Alfred Brown Clumpner
Alfred Brown Clumpner was born on July 16, 1915, to Guy Alfred Clumpner and Hellen Clumpner. Guy earned his Master's degree in Education from Washington State College. At the time of his son's birth, he was a principal of Kootenai High School in Kootenai, Idaho. By 1920, Eugene and little Edwin were two more boys in the Clumpner household. Alfred Clumpner would follow his parents throughout their journey together in Washington State before striking out to make his mark on the world.
By all appearances, the Clumpner family did quite well in Kootenai, but G.A. was a man of ambition, and when the opportunity to run his own school presented itself, he took it. By 1930, the Clumpners had moved to a house on Natches Avenue in little Moxee, Washington. Though it has grown substantially in recent years, at the time, Moxee, located in the Yakima Valley, was a tiny farming community, and G.A. had taken the job as the "school master" and "superintendent" of Moxee School District. By 1930, two more siblings joined the family, William and Benjamin. It was in Moxee where Alfred grew up and graduated from high school. Much like his father, Alfred was a man who understood the value of a university education and decided to follow in his father's footsteps by enrolling in Washington State College.
While pursuing his bachelor's degrees in mining engineering and geology, Alfred was a foreman at the Holden Mine in Chelan County in the summers. He also met and fell in love with the young Evelyn Moore. One year older than Alfred, Evelyn completed her education at the University of Idaho before working as a primary school teacher in Plummer, Idaho. The couple was married in December of 1941 at First Christian Church in Moscow, Idaho. Alfred completed his degrees in 1942 and enlisted in the United States Army Air Corp on June 18, 1942, in Seattle.
Alfred was selected to enter the intensive pilot training program and was inducted into the military on December 7, 1942. He then proceeded to Santa Ana Army Base for a three-month pre-flight training program and graduated on March 5, 1943. From there, he attended his Primary training at Thunderbird Field in Phoenix, Arizona, graduating on May 15, 1943. He had little time to catch his breath as he began basic training at Marana Air Base in Tucson, Arizona, graduating on July 27, 1943. This was followed by advanced training at Marfa Army Air Base in Marfa, Texas, where he was awarded a 2nd Lieutenant commission and air wings upon graduating on October 1, 1943. Alfred went to transitional training in Roswell, New Mexico, and Salt Lake City, Utah, followed by the Officers Tactical Unit in Alexandria, Louisiana, from January 12, 1944, through April 3, 1944. After briefing in Kearney, Nebraska, from April 6 through 14, he arrived in England on April 24, 1944.
Alfred was assigned to the famed 303rd Bomb Group, "The Hell's Angels," of the 358th Bomber Squadron in the Eighth Air Force and based at Molesworth Airfield in Cambridgeshire, England. On May 24, 1944, Alfred got into his co-pilot's seat in the B-17 #42-97787 beside the experienced pilot Joe Raiford Worthley. They were headed for Berlin. At some point, and for reasons the airmen in surrounding planes could not readily identify, Alfred's plane fell out of formation and descended, last seen burning at 21,000 feet by Captain Lawrence C. Thompson. The plane went down in the North Sea some 20 kilometers west of St. Peter-Ording in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
The mystery of what happened to the boys on board #42-97787 remained for some time after it was shot down. The Army initially notified the families that their sons had gone down over the North Sea on June 5, 1944. It was some time until enough information trickled to the families. The tail gunner, Sergeant Elmer E. Simpson, survived, and in July of 1945, he told his story. Simpson explained that the plane had hit no trouble well into their trip to Berlin, but "about 40 minutes off target we were hit by the first three klak [sic] bursts that came up. There were direct hits and the No. 2 and No. 3 engines and the last one was in the cockpit. We were knocked straight up and put out of formation to the left over the North Sea." He then saw a piece of metal fly under the plane. He could not see the crew from his vantage point in the plane's tail. He crawled up from his position and investigated the fuselage to see the plane was empty up to the radio room, and he could not see into the cockpit. He realized then that the metal he saw must have been the door busting out of the side of the plane when the crew bailed out. He noted that the plane was in a glide, gaining speed, vibrating badly, and on fire, with the left wing dropping dangerously low. Simpson put on his parachute and jumped from the plane. He landed, of all places, in the middle of a German flak gun emplacement and was taken prisoner.
The Germans told Simpson the rest of the crew had died, but Simpson stated, "I knew they hadn't all crashed in the plane, and I figured that (expletive deleted) were just telling me that to get me to talk." It was later discovered that Alfred's body was retrieved from the North Sea by the Germans, who buried him in the Tonning cemetery in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, on June 12, 1944, in grave number 11. His body was returned to the American authorities, who awarded him the Purple Heart and laid him to rest at the Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial, Neuville en Condroz, Neupre, in Liege, Belgium, Memorial ID 5637591. His name is also emblazoned on the World War II memorial located at the main campus of his and his father's alma mater, today called Washington State University, in Pullman, Washington.