ATLANTIC—Mr. and Mrs. Joe Lawton of southwest of here have received the purple heart award for their son, Lt. Kenneth Lawton, lost last Jan. 16, 1944 on a bombing raid off northern New Guinea. Lt. Lawton, co-pilot of a Mitchell B-25 bomber, has been missing since his plane dropped its bomb load on a harbor installation and is listed by the War Department as dead.
Source: Council Bluffs Nonpareil, January 5, 1945
NOTE from Iowa Gravestone Photo Project: Mar-1-2015 by Scott Kremer: |
Kenneth B. Lawton was killed in New Guinea on January 16th, 1944 while flying as co-pilot of a B-25. His parents erected this gravestone, but his remains were recovered and returned from the Pacific area and buried with his crew mates in a common grave at Ft. McPherson National Cemetery in western Nebraska in about 1947. |
