Fred E Abigt
Military"Iowans of the Mighty Eighth", Chapter 22 "Biographies", by Charles D Taylor.
Fred Abigt was aboard B-17 #44-8302 as a photographer when it crashed on 9 November 1944 near Hern, Germany. He was taken as a Prisoner of War (POW). He was a Corporal at the time of his capture but by the end of the war he held the higher rank of Staff Sergeant.
After hearing Reverend Billy Graham speak, he moved to St Paul, Minnesota to attend Northwestern college, where Graham was President between 1948 and 1952. It was here he met his future wife Ruth. Their daughter Lorraine was born in 1956. They had two other children, Bill and Carrie. He joined the Collins Radio Co. in Cedar Rapids in 1959, and became an Engineering Lab. technician.
The family moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1958 and Fred got a job at the aviation technology company Rockwell Collins where he was to work for the next 30 years. He died in 2013. He was predeceased by his daughter Lorraine who had died in 1998. His wife Ruth survives him as do Bill and Carrie.
Connections
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Units served with
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
- Unit Hierarchy: Squadron
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
Aircraft
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Nicknames: Vagabond Lady
- Unit: 388th Bomb Group 561st Bomb Squadron
Places
- Site type: Airfield
Events
Event | Location | Date | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Born |
Evansville, IN, USA | 14 November 1924 | |
Enlisted |
Evansville, IN, USA | 10 April 1943 | |
Other Prisoner of War (POW) |
Herne, Germany | 9 November 1944 - 6 June 1945 | |
Died |
Cedar Rapids, IA, USA | 29 November 2013 | Aged 88 |
Buried |
Cedar Rapids, IA, USA |
Revisions
Added a "-" to the A/C serial # in the "Summary biography" to aid clarity.
Brought in information from a duplicate record that had mistaken spelt his surname 'Nbigt'. Sources:
MACR 10351 / Paul Andrews, Project Bits and Pieces, 8th Air Force Roll of Honor database
Enlistment record: https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=893&mtch=1&tf=F&q=abi…
ww2pow record: http://www.ww2pow.info/index.php?page=directory&rec=38725
Findagrave record: http://forums.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=117885966
Obituary: http://www.thegazette.com/article/20130930/Obituaries/309309949
Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / MACR 10351