Update: In January 2024, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal shared a story about Navy Lt. Frank Adams, who was killed in action in World War II during aerial attacks over Berlin. Though his body was never found, his grave lies in the Netherlands and grateful locals, Frank Amory and his wife, have been tending his grave in the American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands. In the research of Adams, it was documented that he had been born in Canyon, Texas. That Is where the search began. The following story is taken from a resident of Bisbee, Arizona, Dave McElroy’s findings through his dedicated research:
When the Frank Amory couple found out that Lt. Frank Adams — whose grave in the American Cemetery and Memorial Margraten, Eijsden-Margarten Municipality, Limburg, Netherlands, they had "adopted" to care for out of gratitude for WWII soldiers saving their country — had been born in Canyon, Texas, Amory reached out to a Canyon city official, who forwarded the letter to an interested reporter, and the search began.
The first story ran, and Bisbee, Arizona resident Dave McElroy, who knew of Frank Adams and his family, read the article and contacted the writer. He had decided to research all the past residents of the house he had rented to Adams' family and others, to include in their visitor's book. In his research, McElroy discovered that many veterans lived in the house, including Lt Adams. As a way of recognizing these veterans he decided to research and write about Lt. Adams. The following information is from McElroy’s findings.
From high school to U.S. Navy
Frank Adams' short life took him from the plains of Texas to the home in Bisbee, where he attended high school, and throughout the Pacific, then to Europe, where he was tragically killed during WWII. He was born in Canyon in 1915, the second son of Dollie and Logan Adams. He traveled throughout Texas with his parents who were both teachers. In 1929, the Adams loaded up their five boys and moved to Bisbee. Logan was the principal of Horace Mann Junior High School, and Dollie managed the boys. Eventually, the couple had a girl, Dolly, born in 1935.
Young Frank attended Bisbee High School and was one of 112 seniors who graduated that year. He was active in both theater and science clubs, as well as YMCA and Christian organizations. As soon as Frank graduated, he joined the U.S. Navy, during the Great Depression. His older brother, Hewitt, was attending the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Frank served on the Battleship U.S.S. Tennessee, which was a massive vessel for the time. It was the length of two football fields and could cruise at 21 knots (24 mph) with a crew of over 1,100 sailors. The battleship was assigned to the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and Frank would have seen Hawaii, Panama, the Philippines and even crossed over to the Atlantic Ocean for maneuvers.
The home port was Long Beach Naval Base, now Terminal Island in Los Angeles, California. The U.S. Navy presence was so large that in 1932 nearly 50 ships of the Pacific Fleet anchored in its harbor.
Love and marriage, then World War II begins
By the late 1930s, Frank had left the U.S. Navy and was living in Long Beach. His job was as a vacuum cleaner salesman with Barker and Brothers, a retail chain store specializing in home furniture, décor and appliances. In the early '40s, Frank met June Barber, who was born in Michigan in 1918. She was raised by her mother, Emma, and her father had died when she was very young. She and her mother had moved to the Hollywood area of Los Angeles in the early '20s. She attended Los Angeles High School and University of California (UCLA).
June was tall and red-headed, like Frank. She worked in several administrative positions such as stenographer, receptionist and security. When the attack on Pearl Habor thrust itself upon the scene, everything changed. Frank enlisted in the military in February 1943, but this time in the U.S. Army Air Corps, and he was trained at Buckley Field, Denver, Colorado. More than 50,000 men were trained at the facility each year. The main focus of Buckley was training of bomber crews.
Frank enlisted as an Aviation Cadet and was trained as a B-17 pilot. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the summer of 1944. Frank and June were married in Salt Lake, City, Utah, on April 7, 1944, at a wartime wedding.
Frank’s aircraft was the B17 “Flying Fortress,” a large four engine, heavy bomber, which was very advanced for the time. It took a crew of ten to operate the B-17. It was the primary U.S. bomber in the intense air war against Nazi Germany and over 12,000 B-17s were built before production ceased in 1945.
Frank, then Lt. Adams, headed to the European Theater of Operations. He likely saw his wife, June, in the summer of 1944 while on leave, for the last time, before boarding a troop ship bound for Britain. He arrived for duty of Oct. 3, 1944.
The 324th Bomber Squadron was one of four bomber squadrons in the 91st Bomber Group that was part of the massive Allied bomber force arrayed against Nazi Germany. The 324th Bomber Squadron arrived in England after almost two years of continuous combat. By the time Lt. Adams joined the unit, the crews were flying the “G” model, the final production of the aircraft.
Frank was stationed at Bassingbourn Airfield, north of London, originally used by the Royal Air Force in 1938.
Rhapsody in Red enters the field
Frank was assigned as the co-pilot on the B-17 Rhapsody in Red. The Luftwaffe, German Air Force, had been decimated as a fighting force by that time after years of fighting with the U.S. Army Air Corp and British Royal Air Force. The last Luftwaffe air offense took place against Britain in 1944 and was called The Baby Blitz and was an absolute failure. The Luftwaffe was so depleted that on D-Day, June of 1944, only two German aircraft were left to oppose Allied landings.
By January of 1945, Frank had flown nine combat missions with the Rhapsody in Red crew and gained experience as a pilot. He was then transferred to the B-17 “Yankee Gal” flying his first mission on January 1945. Though leaving the Rhapsody in Red was likely difficult, the pilot for the Yankee Gal was Maj. Immanual Manny Klette, the Squadron Commander for the 324th ad the best pilot for the Squadron. For Frank , it would have been an honor to serve as his co-pilot.
Final bombing mission over Tempelhof Railroad
On Feb. 3, 1945, the 324th Bomber Squadron was ordered to conduct a bombing mission against the Tempelhof Railroad marshalling yards around Berlin. It was to be a massive attack, with 1,003 B-17s and 575 escorting fighter aircraft sent against the German capital. Frank was to be the pilot that day for “Yankee Gal,” thought normally the co-pilot. In the mission. Lt. Col. Marvin Lord, the 91st Bomber Group’s Operations Manager, replaced Maj. Klette.
Lt. Col. Lord was a staff officer for the 91st Bomb Group and was expected to fly combat mission. He had commanded two bomber squadrons and had remained calm and steadfast in the midst of intense air combat.
“The Yankee Gal,” was to lead the entire formation to and over the target, as aircrews called “lead duck” in a very large formation. As the bombers began their final approach to the target, they began to encounter German anti-aircraft fire, or flak, as it was known. The Germans had amassed a formidable air defense network around Berlin. Their weapons included large 88mm anti-aircraft guns and even larger 120mm guns, many mounted in large concrete Flak Towers, that Germans had built around the city.
The Yankee Gal successfully made it to the target, but moments after releasing their bomb load, it was hit by a large caliber ant-aircraft shell and immediately broke into two pieces and began to disintegrate. Witnesses stated that several parachutes emerged from the plane, but most said they saw none. All 10 members of the fateful Yankee Gal were listed as missing in action, one of two aircraft and air crew sof the 324th Bomber Squadron were lost that day over Berlin. The total of 23 B-17s and seven escorting fighters were shot down that day. It was Frank's 14th and final mission.
On Feb. 19, 1945, a courier delivered the telegram to his wife, June, and his parents, Dollie and Logan that began with “The Secretary of War desires me to express his deep regret…” Lt Adams was officially listed as MIA and on Feb. 20, 1945, the Bisbee Daily Review listed him as missing.
With the war ending, the 324th Bomber Squadron returned to the U.S., arriving at Drew Field, now Tampa International Airport. After Japan's surrender in August of 1945, the U.S. military began a rapid demobilization, and the 324th Bomber Squadron was disbanded in November 1945. The “Rhapsody in Red” was flown to Kingman Army Airfield in Arizona and sold as scrap.
June had been married to Frank for less than a year. She remained in Hollywood after the war, living alone but near her mother, Emma. In a strange twist, she had been widowed like her mother. She eventually remarried in 1951 and had a son, Timothy. She lived the rest of her life in the Los Angeles area and died in 2009.
As mentioned before, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency lists Lt. Frank Adams as missing in action and unaccounted for, with two others. Although his remains have not been found, he is memorialized on the Wall of the Missing in Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, a final resting place for over 8,000 U.S. soldiers killed during WWII. He is also memorialized in Bisbee, and his name has been added to a list at the Texas Panhandle War Memorial in Amarillo as well.
Older brother's tale lives on through books, family legacy
It has been noted that there are no records of Frank and June Adams having any children, but his older brother, Hewitt, had three children. Hewitt attended Annapolis Naval Academy and was stationed in Korea. He married a Korean woman named Maelee who later wrote several books about how she met Hewitt. The books are available on Amazon. One, “The Letters: A Lifetime Foreign Affair: focuses on her letters to Hewitt, who was serving in the Marines and how their cultures were different but somehow worked out.
“The Letters/A Lifetime Foreign Affair is a love story about two countries, two cultures, two lives, and one love. It's the authentic portrayal of an ultimate and profoundly satisfying love relationship that evolved between the book's author and her late husband, Hewitt Adams, older brother of Frank Adams," a review from Amazon books online says. "This powerful story is also a collection of two lovers' letters, respect for cultures and individual lives, and respect for a union in love. It all begins when a rugged, dashing, and disciplined U.S. Marine Corps Colonel, Hewitt Dayne Adams, meets the beautiful but strong-willed and highly knowledgeable Mae Yum from a Korean aristocratic family by chance and fate. Mae's unexplained prophetic dream under her grandfather's ginkgo tree when six years old intertwines two lives with two different views of life.”
Hewitt and Maelee’s children were Gary, Susan Maelee and Michael, who would have been Frank’s nieces and nephews. Susan Maelee is now married to a man named Hafer and has a presence on Facebook.
The Avalanche-Journal wishes to thank Dave McElroy of Bisbee, Arizona, for his work on finding information on Lt. Frank Adams and his family.
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