Jack Cozette Clackley was born on February 12, 1923 in Montgomery County, Alabama to Charles Fitz Clackley and Alzie Pearl (Ellison) Clackley. Charles was a native of Chilton County, Alabama while Alzie was born in Alabama but raised in Mississippi. The two married on May 27, 1916 in Autauga County. In the 1920 and 1930 census records, Charles is shown working for the railroad in Montgomery, Alabama. He and Alzie had four children – Ruth, Charles, Jack and Buck. From there, the family’s story became a nightmare. On December 6, 1933, while living in Gulfport, Mississippi, Alzie was murdered by her husband who was said to have been in a “demented state.” The following month, Charles Clackley died in a Gulfport jail. Although the children were said in news reports to have gone to live with relatives, both Jack and his younger brother Buck, are found in the 1940 census records living in the Presbyterian Children’s Home in Talladega County, Alabama.

Jack Clackley attended Talladega High School, where he was a member of the school band. He apparently completed only two years of high school before moving to Greenville in Butler County, Alabama where he registered for the draft on June 30, 1942. He gave his older brother, Charles W. Clackley, who lived in Mobile, Alabama, as his next of kin and Alabama Mills in Greenville as his employer. His draft registration card described him as being 5’11” tall and weighing 148 pounds, with red hair, blue eyes and a ruddy complexion.

On November 4, 1942, Jack voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at Fort McClellan, Alabama, either transferring from the U.S. Army or the National Guard. His enlistment record indicates that he had completed two years of high school and had worked at a semi-skilled occupation in the manufacture of textiles. On April 8, 1943, a short news article in the Greenville Advocate stated that PFC Jack C. Clackley had graduated from the Army Air Forces Technical Training Command School for airplane mechanics at Gulfport, Mississippi.

Later promoted to Staff Sergeant, Jack Clackley served overseas with the 338th Bombardment Squadron, 96th Bombardment Group. The 96th Bombardment Group flew B-17 Flying Fortresses to targets across occupied Europe from May 1943 to April 1945. Beginning in June 1943, they were based at Snetterton Heath in England. Staff Sergeant Clackley was deployed overseas from Walla Walla, Washington in July 1943 and had completed five missions before he went missing in action.

On September 3, 1943, SSgt. Clackley was the waist gunner on B-17 #42-37802 which was on a bombardment mission over Bremen, Germany and ditched in the North Sea on its return to base. No trace of the aircraft or the crew was ever found. Sergeant Clackley was reported missing in action on November 29, 1943 and later declared dead. He was memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at Cambridge American Cemetery in Coton, England. He was awarded an Air Medal which was presented to his brother Charles W. Clackley at Brookley Field in Mobile, Alabama. He was also awarded a Purple Heart. SSgt. Clackley was survived by his brothers, PFC Charles W. Clackley who served at Okinawa and Buck Clackley of Greenville, and his sister Ruth Thorpe of Kentucky.

Thank you, Sergeant Clackley, for your service and your sacrifice. You will not be forgotten.

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story. SBTSProject/Alabama/Butler.

If you noticed anything erroneous in this profile or have additional information to contribute to it, please contact me at dbsmail1315@charter.net.

Sources:

· 1930 United States Federal Census

· 1940 United States Federal Census

· U.S. School Yearbooks, 1900-2016

· U.S. World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

· U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946

· U.S. Headstone and Interment Records for U.S. Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, 1942-1949

· Alabama, WWII Military Dead and Wounded, 1944-1946

· Newspapers.com, Greenville Advocate, 8 Apr 1943, 2 Mar 1944

· Newspapers.com, Birmingham News, 18 Jan 1944

· Newspapers.com, Our Mountain Home, 27 Sep 1939

· https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56288564/jack-cozette-clackley

Jack C Clackley