The Great-Uncle Patrick Troy Never Knew—

Flags At Half-Staff Honored A WWII Soldier Killed Action

By Shannon Hicks

About three weeks ago the remains of a World War II soldier named Martin Troy, an Army Staff Sergeant who served in the 460th Bomb Group, were finally identified. Staff Sgt Troy had been one of ten soldiers onboard a B-24 Liberator, nicknamed by her crew Miss Fortune, when the plane was shot down over a swampy area of Hungary in June 1944. Seven of the plane’s crew parachuted to safety, but the other three were killed.

The remains of ball turret gunner Staff Sergeant Rube Waits, Jr, and right waist Tech Sgt Ralph Wheeler were recovered shortly after the war ended. The remains of Connecticut native Staff Sgt Troy took a little longer to get home, however.

When they were finally identified and then buried at Arlington National Cemetery last week, the remains of Martin Troy offered two things for his family: They brought closure to those who knew and remembered him as well as those who are descendents of him, and they brought together members of a family who had lost touch with each other.

Patrick Troy, who lives in Newtown with his wife and their children, was born 15 years after the incident that took his great-uncle’s life. He did not, until just a few weeks ago, know his great-uncle was killed in action, nor even that Staff Sgt Troy’s remains had never been recovered.

“I didn’t know about it in any detail. The only info I used to have was stuff that was handed down. I knew he had died in the war, and that he went down in a bomber. I did not know that his remains were still missing, or that a search was progressing slowly,” said Patrick who, with his brother Joseph, drove to Washington, D.C., last week to attend the November 20 funeral for his great-uncle. Patrick and Joseph represented the family of their parents, Ann B. and Joseph Troy II, who was Martin’s brother. Their brother Michael, of Newtown, and sisters Diane Troy Merrifield, also of Newtown, Joan Troy Geyer of Redding, and M. Beth Troy of Trenton, N.J., were unable to make the trip.

“His name is on a plaque in Norwalk, where he lived until he was drafted, and his name is on another plaque in Hungary, where he was killed. But I didn’t know the rest of the story,” said Patrick.

On June 10, 1944, Martin Troy and the crew of Miss Fortune were given orders for their 36th mission: An attack on the Blechhammer South synthetic oil refinery in Poland. Miss Fortune was one of 600 heavy bombers making the 650-mile run that morning. The Miss Fortune left from its base in Spinazzola, near the angle of the Italian boot, to join up with the other 15th Air Force bombers.

En route to the target, over Lake Balaton in Hungary, near the village of Nemesvita, the mission was recalled because of worsening weather. Four of the planes, including Miss Fortune, did not receive the message (or chose to ignore it, as some reports have hinted) and continued on course. Soon the 460th hit dense clouds over Hungary, which led to 20 minutes of flying out of formation.

Shortly after the four planes continuing toward Poland emerged from the fog and began to return to formation, they were attacked by as many as 50 German Messerschmitt 110 and 210 fighters. The American pilots reportedly fought to maintain control of their planes so that the troops who could, got out of the dying planes.

Of the 41 American troops in the four bombers, 17 were killed. The remaining 24 bailed out and were taken prisoner.

The Miss Fortune, said Patrick Troy, crashed into a swamp in western Hungary. It was still carrying its full load of 500-pound bombs when it went into the muck, creating a crater nine feet deep and 20 feet wide. That was the grave of 32-year-old Martin Troy for 64 years.

It took the tenacity of fellow crew member John L. Lenburg, the Miss Fortune’s fight engineer and top turret gunner and a former POW, to begin the search for Martin’s remains.

The crash site was identified long ago.

“They knew where the plane had gone down. It had its bombs on it, and it created this huge crater,” said Patrick. “But they were initially told [by the military’s Joint Prisoners of War, Missing in Action Accounting Command] that the remains were unrecoverable.” John Lenburg would not give up on his friend and fellow crewmate, however. Beginning in 1957 he repeatedly approached Congress and the Department of Defense requesting help in traveling to and excavating the crash site in Hungary.

Mr Lenburg, who wrote a book about his experiences as a POW called Kriegsgefangenen 6410: Prisoner of War, died November 4, 2000, still hoping to find his friend. At that time fellow survivor Joseph Jerome “Jerry” Conlon joined Mike Brown, another survivor who had been working with Lenburg to find Troy, took over Lenburg’s project.

“He finally got someone’s ear, someone who had some pull in Congress, and was given the OK to do a survey in approximately 2006,” Patrick said of Mr Conlon.

Locating Martin’s remains took much longer.

“Jerry picked up John’s torch and visited Hungary a few times,” said Patrick. “He was there when they found bone fragments and a machine gun.”

That was July 2007. A team from the DOD’s Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command is credited with discovering Sgt Troy’s remains amid the wreckage of the B-24H Liberator in Nemesvita.

Julia Carvutto, the youngest of Martin’s siblings and the only one of six children born to John Lawrence and Myra (Meder) Troy still alive, was contacted. Patrick’s great-aunt, Julia now lives in Wilton.

“Julia provided a DNA sample in 2007, and then things quieted down until about three weeks ago,” said Patrick, “when Martin’s remains were positively ID’d.”

It was Julia and her son, William Wilcox, who made the arrangements to have Martin’s remains buried at Arlington. And it was to Julia that the honor guard presented Martin’s flag from his casket last week.

A Proper Burial

On Wednesday, November 19, a wake was held for Martin Troy. Patrick and Joseph drove from Connecticut to Washington, D.C., to attend. It was also that evening, said Patrick, that most of the family had the opportunity to meet with each other and make those reconnections that often happen at funerals.

“This resurgence of interest in Martin,” said Patrick, “it literally united family members across the country I didn’t even know I had. There were people there from Texas who I had never met before.

“We spent a lot of time trying to figure out the family tree while we were at dinner that night.”

Members of the Troy family were joined by members of the Sugden family. When he was killed, Martin Troy had been married to Grace Sugden for just a few months. There were no children from the marriage.

Grace eventually remarried, and she died in 1964, but Patrick knows that Grace had at least one brother or sister because she, Carol Malley, introduced herself as Martin’s niece.

“We reconnected with Julia, who I had met maybe once when I was 9,” said Patrick. “We met her son Bill, and her niece Carol Troy Malley, and Carol’s son Sean.” Also in Washington for the funeral were Karen Breed Troy of Danbury, Patty and William Troy of Norwalk, and Kathy Troy Santella, who lives in Washington. All of these people are first cousins to Patrick.

“And Jerry Conlon was there,” he said. “That was important.”

The service on Thursday morning began at 8:45 and was held at the Old Post Chapel in Fort Myer, Va., adjacent to the cemetery.

“The military sent a limo for my aunt, and the rest of us were escorted right to the chapel,” said Patrick. “It was basically a full Catholic funeral Mass, with Army pall bearers and other military additions. The flag-draped casket was quite a sight.”

Jerry Conlon spoke about the day of the incident that took the lives of his fellow 406th friends, and also of Martin on a personal level.

“He said he was a fun guy, a real go-to guy, but when it was time, he was also a dedicated soldier,” recalled Patrick. “He also said that after John’s passing, he made it his mission to continue searching for Martin’s remains. He got emotional at that point, and it was very touching.”

The funeral Mass included Communion, the reading of the Lord’s Prayer, and the singing of “America the Beautiful.”

“The way people talking about the incident and of Martin, it was like it was yesterday,” said Patrick. “Nothing was spared, nothing was assumed. It was a full-blown military funeral. It was as important to the military as it was to the family that they showed their respects.”

From the chapel the group — which included about 30 family members and friends, as well as Representative Christopher Shays and Jim Himes, who will replace Mr Shays in January — followed the coffin to the hearse, and then the to gravesite in the southwest corner of Arlington National.

The funeral continued in the cemetery with a 21-gun salute, the presentation of the flag to Julia Troy Carvutto, and the playing of “Taps.”

“Off in the distance, probably 40 yards away from us, a bugler played ‘Taps’ and that was another very touching moment,” said Patrick. “We didn’t notice him right away, and then this soft music just began floating over the stones toward us.”

Patrick was moved at the amount of reverence the military gave his family member, even more than six decades after the soldier’s death.

“You know, it’s one thing to visit that cemetery and to see all of the graves that are in there. But being part of a military funeral there gives you such a feeling of pride that’s unbelievable,” he said.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, Governor M. Jodi Rell had citizens honor the state resident being buried in Arlington that day through an order that called for all state and US flags to be flown at half-staff on Thursday.

“No amount of time fully eases the grief we feel at the loss of a loved one or lifts the duty of devotion we owe to our honored veterans,” Gov Rell said in a statement. “As Staff Sergeant Troy is finally laid to rest Thursday amid the peaceful hills of Arlington National Cemetery, the thoughts, prayers, and gratitude of all of Connecticut will be with his family. He is home at last — never forgotten, but home at last.”

The Troy family once again scattered shortly after the funeral service, the bigger gathering having taken place the night before.

 “It’s incredible. After 64 years it’s such closure for the family. It’s kind of an opening of old stories, and of learning about family members I haven’t seen in years or didn’t even know of. Everyone spoke of Martin as if he had just been with us.

 “We had a chance to reconnect, and that’s the important part,” said Patrick. “There will be a few more Christmas cards sent out from our house this year.”