Stars, stripes, and sacrifice: a wartime familial experience of hope, loss, and grief, and the journey home of an American bomber crew

Hillier, Darrell (2017) Stars, stripes, and sacrifice: a wartime familial experience of hope, loss, and grief, and the journey home of an American bomber crew. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This thesis analyses the experiences of ten American homefront families as they negotiate their loss following the fatal crash of a military aircraft near Gander in February 1945. The writer provides a brief history of Gander airport, with emphasis on American operations, followed by a biographical overview of the crew and a description of the final flight, search effort, and discovery. The writer assesses the phenomena of wartime rumours, both general and hope-based, and potential reasons for their transmission. The written correspondence between mothers of the crew and between next of kin and the military is analyzed for evidence of popular wartime narratives surrounding private grief and public expectations, and for evidence of the conventional state and military ideology of sacrifice, meant to give meaning to the bereaved. This thesis identifies commonalities in the overall familial experience and explains the state-controlled postwar repatriation program of America’s wartime soldier dead from Newfoundland. Finally, the writer examines postwar remembrance and commemoration and their forms of expression, from grave markers and monuments to narratives inherited by family members.

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