit first flew in combat on March 3, 1944, and soon settled into a routine of escorting the heavy bombers. As D-Day approached, however, General Kepner introduced a new tactical wrinkle for his fighter planes. He had noticed that, seemingly at every opportunity, whenever they were freed from escorting bombers during a strategic mission and their fuel would allow, his pilots routinely engaged in unassigned, ad hoc attacks on any airborne or ground bound Axis target of opportunity they found in occupied Europe. This Kepner termed "unorganized guerilla warfare" and in short order he proposed to "organize" it.
As his plan evolved, on days when military conditions, especially the weather, freed his fighters from all escort duty, he dispatched them by the hundreds in low level sweeps of whole areas of the continent in search of significant enemy targets, especially German Air Force resources on the ground or in the air, and ground transportation assets such as trains or military convoys.
For the Allies it was to prove a very dangerous, costly, but effective form of attrition warfare.
On April 15, 1944, Captain Reed Dominy was killed in action while engaged in a massive 616 plane "fighter sweep" of France and Germany. Assigned to target the German town of Luneburg, his P-38-J sent down at 15:15, southeast of Dummer Lake, Germany.
Though the circumstances of his death remain unknown, the fact that no enemy aircraft were reported in the area suggests that the cause of his dis-appearance was anti-aircraft fire. Of the 132 P-38's sent on the mission, 11 were lost.
Reed Dominy's body was never recovered. For his military service he was awarded the Air Medal with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters and is listed on the memorial wall at the American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands. At Glenwood Cemetery in Groveton a memorial stone for Reed Harwood Dominy rests near the graves of his parents.
Burial here
Inscription
TEXAS CAPT 385 FTR SQ 364 FTR GP
WORLD WAR II
Gravesite Details
Entered the service from Texas.
