Missing In Action

S/Sgt Harold Ernest Hogan served as a Gunner on the B-24D, in the 343rd Bomber Squadron, 98th Bomber Group, Heavy, U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. 

On May 1, 1943, the plane took off from Lete Airfield, Libya on a daylight bombing mission over Reggio Di Calabria Harbor, Italy. 

It was hit by anti-aircraft fire and seen crashing into the sea during the war. 

Harold was declared MIA & was awarded the Air Medal and the Purple Heart.  

courtesy of Linda Hughes - Find A Grave

There are 2 Find A Grave Memorials for Harold - the first is the cenotaph on the "Tablets of the Missing" at the North Africa American Cemetery & Memorial in Carthage, Tunis, Tunisia; the other is the headstone placed at the Deepdale Memorial Park Cemetery in Delta Twp, Michigan.

courtesy of CMurgan - Ancestry

Harold was the youngest of 3 children born to Nelson Ernest Hogan & Anna Huldah Smith and he had married twice before went to war. 

In 1927, Harold married the mother of his children, Helen Elizabeth McConkey, the daughter of Howard J McConkey & Ethel Elizabeth Graves. Their children are Howard Ernest, Helen Eugenia & Gail Elaine.

Harold & Helen divorced in 1941 & remarried Empress Martha Brush, a year later he enlisted, then died in the spring of 1943.