Vernon Zimowski

In an e-mail from Ernest Zimowski, April 2009:

My uncle VERNON ZIMOWSKI . . . was missing in action and declared dead in WW II.

I am probably the closest living relative to Vernon. He is my uncle, as he is my father's youngest brother.

Vernon was born in 1918. He was a farm boy from Schneider, Indiana, just south of Lowell, Indiana, and joined the Coast Guard during the war. All his siblings are now dead, and I was just a toddler at the time, but this is what I remember as told to me. Also from letters I have from the Commandant of the Coast Guard which I was given.

Vernon was Coxswain USGC, who operated the landing crafts during an invasion. I am not sure, but I believe Guadalcanal was one of them.

The letter I have states he was reported missing as of May 18,1944, when the R4D5 plane, BU#39073, on which he was traveling, was lost due to enemy action. This occurred in the South Pacific Solomon Islands between Guadalcanal and Bougainville. He was declared Killed In Action on November 1, 1945. We have never [heard] anything more about him and always wondered. Picture attached.