For the past 70 years, Gladys Terry has known that her brother, PFC James Chester Mohn, died in World War II. But there was always a question in her mind about how.
Now, years later, Mohn, who was with the Army Air Corp, has been given the Final Farewell by Tacoma’s VFW Post 91.
According to Elmer Clark, the post was recently noticed by the Joint Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Accountability Command in Hawaii that Mohn, who had been listed as missing in action, was now confirmed dead.
Mohn, who was a 1939 graduate of Tacoma’s Lincoln High School, was drafted in the Army Air Corp just after high school. He was a a munitions corpsman and flew on C47-A cargo transport planes.
It was on June 6, 1943, when the C-47 alpha cargo plane he was aboard went missing over the Himalayan Mountains.
The plane took off from Lalmonirhat, India, now known as Bangladesh. Along with radio operator Mohn, pilot 1st Lt. John S. Gordon and co-pilot Flight Officer Russell A. Brown were also on board and presumed dead.
Mohn’s family was officially notified within days of the accident that he was missing in action.
What caused the plane to go down wasn’t determined, but MIA Recoveries found wreckage believed to be from Mohn’s C-47 during a November 2010 expedition to the country of Bhutan. The company specializes in recovering lost airmen in central Asia.
“It’s one of those things where the story got passed down of a plane crashing,” Clark said. “Eventually the locals told the story to U.S. officials who went looking and discovered the plane’s remnants.”
The engine and the data plate including the serial number of the plane were found and the government declared those aboard, including Mohn, as deceased.
According to Clark, there were not enough human remains to be recovered.
“There are no remains, so there can be no burial,” he said.
That’s why the post decided to host a Final Farewell ceremony for Mohn in Tacoma.
Terry and Mohn were born in Roy, the youngest of six children, and eventually moved to Tacoma. Both graduated from Lincoln High School in 1939.
Terry, 91, who is from Fairbanks, Alaska, and more than a dozen members of the Mohn family were on hand Aug. 3 to be a part of the memorial.
The Lincoln High School ROTC performed a flag folding ceremony. The Washington Air Guard gave the “last call” on the radio acknowledging that Mohn is now home, said Clark. And the Tribal Warriors gave a 21-gun salute.
Terry told stories about her brother whom she always called “the baby.”
“I’m the youngest, but we always called him the baby,” she said. “He was a good boy and he wanted to be rich someday.”
Before joining the military, her brother worked for a Tacoma jeweler, she said. She shared other stories about her brother during the memorial, like how he was a good guitar player, played sports and how she helped him cheat on a geography test.
She also spoke about how when she saw her brother off at the train station in Tacoma in 1943, she had a feeling she’s never see him again.
“And I didn’t,” she said.
It took the U.S. government two years to find Terry and tell her that the crash site had been located. Plans then got underway for a fitting memorial.
The VFW post was honored to be a part of the memorial, Clark said.
“This is a huge honor for us,” said Clark. “To take part in something like this, for one of our own, who has been missing for so long.”