A native of Stillwater, Minnesota[i], Harriet Elizabeth Gowen was a worker with The American Red Cross who lost her life during World War II.

“There was a real spirit about those people. They put themselves in very dangerous situations to take care of others. They were that link to home for people who were gone a long time. ” - Jan George, Chief Executive of the St. Croix Valley Chapter of the Red Cross on Gowen’s death, Minneapolis Star Tribune.[ii]

Redhaired and full of fun[iii], Harriet Elizabeth Gowen was the youngest daughter of three girls born to a former lumberman William Walter Gowen and his wife, Viva Henrietta Garner Gowen. When she was born on May 11, 1917, at home were her sister, Jane Gowen Peaslee, age 12, and her other big sister, Catherine “Katy” A. Gowen Westerdahl, age 9.[iv] The family lived in a rental home on Aldrich Avenue in Minneapolis. The older two sisters were in school while Harriet stayed home with Viva. William was supporting the family as a commercial traveler, known today as a traveling salesperson, for the boiler industry.[v]

When Harriet was a child of 12, the family suffered a great loss when William died. He passed away at White Bear, Minnesota, about 20 miles from home, in 1929. Research did not uncover the cause of his death at age 52.[vi]

The following year, in the 1930 census, the little family is down to three. They have moved to a rental home on 26th Street in Minneapolis. Viva is working as a dental assistant and Katy is working in the advertising department of a lamp company. Harriet’s in school. Her oldest sister, Jane, had married in 1928 and was in a home of her own.[vii]

Harriet graduated from West High School[viii] in 1935.[ix] She was a vibrant girl who was compared to Gracie Allen, a popular radio and film personality of the day.[x] She was very involved in school serving as Personal Editor of the Arrow, Physics Club, Talent Club, Commercial Club, Thespian Club, Biology Club plus being in plays and working on homecoming.[xi] She was featured in a local newspaper riding in a school parade float.[xii] Her varied activities were experiences she could draw on later while entertaining troops while in the Red Cross.

HER LIFE BEFORE THE WAR

After college, Harriet went to the University of Minnesota where she was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. She was an office assistant for the university newspaper.[xiii]

Harriet enjoyed many of the things young women her age enjoyed. She was a bridesmaid in her friend’s wedding,[xiv] dancing the night away at the Winter Dance at the St. Paul Athletic Club,[xv] taking a Christmas week trip to California via New Orleans,[xvi] joining sorority sisters on a football game trip to Northwestern University[xvii] and spending time at her sister Katy’s home.[xviii]

As the war years loom, Harriet, who is in college, is living on her own as a boarder in someone’s home in Minneapolis. In 1938, she is working at the Dayton Company.[xix] By 1940, Harriet has finished two years of college and she’s earning her living as a stenographer for a vacuum company. She’s making about $17.50 per week.[xx]

In the year before she headed overseas, she worked in New York[xxi] with her cousin. It was there she decided to join the Red Cross to help the war effort. Friends and family held a going-away dinner for her in Somerset, Wisconsin.[xxii]

HER RED CROSS STORY

In September of 1944, Harriet began doing recreational work as a volunteer for the American Red Cross.[xxiii]

In May of 1945, she was serving as a Red Cross Staff Assistant.[xxiv] Harriet was working to organize recreational activities for troops in New Guinea.[xxv] She held games, dinners and other kinds of entertainment.[xxvi]

At the peak of Red Cross activity in 1945, when Harriet was serving, nearly every family in America contained a member who had either served as a Red Cross volunteer, made contributions of money or blood, or was a recipient of Red Cross services according to RedCross.org. Overseas, those in the Red Cross worked as field directors providing troop support. They operated clubs and clubmobiles and were attached to military hospitals, hospital ships, and hospital trains. In New Guinea, those clubs were in grass huts. The U. S. Government had requested recreational services for the men serving far from home. At its peak, there were 2,000 clubs overseas staffed by 5,000 Red Cross workers like Harriet.[xxvii]

HER LAST DAY

On May 12, according to a newspaper report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune by Chuck Haga, Harriet accepted the opportunity to a take a plane ride just for fun. In fact, she had dreamed of becoming a pilot after the war.[xxviii]

Harriet was on a Southwest Pacific flight with 21-year-old 1st Lt. Harold F. Wurtz from Dearborn, Michigan[xxix]. The two were close friends who were dating others. Each had written home about the other.[xxx] Harold’s younger brother described him as shy and bashful.[xxxi] He may have been shy but he was an air ace. The famed aviator Charles Lindbergh had pinned the Air Medal for bravery in combat on Harold for downing enemy planes. He’d flown 105 missions and was training other fighter pilots.[xxxii]

Flying double in Harold’s one-seat P-47 Thunderbolt Fighter was a tight squeeze. According to the Star Tribune article, the only way two people could fit is to remove the parachute.[xxxiii] They left the airstrip in Nadzab flying with Harriet either sitting “piggyback” behind the pilot[xxxiv] or sitting in his lap.[xxxv] Either way, taking someone else along in the one-seater was forbidden but Harold had done it before. According to a fellow pilot, Wayne Macy, about 10 days earlier Harold’s logbook showed he’d taken a B-24 pilot, flying piggyback, for an hour ride in his P-47.[xxxvi]

The last person to see them was the flight tower operator.[xxxvii]

The plane did not return from its trip.[xxxviii] A search was undertaken to find Harriet, Harold and the aircraft.[xxxix] The search lasted for four days. In a later interview, Harold’s commander said Harold may have taken up a plane that just finished a mission and had not been refueled.[xl]

According to villagers in the area, they were familiar with the crash site but no one could get to it. It was in the midst of a swamp and jungle.[xli]

A cablegram was sent from Manila to the War Department in Washington notifying them that she was missing since the plane took off.[xlii]

She was 28.

AFTER THE WAR

Decades later, in 1996, with the swamp now dried, local hunters discovered the wreck. A father-son duo, Brian and Christopher Moon, from Minnesota, who track down war crashes explored the area. Then, a U.S. Army team from the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii recovered both Harriet’s and Harold’s remains.[xliii] The wreck ended up being only about 5 miles from the place Harold took off.[xliv]

MEMORIALS

Harriet Gown is remembered on the Stillwater, Minnesota WWII Memorial. “Our heroes will live as long as they are remembered.”[xlv]

HER GRAVE

Harriet Elizabeth Gowen’s remains were returned to Stillwater, Minnesota in 1999 for burial at St. Michael’s Cemetery. She was laid to rest near her parents. The container was covered with a Red Cross Flag. She is one of 82 Red Cross personnel lost in WWII.

On August 6, 1999, First Lieutenant Harold F. Wurtz’ remains were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.[xlvi] In a second grave, next to Lt. Wurtz in Arlington, fragments of remains that could not be assigned to either Wurtz or Gowen were buried.[xlvii] Therefore both of their names are on the grave marker in Arlington at Section 60, Site 7828.[xlviii]

LEARN MORE

Read more about Harold and Harriet’s story at Project Homecoming, the website for the adventurers who seek and find lost wrecks.

Read more about the role the Red Cross played in WWII.

Learn about the recreation and welfare of soldiers in The American Soldier of WWII.

RESEARCH NOTES

There are some online sources that state Harriet was a nurse. Her family told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, in a story about her body’s recovery, that she was not a nurse. There are a few instances that list her birthplace as Iowa but most as Minnesota.

ABOUT THIS STORY

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 saved on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

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