Lt. Woodie Lackland McVay, Jr., USNR - was born December 16, 1917 and passed away February 22, 1944. He was the son of W. L. McVay, Sr. and Lottie Haynes McVay, both deceased. He married Annie Ruth Heidelberg (now Owen) of Bay Minette, Al and had one daughter, Diane Haynes McVay (deceased). She had one daughter, Elizabeth Daly Huff, married to Brian Huff, who resides in Birmingham. They have two children, Peyton Huff and Alexandria Huff. Lt. McVay's sister, Dorothy McVay Carstens (deceased) had two children, Robin Carstens (deceased) and Suzanne Carstens who married Jody Davis (deceased). They have two children, Joanna Davis and Michael Davis of Daphne, Al. Cousins include Leon McVay, IV, Lucy Cobb McVay and children Frances McVay and Cille McVay of Mobile, and Jean McCurdy and Flo McVay. Lt. McVay graduated from Murphy High School and Spring Hill College. His military service originally began in 1936 when he became a member of the National Guard. In 1940 he enlisted in the Navy Reserve for four years. During February, 1941, he became an Aviation Cadet at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Fl. Following his basic pilot training he was ordered to active duty training at NAS in Miami, Fl., at which time he was designated a Naval Aviator (heavier than air). During August he was ordered to NAS Norfolk to undergo Advanced Carrier Training. Upon completion of his training, then Ensign McVay was assigned to Scouting Squadron Forty-one (VS-41) USS Ranger (CV-4) in September. The squadron at that time was operating the Douglas SBD Dauntless aircraft. On 1 October, 1942, Ensign McVay was promoted to the rank of Lt(jg). During November, 1942, VS-41 participated in Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. On 17 March, 1943, he was transferred from VS-41 and assigned to VF-1 upon his request. On 15 July 1943, Fighting Aquadron One (VF-1) was redesignated VF-5 and assigned to the USS Yorktown (CV-10). The squadron was equipped with the new Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat. During October he was promoted to the rank of Lt. USNR and became a division leader. He was listed MIA when he did not return to the carrier after strafing over Siapan on 22 February, 1944 then later presumed dead. During the cruise, Lt. McVay was credited with three aerial victories. The first was against a Zero near Wake Island on 5 October, 1943; the second was against a Kate near the Marshall Islands on 29 January, 1944; the third was against a Hamp near Yap, Caroline Islands on 17 February, 1944. His awards included the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with Gold Star, Purple Heart, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two Bronze Stars, European-African-Middle Eastern Area Campaign Medal with one Bronze Star, the Victory Medal and the American Defense Service Medal. This repatriation would not be possible without the efforts of WFI Research Group. In lieu of flowers, please send a donation to: www.wfirg.org or 293 Kilburn Street, Fall River, MA 02724. Arrangements by Pine Crest Funerals and Cremations, 1939 Dauphin Island Parkway, Mobile, AL 251-478-5227. Published in Press-Register on 7/12/2009
Press-Register (Mobile, AL) - June 18, 2008
Deceased Name: W.L. McVay, Jr. - PILOT'S BODY ID'd AFTER 64 YEARS
PILOT'S BODY ID'd AFTER 64 YEARS
REMAINS MAY COME HOME TO MOBILE SOON
By DAVID FERRARA
Staff Reporter
A modest slate of granite no more than 3 feet wide and 2 feet long rests a few steps from a live oak tree at Pine Crest Cemetery. It is 9,000 miles from the body that belongs beneath it.
The marker states: "Lt. W.L. McVay, Jr. USNR/Dec. 16, 1917/Feb. 22, 1944/Killed in action in Saipan." Next to it are a pair of headstones for his mother and father.
Until recently, no one had a clue where McVay's body lay. After the Navy squadron leader's F6F Hellcat was shot down over the Pacific, the military categorized McVay as missing in action and dead.
Woodie Lackland McVay left behind a wife and a daughter, along with his grieving parents.
For decades, his family wondered.
On the other side of the world, there is a white stone cross that looks like all the others.
It stands as Grave 2, Row 12, Plot F at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. The inscription reads: "Here rests in honored glory/a comrade in arms/known but to God."
The only name associated with the serviceman there was "X-35."
Then, this month, that all began to change, when World War II researcher Ted Darcy received a report on the body in the Manila grave.
Darcy had been trying to track down McVay's remains for more than three years, poring over dozens of files. He found him when he received a report from the U.S. Army Human Resources Command in Alexandria, Va.
The burial records matched. The height was barely a half-inch off McVay's 5-foot-9½-inch frame. The dental records were almost identical to those in McVay's military file.
Darcy was able to match 12 fillings and extractions in McVay's mouth. "That's rare," he said.
Last week, the report that connected McVay to the spot in Manila was sent to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.
JPAC is in the process of verifying that X-35 is indeed McVay, but Rob Richeson, a JPAC official, said he and others are "pretty positive" that it is.
The exhumation process, he added, "should move reasonably quickly." In government-speak, that's several months, but for McVay's family, they're closer than they've ever been to bringing him home.
McVay's sister died in January. But in an interview with the Press-Register weeks before she passed away, Dorothy Carstens said she wanted her brother buried at Pine Crest, next to their parents.
His widow, the former Annie Ruth Heidelburg, now Annie Ruth Owen of Bay Minette, remembers their short but happy marriage, and the day she gave birth to their only child, Diane.
Diane died in 1995, having never known her father.
As hopes of identifying McVay have risen, Owen has found herself reflecting on their brief marriage, and the day he left for war, a day after their daughter was born. "I keep thinking about all that," she said.
McVay's body was buried and dug up four times after his plane was shot down, according to Darcy.
The Army first exhumed him from a makeshift Saipan grave on July 17, 1944. An autopsy was performed, and he was identified by the name stitched in his underwear.
But in the rush of war, the autopsy report and the location of McVay's body were lost, Darcy said. His body was interred at a military cemetery on Saipan in October of that year, as an unknown.
In March 1948, the body was taken to a mausoleum on Saipan, where the military kept other unidentified war dead. In October of that year, the body was placed on a ship to the Philippines, where X-35 was buried on March 30, 1950.
McVay, meanwhile, had been declared dead in January 1946.
McVay's granddaughter, Elizabeth Huff of Birmingham, has spent the past three years learning about him. She spoke with family members and McVay's friends, and read letters from fellow veterans. She said she believes he deserved a funeral with full military honors, a chance for the family to say goodbye and cry.
She wants "an ending to the grief," she said. "There's got to be a beginning, and there's got to be an ending. When you don't have closure, you might cry, but there's not an end to the crying."
VA Marriage RECORD
Name Woodie Lackland Mcvay
Age 24
Birth Date abt 1918
Marriage Date 30 Mar 1942 Norfolk, VA
Father Woodie Lackland Mcvay
Mother Lottie Haynes
Spouse Age 22
Spouse Father Alex Heidelberg
Spouse Mother Ruth McIntosh
Spouse Annie Ruth Heidelberg
--------
Lt. McVay is listed on the Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial
Honolulu, Hawaii
Press-Register (Mobile, AL) - June 18, 2008
Deceased Name: W.L. McVay, Jr. - PILOT'S BODY ID'd AFTER 64 YEARS
PILOT'S BODY ID'd AFTER 64 YEARS
REMAINS MAY COME HOME TO MOBILE SOON
By DAVID FERRARA
Staff Reporter
A modest slate of granite no more than 3 feet wide and 2 feet long rests a few steps from a live oak tree at Pine Crest Cemetery. It is 9,000 miles from the body that belongs beneath it.
The marker states: "Lt. W.L. McVay, Jr. USNR/Dec. 16, 1917/Feb. 22, 1944/Killed in action in Saipan." Next to it are a pair of headstones for his mother and father.
Until recently, no one had a clue where McVay's body lay. After the Navy squadron leader's F6F Hellcat was shot down over the Pacific, the military categorized McVay as missing in action and dead.
Woodie Lackland McVay left behind a wife and a daughter, along with his grieving parents.
For decades, his family wondered.
On the other side of the world, there is a white stone cross that looks like all the others.
It stands as Grave 2, Row 12, Plot F at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. The inscription reads: "Here rests in honored glory/a comrade in arms/known but to God."
The only name associated with the serviceman there was "X-35."
Then, this month, that all began to change, when World War II researcher Ted Darcy received a report on the body in the Manila grave.
Darcy had been trying to track down McVay's remains for more than three years, poring over dozens of files. He found him when he received a report from the U.S. Army Human Resources Command in Alexandria, Va.
The burial records matched. The height was barely a half-inch off McVay's 5-foot-9½-inch frame. The dental records were almost identical to those in McVay's military file.
Darcy was able to match 12 fillings and extractions in McVay's mouth. "That's rare," he said.
Last week, the report that connected McVay to the spot in Manila was sent to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.
JPAC is in the process of verifying that X-35 is indeed McVay, but Rob Richeson, a JPAC official, said he and others are "pretty positive" that it is.
The exhumation process, he added, "should move reasonably quickly." In government-speak, that's several months, but for McVay's family, they're closer than they've ever been to bringing him home.
McVay's sister died in January. But in an interview with the Press-Register weeks before she passed away, Dorothy Carstens said she wanted her brother buried at Pine Crest, next to their parents.
His widow, the former Annie Ruth Heidelburg, now Annie Ruth Owen of Bay Minette, remembers their short but happy marriage, and the day she gave birth to their only child, Diane.
Diane died in 1995, having never known her father.
As hopes of identifying McVay have risen, Owen has found herself reflecting on their brief marriage, and the day he left for war, a day after their daughter was born. "I keep thinking about all that," she said.
McVay's body was buried and dug up four times after his plane was shot down, according to Darcy.
The Army first exhumed him from a makeshift Saipan grave on July 17, 1944. An autopsy was performed, and he was identified by the name stitched in his underwear.
But in the rush of war, the autopsy report and the location of McVay's body were lost, Darcy said. His body was interred at a military cemetery on Saipan in October of that year, as an unknown.
In March 1948, the body was taken to a mausoleum on Saipan, where the military kept other unidentified war dead. In October of that year, the body was placed on a ship to the Philippines, where X-35 was buried on March 30, 1950.
McVay, meanwhile, had been declared dead in January 1946.
McVay's granddaughter, Elizabeth Huff of Birmingham, has spent the past three years learning about him. She spoke with family members and McVay's friends, and read letters from fellow veterans. She said she believes he deserved a funeral with full military honors, a chance for the family to say goodbye and cry.
She wants "an ending to the grief," she said. "There's got to be a beginning, and there's got to be an ending. When you don't have closure, you might cry, but there's not an end to the crying."
VA Marriage RECORD
Name Woodie Lackland Mcvay
Age 24
Birth Date abt 1918
Marriage Date 30 Mar 1942 Norfolk, VA
Father Woodie Lackland Mcvay
Mother Lottie Haynes
Spouse Age 22
Spouse Father Alex Heidelberg
Spouse Mother Ruth McIntosh
Spouse Annie Ruth Heidelberg
--------
Lt. McVay is listed on the Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial
Honolulu, Hawaii
Lt. Woodie Lackland McVay, Jr., USNR - was born December 16, 1917 and passed away February 22, 1944. He was the son of W. L. McVay, Sr. and Lottie Haynes McVay, both deceased. He married Annie Ruth Heidelberg (now Owen) of Bay Minette, Al and had one daughter, Diane Haynes McVay (deceased). She had one daughter, Elizabeth Daly Huff, married to Brian Huff, who resides in Birmingham. They have two children, Peyton Huff and Alexandria Huff. Lt. McVay's sister, Dorothy McVay Carstens (deceased) had two children, Robin Carstens (deceased) and Suzanne Carstens who married Jody Davis (deceased). They have two children, Joanna Davis and Michael Davis of Daphne, Al. Cousins include Leon McVay, IV, Lucy Cobb McVay and children Frances McVay and Cille McVay of Mobile, and Jean McCurdy and Flo McVay. Lt. McVay graduated from Murphy High School and Spring Hill College. His military service originally began in 1936 when he became a member of the National Guard. In 1940 he enlisted in the Navy Reserve for four years. During February, 1941, he became an Aviation Cadet at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Fl. Following his basic pilot training he was ordered to active duty training at NAS in Miami, Fl., at which time he was designated a Naval Aviator (heavier than air). During August he was ordered to NAS Norfolk to undergo Advanced Carrier Training. Upon completion of his training, then Ensign McVay was assigned to Scouting Squadron Forty-one (VS-41) USS Ranger (CV-4) in September. The squadron at that time was operating the Douglas SBD Dauntless aircraft. On 1 October, 1942, Ensign McVay was promoted to the rank of Lt(jg). During November, 1942, VS-41 participated in Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. On 17 March, 1943, he was transferred from VS-41 and assigned to VF-1 upon his request. On 15 July 1943, Fighting Aquadron One (VF-1) was redesignated VF-5 and assigned to the USS Yorktown (CV-10). The squadron was equipped with the new Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat. During October he was promoted to the rank of Lt. USNR and became a division leader. He was listed MIA when he did not return to the carrier after strafing over Siapan on 22 February, 1944 then later presumed dead. During the cruise, Lt. McVay was credited with three aerial victories. The first was against a Zero near Wake Island on 5 October, 1943; the second was against a Kate near the Marshall Islands on 29 January, 1944; the third was against a Hamp near Yap, Caroline Islands on 17 February, 1944. His awards included the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with Gold Star, Purple Heart, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two Bronze Stars, European-African-Middle Eastern Area Campaign Medal with one Bronze Star, the Victory Medal and the American Defense Service Medal. This repatriation would not be possible without the efforts of WFI Research Group. In lieu of flowers, please send a donation to: www.wfirg.org or 293 Kilburn Street, Fall River, MA 02724. Arrangements by Pine Crest Funerals and Cremations, 1939 Dauphin Island Parkway, Mobile, AL 251-478-5227. Published in Press-Register on 7/12/2009
Press-Register (Mobile, AL) - June 18, 2008
Deceased Name: W.L. McVay, Jr. - PILOT'S BODY ID'd AFTER 64 YEARS
PILOT'S BODY ID'd AFTER 64 YEARS
REMAINS MAY COME HOME TO MOBILE SOON
By DAVID FERRARA
Staff Reporter
A modest slate of granite no more than 3 feet wide and 2 feet long rests a few steps from a live oak tree at Pine Crest Cemetery. It is 9,000 miles from the body that belongs beneath it.
The marker states: "Lt. W.L. McVay, Jr. USNR/Dec. 16, 1917/Feb. 22, 1944/Killed in action in Saipan." Next to it are a pair of headstones for his mother and father.
Until recently, no one had a clue where McVay's body lay. After the Navy squadron leader's F6F Hellcat was shot down over the Pacific, the military categorized McVay as missing in action and dead.
Woodie Lackland McVay left behind a wife and a daughter, along with his grieving parents.
For decades, his family wondered.
On the other side of the world, there is a white stone cross that looks like all the others.
It stands as Grave 2, Row 12, Plot F at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. The inscription reads: "Here rests in honored glory/a comrade in arms/known but to God."
The only name associated with the serviceman there was "X-35."
Then, this month, that all began to change, when World War II researcher Ted Darcy received a report on the body in the Manila grave.
Darcy had been trying to track down McVay's remains for more than three years, poring over dozens of files. He found him when he received a report from the U.S. Army Human Resources Command in Alexandria, Va.
The burial records matched. The height was barely a half-inch off McVay's 5-foot-9½-inch frame. The dental records were almost identical to those in McVay's military file.
Darcy was able to match 12 fillings and extractions in McVay's mouth. "That's rare," he said.
Last week, the report that connected McVay to the spot in Manila was sent to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.
JPAC is in the process of verifying that X-35 is indeed McVay, but Rob Richeson, a JPAC official, said he and others are "pretty positive" that it is.
The exhumation process, he added, "should move reasonably quickly." In government-speak, that's several months, but for McVay's family, they're closer than they've ever been to bringing him home.
McVay's sister died in January. But in an interview with the Press-Register weeks before she passed away, Dorothy Carstens said she wanted her brother buried at Pine Crest, next to their parents.
His widow, the former Annie Ruth Heidelburg, now Annie Ruth Owen of Bay Minette, remembers their short but happy marriage, and the day she gave birth to their only child, Diane.
Diane died in 1995, having never known her father.
As hopes of identifying McVay have risen, Owen has found herself reflecting on their brief marriage, and the day he left for war, a day after their daughter was born. "I keep thinking about all that," she said.
McVay's body was buried and dug up four times after his plane was shot down, according to Darcy.
The Army first exhumed him from a makeshift Saipan grave on July 17, 1944. An autopsy was performed, and he was identified by the name stitched in his underwear.
But in the rush of war, the autopsy report and the location of McVay's body were lost, Darcy said. His body was interred at a military cemetery on Saipan in October of that year, as an unknown.
In March 1948, the body was taken to a mausoleum on Saipan, where the military kept other unidentified war dead. In October of that year, the body was placed on a ship to the Philippines, where X-35 was buried on March 30, 1950.
McVay, meanwhile, had been declared dead in January 1946.
McVay's granddaughter, Elizabeth Huff of Birmingham, has spent the past three years learning about him. She spoke with family members and McVay's friends, and read letters from fellow veterans. She said she believes he deserved a funeral with full military honors, a chance for the family to say goodbye and cry.
She wants "an ending to the grief," she said. "There's got to be a beginning, and there's got to be an ending. When you don't have closure, you might cry, but there's not an end to the crying."
VA Marriage RECORD
Name Woodie Lackland Mcvay
Age 24
Birth Date abt 1918
Marriage Date 30 Mar 1942 Norfolk, VA
Father Woodie Lackland Mcvay
Mother Lottie Haynes
Spouse Age 22
Spouse Father Alex Heidelberg
Spouse Mother Ruth McIntosh
Spouse Annie Ruth Heidelberg
--------
Lt. McVay is listed on the Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial
Honolulu, Hawaii
Press-Register (Mobile, AL) - June 18, 2008
Deceased Name: W.L. McVay, Jr. - PILOT'S BODY ID'd AFTER 64 YEARS
PILOT'S BODY ID'd AFTER 64 YEARS
REMAINS MAY COME HOME TO MOBILE SOON
By DAVID FERRARA
Staff Reporter
A modest slate of granite no more than 3 feet wide and 2 feet long rests a few steps from a live oak tree at Pine Crest Cemetery. It is 9,000 miles from the body that belongs beneath it.
The marker states: "Lt. W.L. McVay, Jr. USNR/Dec. 16, 1917/Feb. 22, 1944/Killed in action in Saipan." Next to it are a pair of headstones for his mother and father.
Until recently, no one had a clue where McVay's body lay. After the Navy squadron leader's F6F Hellcat was shot down over the Pacific, the military categorized McVay as missing in action and dead.
Woodie Lackland McVay left behind a wife and a daughter, along with his grieving parents.
For decades, his family wondered.
On the other side of the world, there is a white stone cross that looks like all the others.
It stands as Grave 2, Row 12, Plot F at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. The inscription reads: "Here rests in honored glory/a comrade in arms/known but to God."
The only name associated with the serviceman there was "X-35."
Then, this month, that all began to change, when World War II researcher Ted Darcy received a report on the body in the Manila grave.
Darcy had been trying to track down McVay's remains for more than three years, poring over dozens of files. He found him when he received a report from the U.S. Army Human Resources Command in Alexandria, Va.
The burial records matched. The height was barely a half-inch off McVay's 5-foot-9½-inch frame. The dental records were almost identical to those in McVay's military file.
Darcy was able to match 12 fillings and extractions in McVay's mouth. "That's rare," he said.
Last week, the report that connected McVay to the spot in Manila was sent to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.
JPAC is in the process of verifying that X-35 is indeed McVay, but Rob Richeson, a JPAC official, said he and others are "pretty positive" that it is.
The exhumation process, he added, "should move reasonably quickly." In government-speak, that's several months, but for McVay's family, they're closer than they've ever been to bringing him home.
McVay's sister died in January. But in an interview with the Press-Register weeks before she passed away, Dorothy Carstens said she wanted her brother buried at Pine Crest, next to their parents.
His widow, the former Annie Ruth Heidelburg, now Annie Ruth Owen of Bay Minette, remembers their short but happy marriage, and the day she gave birth to their only child, Diane.
Diane died in 1995, having never known her father.
As hopes of identifying McVay have risen, Owen has found herself reflecting on their brief marriage, and the day he left for war, a day after their daughter was born. "I keep thinking about all that," she said.
McVay's body was buried and dug up four times after his plane was shot down, according to Darcy.
The Army first exhumed him from a makeshift Saipan grave on July 17, 1944. An autopsy was performed, and he was identified by the name stitched in his underwear.
But in the rush of war, the autopsy report and the location of McVay's body were lost, Darcy said. His body was interred at a military cemetery on Saipan in October of that year, as an unknown.
In March 1948, the body was taken to a mausoleum on Saipan, where the military kept other unidentified war dead. In October of that year, the body was placed on a ship to the Philippines, where X-35 was buried on March 30, 1950.
McVay, meanwhile, had been declared dead in January 1946.
McVay's granddaughter, Elizabeth Huff of Birmingham, has spent the past three years learning about him. She spoke with family members and McVay's friends, and read letters from fellow veterans. She said she believes he deserved a funeral with full military honors, a chance for the family to say goodbye and cry.
She wants "an ending to the grief," she said. "There's got to be a beginning, and there's got to be an ending. When you don't have closure, you might cry, but there's not an end to the crying."
VA Marriage RECORD
Name Woodie Lackland Mcvay
Age 24
Birth Date abt 1918
Marriage Date 30 Mar 1942 Norfolk, VA
Father Woodie Lackland Mcvay
Mother Lottie Haynes
Spouse Age 22
Spouse Father Alex Heidelberg
Spouse Mother Ruth McIntosh
Spouse Annie Ruth Heidelberg
--------
Lt. McVay is listed on the Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial
Honolulu, Hawaii
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