Thomas J. Ellwanger 1923-1944

ELLWANGER, NICHOLSON

Posted By: J. Nicks (email)
Date: 5/2/2006 at 09:20:29

Telegraph Herald
Dubuque, Iowa
no date in family scrapbook

LT. ELLWANGER DECLARED DEAD

Long Missing Pilot Lost Life Over Germany

Lt. Thomas J. Ellwanger, son of Mr. and Mrs. John C. Ellwanger, Milburn, N. J., and a native of Dubuque, reported missing in action Dec. 12, 1944, has now been officially declared dead by the war department, his parents have been advised.

The young officer was born in Dubuque Nov. 16, 1923, and moved to Milburn with his parents in 1932. He graduated from Milburn High school in 1941 and entered Franklin and Marshall college, Lancaster, Pa. in the fall of 1941.

Called in 1943

He joined the cadet air corps in May, 1942, and was called for training Feb. 28, 1943, receiving his wings and commission as a second lieutenant at Jackson, Miss., in March, 1944. In September he was assigned to the ninth air force, stationed in France, and before going into actual combat he ferried fighter planes from France to bases in Holland, Belgium, and other points in France. While doing this work he flew every kind of fighter used by the army in the European area.

On Dec. 4, 1944, he went on his first mission in a P-47 Thunderbolt fighter, and on his fourth mission, Dec. 12, in the same kind of plane, he failed to return with his squadron. His group was on an armed reconnaissance mission in the Frankfort area, and his plane was last seen over the Kaiserslautern marshalling yards when his formation was attacked by Nazi planes.

Active in Sports

Tom was a member of the Presbyterian church and the Chi Phi fraternity of Franklin and Marshall college. He was active in sports at both Millburn and Franklin and Marshall, and was also active in music at the college.

Survivors are his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John C. Ellwanger; a sister, Marilyn, a freshman at the University of Maryland, and a brother, James, who served as a first lieutenant in the infantry and military police until his discharge last November. Tom was engaged to Miss Lorean Nicholson, Amsterdam, Ga., and they were to have been married at the war’s end.

Tom’s father, John C. Ellwanger, is eastern sales representative of the Farley and Loetscher Manufacturing company, Dubuque.

(Milburn, Essex county, N.J.)