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Posted on 08/29/2026 7:01:56 PM PDT by Libloather
A B-24D Liberator bomber called “Suzy Q” went down in flames near Capo Stilo, Italy, on August 16, 1943, and for 83 years nobody could say for certain what happened to its pilot.
That changed this week, when the remains of 1st Lt. Walter R. Bateman, a 22-year-old Maryland native, arrived home at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on Friday for a dignified transfer ceremony followed by a police-escorted procession to Bel Air.
Bateman piloted the bomber, assigned to the 67th Bombardment Squadron of the 44th Bombardment Group, on a mission targeting enemy airfields in Foggia, Italy, when his aircraft was last seen on fire, according to Fold3. He and nine fellow airmen were listed as missing in action, and their remains went unidentified for decades, according to the Harford County Sheriff's Office, as reported by WMAR 2 News Baltimore. Bateman flew with the 44th Bombardment Group, nicknamed the “Flying Eightballs,” the first Eighth Air Force unit equipped with B-24 Liberators in the European Theater, a unit that earned Distinguished Unit Citations for its high-risk strategic bombing runs.
A Decades-Long Forensic Journey
The path to identifying Bateman ran through multiple countries and generations of forensic technology.
Commingled remains of American airmen were recovered from a cemetery in Lacedonia, Italy, in April 1945 and buried as unknowns at the U.S. Military Cemetery in Naples, according to Bel Air Patch. The Department of Defense exhumed those remains in June 2022, and Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency forensic scientists formally confirmed Bateman's identity on May 29, 2026, using modern DNA and anthropological analysis, per the sheriff's office.
(Excerpt) Read more at hoodline.com ...
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War is the enemy of all mankind.
My late Father was a bombardier on a B-24D Liberator in the Pacific Theater. He told me a few, brief, hair-raising stories of some of his missions. All very brave young men who flew in those planes.
So what’s your response when it comes knocking at your door?
That’s why Satan loves it so much
First thing I thought was
“King Nine Will Not Return”
It’s still the enemy of all mankind.
Yes, it is.
I think Andreas Gryphius, a German baroque poet who lived through the devastating Thirty Years War (1618-48), got it right in one of his most famous poems why Satan loves war so much - just read the last three lines and you know that Gryphius knew what he was talking about…(This is a translation I found on Facebook)
TEARS OF THE FATHERLAND 1636
by Andreas Gryphius (1616-1664):
So, now we are destroyed; utterly; more than utterly!
The gang of shameless peoples, the maddening music of war,
The sword fat with blood, the thundering of the guns
Have consumed our sweat and toil, exhausted our reserves.
Towers are on fire, churches turned upside down;
The town hall is in ruins, the strong cut down, destroyed.
Young girls are raped; wherever we turn our gaze,
Fire, plague, and death pierce heart and spirit through.
Here, town and ramparts run with ever-fresh streams of blood.
It’s three times six years now, since our mighty river’s flow
Was blocked almost by corpses, just barely trickling through.
Yet, I pass over in silence something more terrible than death,
More desperate even than plague, fire and famine;
That so many were bereaved of their soul’s treasure too.
And I am sorry for having forgotten to add this hope of mine:
May Lt. Bateman rest in peace with our Lord, and may He comfort his family and friends 😇✝️
Amen.
Oh please, spare me the '60s Flower Power crap. Sometimes war is the only response to evil and the men who fight those wars are our very best men and all heroes.
You want to learn German or Japanese or Russian or Mandarin, you go ahead - but don't confuse your "hide under the bed" liberalism with courage.
Welcome home, 1st Lt Walter Bateman.
Rawrrr! Go get’em Tiger!
Sometimes, WAR finds you...
True - but apparently our friend Lurkin missed all of it. Lucky for him.
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