military question

[Banshee7]

Ok, so i mow a cemetery in a town close to where i live.  And in that cemetery there is a headstone for a guy that died in combat in Germany.  It has a picture of a plane (kind of like a cartoon) and it has wings under his name.  My question is what is a Tech Sgt.?  What was his role in WW2?

[NoBaddy]

Short for Technical Sgt. In today's Army, they are called Specialists. If I remember correctly, a TSgt is the equivalent of a Spec5. I have to admit that I have slept a few times since I last cared about the difference.

[Banshee7]

What was his role in WW2?  I'm ranking illiterate so i have no clue.  Did he fly or was he ground crew or what? lol im clueless

[Spikes]

Not that I really know but I highly doubt he flew.

[Old Sport]

Could have been aircrew on buffs - maybe flight engineer, I think radio operators were tech sgts, doubtless other technical MOS's were aircrew as well.

[Jenks]

I'm surmising that he flew in the Army Air Corp.  He may have been a Gunner on a bomber, or he may have been ground crew, say,  a plane mech. or a load master on a cargo plane. All speculation of course.

When I was in the USAF a Tech. Sgt. was an  E6 one rank above Staff Sgt.  That has changed now I think,  when I was in (72 to 77) E4 was Sgt. but now I think they call them Senior Airman. In the Army E6 is Gunnery Sgt. I think.  Been a long time now.

Maybe see if someone at the local paper can dig some info on the gentleman.

[acfireguy26]

In the Army E6 is Gunnery Sgt. I think.  Been a long time now.

E6 in the Army is a Staff SGT (SSG) Gunnery SGT or Gunny is a Marine rank it is pay grade E7.
http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/insignias/enlisted.html

[Old Sport]

DB, btw, if he was KIA - died in combat - then it seems possible to me that the headstone might have the unit he was serving with when he gave the ultimate sacrifice. Next time you mow there, write down all the info, if there is any, and do an online search.

[Captfish]

Technical Sergeant was renamed Sergeant First Class in 1948.

I think if he was an airmen then he would have been a radio operator. I not a 100% on this, but all the airmen I look up that were Tech Sgt's seem to have been radio operators.
If you get his name we can look up what he did.

[hlbly]

Don't discount that he may have flown my uncle otis was a sgt. flew B-17's in Italy . his copilot was a major .

[PFactorDave]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_Sergeant

[texasmom]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1560988371/sr=1-1/qid=1216670279/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1216670279&sr=1-1&seller=
"They Also Flew"

[Guppy35]

Name please. Best way to know is to figure out who he was first

Should be easy enough to track down the info base on the info from the marker.  Birthday, Date of Death, Full name, rank etc.

[RATTFINK]

It sounds like he was an engineer.

[Guppy35]

Banshee gave me the last name of the guy and the location of the Cemetary.  With a little digging today, and a lot of luck.  Here is what we found.


T/Sgt David M Cotten  Serial Number 14134597
Top Turret Gunner on a 323rd BS, 91st BG, 80th AF B17G  #42-31542  Squadron code OR-T  "Bunky"
Pilot was  Lt. Norman Burwick

While bombing the airfield at Lechfield, Germany, "Bunky" collided with another B17 over the target.  The other B17 went into a spin but recovered with all the crew bailing out over Switzerland.  "Bunky" was not so lucky and came apart aft of the crew door and went into a flat spin.  While the 91st BG history says all were killed in the crash, it appears that David Cotten got out injured and died as a POW as he is listed in POW records.
He was born in 1922 in Mississippi and entered the service in Crockett County, Tennessee


Crew list-Crew was only 9 men at this point with the radio room 50 gone and the Radio Op manning a waist gun
BURWICK, NORMAN N Pilot
WAY, FRANK J Co-Pilot
SANDERS, CARL  Navigator
STEELHAMMER, ALBERT E  Bombardier
COTTEN, DAVID M  Top Turret
GEMMILL, MELVIN A   Ball Turret
BELTZ, GEORGE R  Radio Operator
CARLSON, HARRY S Waist Gunner
SMITH, GORDON D Tail gunner