| Notes |
- Lost Flier is Decorated
Relatives of Staff Sgt. Elder Doyle Dickerson, have been informed here of the posthumous award of the Air Medal and three Oak Leaf Clusters to the Flying Fortress tailgunner and flight engineer, who was reported killed in action over Germany Oct. 8. In a letter to the 20-year-old flier's parents, Mr. and Mrs. William V. Dickerson, 1223 North D Street, Brig. Gen. Robert H. Dunlop, acting Adjutant General, wrote:
"By direction of the President, the Air Medal and three Oak Leaf Clusters, indicating second, third and fourth awards of the same decoration, have been awarded posthumously to your son. Instructions are being forwarded to the eighth service command, Dallas, Tex., which will select an officer at a nearby air corps installation to make arrangements for presentation of the decoration to you."
No report has been received here from the Dallas headquarters concerning the arrangements. Doyle Dickerson, born in the Vireton community, near Blocker, in Pittsburg County, Dec. 11, 1922, was on a combat mission over Germany when his plane was hit and several parachutes were seen to open when the aircraft started down. The Red Cross reported from Germany the flier's death. Besides his parents, Sergeant Dickerson is survived by his wife and a son, Glenn Ray Dickerson, who will be three years old February 6.
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- Reich Lists City Flier Among Dead
Hopes that Staff Sgt. Elder D. Dickerson had parachuted to safety two months ago when the Flying Fortress in which he was tail gunner was shot down over German-held territory, were blasted here today when the former McAlesterite’s relatives were notified by the German government that he was killed in action October 8.
The tragic news reached the family group here this morning at the home of the sergeant’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. W.V Dickerson, D street and Taylor avenue. The 20-year old tail gunner’s wife, the former Mary Sue Pingleton of Haileyville, and his three-year old son, Glen Ray, have been residing at the Dickerson home.
Other survivors are two sisters, Mrs. Mildred Cox, Bache, and Mrs. Alta Goodson of the High Hill community; two brothers, J.A. Dickerson, Dow, and William R. Dickerson, a merchant marine stationed on Catalina Island, off the California coast.
Blancett Sees Attach
Some time ago the war department notified relative here that Sergeant Dickerson was missing in action. Then last Friday, Mrs. Audie Blancett, 312 West Grand avenue, received a letter from her son, Sgt. Dean Blancett, in England, stating that during a raid over Germany in which he took part, he had seen sergeant Dickerson’s plane shot down. He saw some crew members ump and their parachutes open, he wrote, but could not tell how many escaped from the mortally wounded Fortress.
This report had built hope among relatives that Sergeant Dickerson might be a prisoner of war in the reich.
The tall gunner attended grade school here and later was a student in Haileyville High school. He was married February 5, 1939.
He enlisted in the air corps here June 11, 1942, came home only once afterward. That was last April 11, during transfer from Walla Walla, Wash., to Kearney, Nebr. His plane stopped at Oklahoma City and he was here for one day. He went overseas in May.
The McAlester News-Capital, McAlester, Oklahoma. Thursday, 9 December 1943.
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1922 - 1943 (20 years)
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