Henry C. Priester, Jr.

Second Lieutenant

United States Army Air Force

Henry C. Priester, Jr., son of Henry C. and Katherine Priester, was born in Davenport on 27 August 1921.

Henry attended Sacred Heart School and Saint Ambrose Academy for one year before he graduated from Lawrenceville High School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey (Class of 1939).  He attended Notre Dame University the following fall, where he played football and was on the track team.

In his third year at Notre Dame, Henry enlisted in the United States Army Air Force as an aviation cadet in February 1942.  On 12 April 1943, Henry graduated from the twin-engine plane school at Williams Field in Chandler, Arizona and received his commission and wings.  Henry’s first major assignment took him to Alaska’s Aleutian Islands as a P-38 fighter pilot with the 54th Fighter Squadron, 343rd Fighter Group.   

On 16 February 1944, Henry’s parents received a telegram from the War Department informing them that Henry was listed a Missing-In-Action since the 4th of February.  Approximately three months later, his parents received another War Department telegram, informing them that Henry’s status was changed to presumably dead.  In that telegram, they also learned that Henry took off from Aleutian Islands base for a bombing attack on Paramushiro, a Japanese naval base.  He failed to return from that mission.

Henry was survived by his parents; two sisters, Mary Catherine and Eda, and four brothers, Pat, Edward, Robert (an Aviation Cadet at the University of Alabama), and John.

Second Lieutenant Henry C. Priester, Jr., United States Army Air Force, is still official listed as Missing-In-Action.

Source of Information:

1.  Saint Ambrose Academy school newspaper, The Saint Ambrose Academy News, 28 September 1944, page 1.

2.  Saint Ambrose Academy school newspaper, The Saint Ambrose Academy News, 12 October 1944, page 1.

3.  Davenport Democrat and Times, 17 February 1944, page 9.

4.  Davenport Democrat and Times, 12 May 1944, page 11.

5.  American Battle Monument Commission.

6.  National Archives, World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing Army and Army Air Forces Personnel for the State of Iowa.

7.  National World War II Memorial veteran’s registry; http://www.wwiimemorial.com/.

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