Eugene J. Mlot was a millinery worker (made hats), shipping clerk and electrician with four years of high school under his belt when he joined the Army Air Force in 1942. He was the youngest of a single mother, recently emigrated from Poland, and the younger brother to Esther, a hairdresser. He grew up on Milwaukee, Wisconsin's south side, working odd jobs to support his mother as the poverty of the Great Depression gave way to booming industry in Milwaukee's factories, where they would eventually make radios, Harley-Davidson motorcycles and much more for the war. He grew up, as we discovered, blocks away from where I attend school. Staff Sergeant Eugene J Mlot flew in the 328th Bomber Squadron, for the heavy 93rd Bomber Group, nicknamed the flying circus. His plane, a B-24 Liberator, was called the Victory Belle, complete with pin-up girl nose art. Eugene was the nose gunner and flew many successful missions. The only picture left of him is that of a grinning young boy, with goofy ears, smiling with his buddies as they pose in front of their Victory Belle. When I first saw Eugene's record, I knew almost instantly that he was the soldier I wanted to study. I don't know how or why I knew—I wasn't even all that in love with his name (Eugene!) But seeing that picture, and putting a face to a name, changed everything. Eugene was in the war for almost two years and two months exactly. His big sister made more money than he did as a hairdresser back in Milwaukee, which I'm sure, as a sibling myself, annoyed him to no end. He flew with the 2nd Air Force and participated in many bombing missions, helping to open the doors to France for the rest of Allies that would land on June 6th, 1944. However, on June 24th, just weeks after the success, and tragedy of D-Day, his plane was hit with German flak south of Dreux. Some of his crew members managed to jump from the plane and survived for weeks in the hostile enemy territory below. Eugene wasn't seen to jump. The plane later exploded, crashing into the idyllic French countryside, lost to the Allies for months as war raged on without the few soldiers that crash took from them. I suppose it's hard, looking back some 70 years later, to imagine these men, these soldiers, as boys—boys who might have been scared, but nonetheless brave, flying the most dangerous missions with their friends and their pin-up girls. For a moment, during months of studying dark and bloody tales, Eugene's life made me and Mrs. Holtgreive smile, as we realized how wonderful it was—and how amazing that very same life could have been, had it continued. To sum up the story of Eugene grows harder as it continues for me. For his actions in the war, he received the Air Medal with three oak clusters and the Distinguished Flying Cross, along with the Purple Heart. For a long time he was listed as MIA. He was just a few years older than ourselves. Eugene Mlot deserves to be honored today, not just because he gave the greatest sacrifice of all, but because he was one of the many who didn't return home to their families, and one of the many whose families became smaller and smaller during the war, until tales of would-be grandfathers and great-uncles were lost to our generation. Eugene deserves to be honored for his bravery, but also for what he left behind when he began a journey many cannot even imagine, including myself, in order to liberate families and mothers and fathers in a country halfway across the world, while his own family waited in fear. It is one of the greatest sacrifices of all, before laying one's life down. If a lesson could come out of this institute, and this day at all, it would be to remember. To remember what these men and these boys fought for, and the enormity of the sacrifices they gave in blood on foreign shores. Eugene's story is lost somewhat to time, as fewer and fewer pictures are kept, stories retold, or memories written down. Carl Sagan once said, "You have to know the past to understand the present." And here, that quote again rings true. One day, Eugene's story may fade away as well. Eventually, time and the elements will take back this plot, but it is a beautiful thought to think that he will stay here, and that the earth will always remember him and his sacrifice. Eulogy written and read at Eugene's gravesite 70 years after his death by 17 year old Julia Brunson, a student at Reagan College Prep School in Milwaukee)
EUGENE's DEATH:
Eugene J. Mlot died on June 24th, 1944. He was part of the war effort for almost exactly two years and two months. The Victory Belle was flying a mission over Dreux when it encountered high amounts of flak. Like many mission Eugene and his crew had flown, the attack took out many planes. This time, they were the unlucky ones. Over German-occupied France they caught flak at their tail and underbelly. After jettisoning their bombs, most of Eugene's fellow airmen managed to parachute out. Eugene wasn't as lucky. He and Captain Roggenkamp perished in the eventual crash in the French countryside. Their dog tags were retrieved by the Germans and eventually, pending VE day, the Americans. Today, a small monument sits where their plane was found. Eugene received the Purple Heart and a handful of other medals for his participation in the war. His crew members escaped into the countryside and fought with the French resistance until the cities were liberated, and went on to live long lives. Eugene was barely 20 years old. (His story amongst others are part of a November 2015 PBS TV Special)