1LT David Meserow was born on 17 Dec 1921 at Oak Park, Cook County, Illinois. He was the son of Louis and Ruth Meserow. He had a step-brother, Joseph. He married Virginia Kennedy and they had a son, David S and daughter, Sue Ann Meserow. David stood 5'9" 140 lbs with brown eyes and brown hair.

David attended the University of Illinois prior to entering the US Air Force on 17 March 1942 at Chicago, Illinois. He completed Basic and Advanced Individual Training and was assigned to the 555th Bomb Squad 380th Bomb Group. He went overseas in Jun 1943 when his unit was deployed overseas to assist the Allied Forces in the Normandy invasion.

While flying his 62nd combat mission 1LT David Meserow was a bombardier on a B26, #42-96087 when the plane was shot down over Caen, France on 22 June 1944. He was listed on the Tablet of the Missing at Normandy American Cemetery for 45 years. In 1989 remains were found and later identified as 1LT Meserow and fellow crew members. On 5 Jan 1995 they were all laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery (s34 g4459) with full military honors. His daughter, Sue Ann Meserow Reisdorph who was only six months old at the time of his death was in attendance. 1LT David Meserow was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster.

We thank you for your service, dedication and sacrifice to our country. You are not forgotten.

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see https://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 smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

If you have any details, photos, or corrections for this story, please email me by clicking on the words “Added by:” at the bottom of this story.

Rich and Deb Appenzellar - Contributing Authors, Stories Behind the Stars

SBTS Project/Illinois/Cook

Sources –

Ancestry.com

Findagrave.com

Newspaper.com