Southampton County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Whitfield, Elliott K., 1945 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ ELLIOTT KING WHITFIELD LIEUT. WHITFIELD’S DEATH CONFIRMED BY WAR DEPARTMENT The Adjutant-General of the U.S. Army officially notified the family of C.F. Whitfield here Tuesday of the death of First Lieut. Elliott K. Whitfield in a plane crash on Mt. Nagasaki, Japan, on September 4, 1945. His brother, Marion S. Whitfield, was notified October 12 that Lieut. Whitfield was missing in action, but it was hoped that he might be found alive until the message from the War Department came Tuesday. Lieut. Whitfield was bombardier on the B-29 and the plane crashed while he and his fellow crew-members were on a mission of mercy dropping food parcels to Americans prisoners of war. Only one man came out alive of the crew of 14. Lieut. Elliott K. Whitfield was 30 years of age and entered the armed forces of our country in March 1942, training as an aviator in several fields in Texas and the Southwest. Leaving the United States in July 1945, he landed in Saipan in the Pacific July 30, 1945. He was the son of Charles F. Whitfield of this town and the late Mrs. Whitfield, his mother, dying September 17, 1945, but before the fact that he was missing in the plane crash was known in The States. He is survived by his father, two brothers, Franklin and Marion Whitfield, and a sister, Mrs. James C. Story of Newsoms, besides a daughter of Mrs. Story’s. The young man numbered many friends here and the universal sympathy of our people goes out to his family and friends with the official news that the boy has paid with his life the supreme measure of devotion to his country. First Lieutenant Elliott K. WHITFIELD, U.S.A.A.F., B-29 bombadier, Franklin native?, KIA 4 Sep 1945, Mt. Nagasaki, Japan, age 30, interred in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery (Section 78, Site 984-986*), St. Louis, MO, listed with family in Poplar Spring Cemetery (Annex 2, Plot 192 - cenotaph**), Franklin, "The Tidewater News" (Franklin, VA), Dec. 21, 1945 **cenotaph only, in family plot. Southampton County Historical Society {SCHS} Cemetery Project, Poplar Spring list: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/cemeteries/psanx2.txt] *He is actually buried in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, St. Louis, MO. A photo of the stone (#985) for Elliott & six of his crewmates is posted at Find A Grave Memorial #26909364. (www.findagrave.com) His mother's obit ("Tidewater News," Sep. 21, 1945, p. 1) is posted at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/w314c2ob.txt Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Mrs. Bruce Saunders (bs4403@verizon.net), and re-formatted by File Manager. file at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/w314e2ob.txt Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by William J. DelMonte (JazzyBill@aol.com) & Mrs. Bruce Saunders (bs4403@verizon.net), and re-formatted by File Manager. file at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/w314e2ob.txt