FINK, Laverne A. 1921-1944
FINK, FRITZ, FOSTER
Posted By: Errin Wilker
Date: 11/3/2013 at 16:03:37
ANOTHER LANSING BOY GIVES LIFE FOR HIS COUNTRY
Washington D.C.
March 24, 1945Mrs. Lydia E. Fink:
I am deeply distressed to inform you corrected report just received that your son, Staff Sgt. Laverne Fink, who was previously reported missing in action, was killed in action on Dec. 7, 1944 in China. Secretary of War asks that I express his deep sympathy in your loss and his regret that unavoidable circumstances made necessary the unusual lapse of time in reporting your son's death to you.
J.A. Ulio, Adj. Gen.
The above telegram was received Sunday evening by Mr. and Mrs. Leo Fink, of Lansing, relative to their youngest son, who was previously reported missing in action in a telegram Saturday, Dec. 16, 1944. Since that time they had received a letter from the war department saying there was evidence that the plane he was on had come down in the vicinity of a city in China and further information was to follow.
Laverne was a radio gunner on a B-29 bomber and has been in the service of his country since November, 1942, when he went to Camp Dodge for training and was accepted for the U.S. Air Corps. He was sent to Miami Beach, Florida, Tampa, int eh same state, Denver, Colo., and Salina, Kan. During his training period he attended the Academy of Aeronautics at Jackson Heights, Long Island, N.Y., and at LaGuardia Field nearby. He was sent overseas last spring, going directly to the China, Burma, India theater of operations. Letters were received regularly from him and in some he had told of the raids he had been on over Japan and adjoining territory.
He was born Nov. 21, 1921 at New Albin and attended grade school there and graduated from the Lansing high school with the class of 1942. He was later employed by the State Conservation Commission until the time of his call to service. Besides his parents, he is survived by two brothers, Ray and Lester, and give sisters, Mrs. Ethel Fritz, Jeanette, Geneva and Betty, all of Lansing and vicinity, and Mrs. Dorothy Foster of Woodman, Wisconsin.
Deceased was of a very friendly disposition, with exemplary habits, and one of Lansing's finest and most popular young men. His last visit home was about a year ago from Salina, Kansas, after which he went overseas.
Thus it is that we are called upon to chronicle the death of another Lansing hero who gave his life that this might be a better world in which to live. The Fink family have the most sincere sympathy of the entire community (the Journal included) in their great loss, that of a loving son and brother.
Source: Allamakee Journal, Lansing, IA, Hand-Dated March 1945
Allamakee Obituaries maintained by Sharyl Ferrall.
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