Lionel Naulty Sceurman was born on January 1, 1921 in Westfield New Jersey. His father, Alfred F. Sceurman, and mother, Mary A. Sceurman also lived in Westfield. He also had a sister, Noreen Sceurman, and grandmother, Bertha Yost. He graduated from Perth Amboy High School in 1938. In High School his nickname by classmates was Spider because of his wiry body and dark hair and eyes. He played the saxophone and clarinet and formed a band called Spider Sceurman and his Web of Swing. He was also a sprinter and champion swimmer.

Lionel then went on to become a student at Bucknell University. He enlisted in the Air Corps Reserve while he was a student at Bucknell on February 16, 1942 and was called in 1943 during his senior year of school when the reserves were canceled. He was part of the US Army Air Forces.

He went overseas in March and completed eight missions over Germany. Lionel was serving as a pilot of the B-17 bomberand was assigned to the 334th Bomb Squadron, 95th Bomb Group while on a Chowhound mission, flying over the North Sea to drop food to starving people in Holland. His plane crashed over the North Sea and he died on May 7, 1945. There is a conjecture, but no final proof that the plane was fired at by German holdouts along the coast.

He had been awarded the Air Medal and had just received his commission as first lieutenant. He was buried in the American Cemetery in Cambridge, England before he was reinterred in 1947 with full national honors at Arlington National Cemetery. The grave is in Section 12, Grave 1303.

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 h on Fold3 and/or Together We Served. 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.

Written by: Stephanie Young writer for Stories Behind The Stars

Newspapers: https://www.newspapers.com/image/221009899/?terms=Lionel%20N.Sceurman&match=1

Draft Card : Source Citation

National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; WWII Draft Registration Cards for New Jersey, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 581

Source Information

Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Census

Source Citation

Year: 1940; Census Place: Perth Amboy, Middlesex, New Jersey; Roll: m-t0627-02361; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 12-98

Source Information

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/49308897/lionel-naulty-sceurman

Lt. Lionel Naulty Sceurman