Born Edward C. Ayling in 1913 at Illinois. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps on 30 July 1941 at Chicago, Illinois.

After B-17 Flying Fortress aerial gunnery training, he was assigned to the 5th Air Force, 43rd Bombardment Group (H), 63rd Bomb Squadron (Sea Hawks) arriving at Australia in March 1942, and at New Guinea in January 1943.

In the Spring of 1944, he underwent B-29 aircraft operational combat crew training at Smoky Hill Army Air Field near Salina, Kansas.

In October 1944, he deployed from Mather Field, California (with re-fueling stops at Hawaii and Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands) to the Central Pacific Theatre of Operations and was assigned to 20th Air Force, XXI Bomber Command, 73rd Bomb Wing, 499th Bombardment Group (VH), 878th Bomber Squadron stationed at Isely Field on Saipan in the Mariana Islands.

On 18 December 1944, he flew as an Aerial Gunner in the tail station aboard a Boeing B-29 Superfortress, Tail Code V-Square-24 (serial #42-24773).

It was one of 89 aircraft launched in a multi-group formation to bombard the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Company and Aircraft Engine Plants near Nagoya, Japan. Flak from anti-aircraft artillery was meager and Japanese fighter aircraft attacks were described as moderate.

However, his aircraft sustained approximately 30 fighter attacks and went into a steep wing-over to the left dive, with flames coming from the forward bomb bay area and smoke trailing from the # 2 engine. When last sighted, two enemy fighter planes followed his aircraft as it descended through the cloud cover at 20,000 feet over Nagoya Bay.

He was initially listed as MIA, and then declared killed in action after the war ended.

Edward C Ayling