HAIG KANDARIAN Copilot from Fresno, California,
From 'Miss Fortune's Last Mission"
"HAIG had more reasons than most to fight for America. His parents, Ruth Enochian and Levon Kandarian, had come to this country from the region known as Armenia though its status as a recognized nation would remain disputed. They escaped in 1910 from the portion of Armenia that belonged to Turkey, just as the long denied Turkish genocide of Armenian people was beginning. As writer William Saroyan has chronicled, for many Armenians living in the city or the vast agricultural areas around Fresno, America became a sacred place of sanctuary.
Haig grew up around two older sisters, Agnes and Leona. All three of the Kandarian kids graduated from high school, and Haig managed to squeeze in a single year of college before the coming of war made his higher calling obvious.
By 1940, Leona was the owner of a grocery store with a soda fountain across the street from the high school. I picture young Haig spending hours there, nursing the last from a chocolate milk shake or a banana split with pals who knew their friend's big sister was in charge. There would come a time when virtually no young men would be around to sit at that soda fountain.
Haig Kandarian must have seen what was closing in on this country a bit before most Americans. Though the between-wars isolationism trumpeted by Charles Lindbergh and others of lesser fame remained popular, Haig enlisted in the Army Air Corps on October 2, 1941, a full two months before Pearl Harbor changed a lot of people's minds about America's safety in the world.
The day before Miss Fortune took off from Italy on its bombing mission to Regensburg, Haig Kandarian turned twenty-one."
Co-Pilot of B-24J Liberator #42-73138.
Lost over Czechoslovakia on mission from Italy to bomb Regensburg, Germany.
The plane crashed on Dubec Hill near Nepomuk, CZ.
Killed In Action were:
1st Lt. George M Goddard, Jr, Pilot
1st Lt. Haig Kandarian, Co-Pilot
1st Lt. Joseph F Altemus, Navigator
1st Lt. Charles F Spickard, Jr, Bombardier
TSgt. Oscar W Houser, Engineer
SSgt. Harold C Carter, Armorer-Gunner
SSgt. John A Goldbach, Nose Gunner
SSgt. Roy E Hughes, Radio Operator
SSgt. Wayneworth E Nelson, Tail Gunner
SSgt. Rexford H Rhodes, Asst. Engineer
Missing Air Crew Report 2726. Two sources has the bomber nicknamed "Butch" and also as "Miss Fortune."
The crew's sacrifice for freedom is told in "Miss Fortune's Last Mission" They were interred together on June 16, 1950, Jefferson Barracks St. Louis,MO.
From 'Miss Fortune's Last Mission"
"HAIG had more reasons than most to fight for America. His parents, Ruth Enochian and Levon Kandarian, had come to this country from the region known as Armenia though its status as a recognized nation would remain disputed. They escaped in 1910 from the portion of Armenia that belonged to Turkey, just as the long denied Turkish genocide of Armenian people was beginning. As writer William Saroyan has chronicled, for many Armenians living in the city or the vast agricultural areas around Fresno, America became a sacred place of sanctuary.
Haig grew up around two older sisters, Agnes and Leona. All three of the Kandarian kids graduated from high school, and Haig managed to squeeze in a single year of college before the coming of war made his higher calling obvious.
By 1940, Leona was the owner of a grocery store with a soda fountain across the street from the high school. I picture young Haig spending hours there, nursing the last from a chocolate milk shake or a banana split with pals who knew their friend's big sister was in charge. There would come a time when virtually no young men would be around to sit at that soda fountain.
Haig Kandarian must have seen what was closing in on this country a bit before most Americans. Though the between-wars isolationism trumpeted by Charles Lindbergh and others of lesser fame remained popular, Haig enlisted in the Army Air Corps on October 2, 1941, a full two months before Pearl Harbor changed a lot of people's minds about America's safety in the world.
The day before Miss Fortune took off from Italy on its bombing mission to Regensburg, Haig Kandarian turned twenty-one."
Co-Pilot of B-24J Liberator #42-73138.
Lost over Czechoslovakia on mission from Italy to bomb Regensburg, Germany.
The plane crashed on Dubec Hill near Nepomuk, CZ.
Killed In Action were:
1st Lt. George M Goddard, Jr, Pilot
1st Lt. Haig Kandarian, Co-Pilot
1st Lt. Joseph F Altemus, Navigator
1st Lt. Charles F Spickard, Jr, Bombardier
TSgt. Oscar W Houser, Engineer
SSgt. Harold C Carter, Armorer-Gunner
SSgt. John A Goldbach, Nose Gunner
SSgt. Roy E Hughes, Radio Operator
SSgt. Wayneworth E Nelson, Tail Gunner
SSgt. Rexford H Rhodes, Asst. Engineer
Missing Air Crew Report 2726. Two sources has the bomber nicknamed "Butch" and also as "Miss Fortune."
The crew's sacrifice for freedom is told in "Miss Fortune's Last Mission" They were interred together on June 16, 1950, Jefferson Barracks St. Louis,MO.
HAIG KANDARIAN Copilot from Fresno, California,
From 'Miss Fortune's Last Mission"
"HAIG had more reasons than most to fight for America. His parents, Ruth Enochian and Levon Kandarian, had come to this country from the region known as Armenia though its status as a recognized nation would remain disputed. They escaped in 1910 from the portion of Armenia that belonged to Turkey, just as the long denied Turkish genocide of Armenian people was beginning. As writer William Saroyan has chronicled, for many Armenians living in the city or the vast agricultural areas around Fresno, America became a sacred place of sanctuary.
Haig grew up around two older sisters, Agnes and Leona. All three of the Kandarian kids graduated from high school, and Haig managed to squeeze in a single year of college before the coming of war made his higher calling obvious.
By 1940, Leona was the owner of a grocery store with a soda fountain across the street from the high school. I picture young Haig spending hours there, nursing the last from a chocolate milk shake or a banana split with pals who knew their friend's big sister was in charge. There would come a time when virtually no young men would be around to sit at that soda fountain.
Haig Kandarian must have seen what was closing in on this country a bit before most Americans. Though the between-wars isolationism trumpeted by Charles Lindbergh and others of lesser fame remained popular, Haig enlisted in the Army Air Corps on October 2, 1941, a full two months before Pearl Harbor changed a lot of people's minds about America's safety in the world.
The day before Miss Fortune took off from Italy on its bombing mission to Regensburg, Haig Kandarian turned twenty-one."
Co-Pilot of B-24J Liberator #42-73138.
Lost over Czechoslovakia on mission from Italy to bomb Regensburg, Germany.
The plane crashed on Dubec Hill near Nepomuk, CZ.
Killed In Action were:
1st Lt. George M Goddard, Jr, Pilot
1st Lt. Haig Kandarian, Co-Pilot
1st Lt. Joseph F Altemus, Navigator
1st Lt. Charles F Spickard, Jr, Bombardier
TSgt. Oscar W Houser, Engineer
SSgt. Harold C Carter, Armorer-Gunner
SSgt. John A Goldbach, Nose Gunner
SSgt. Roy E Hughes, Radio Operator
SSgt. Wayneworth E Nelson, Tail Gunner
SSgt. Rexford H Rhodes, Asst. Engineer
Missing Air Crew Report 2726. Two sources has the bomber nicknamed "Butch" and also as "Miss Fortune."
The crew's sacrifice for freedom is told in "Miss Fortune's Last Mission" They were interred together on June 16, 1950, Jefferson Barracks St. Louis,MO.
From 'Miss Fortune's Last Mission"
"HAIG had more reasons than most to fight for America. His parents, Ruth Enochian and Levon Kandarian, had come to this country from the region known as Armenia though its status as a recognized nation would remain disputed. They escaped in 1910 from the portion of Armenia that belonged to Turkey, just as the long denied Turkish genocide of Armenian people was beginning. As writer William Saroyan has chronicled, for many Armenians living in the city or the vast agricultural areas around Fresno, America became a sacred place of sanctuary.
Haig grew up around two older sisters, Agnes and Leona. All three of the Kandarian kids graduated from high school, and Haig managed to squeeze in a single year of college before the coming of war made his higher calling obvious.
By 1940, Leona was the owner of a grocery store with a soda fountain across the street from the high school. I picture young Haig spending hours there, nursing the last from a chocolate milk shake or a banana split with pals who knew their friend's big sister was in charge. There would come a time when virtually no young men would be around to sit at that soda fountain.
Haig Kandarian must have seen what was closing in on this country a bit before most Americans. Though the between-wars isolationism trumpeted by Charles Lindbergh and others of lesser fame remained popular, Haig enlisted in the Army Air Corps on October 2, 1941, a full two months before Pearl Harbor changed a lot of people's minds about America's safety in the world.
The day before Miss Fortune took off from Italy on its bombing mission to Regensburg, Haig Kandarian turned twenty-one."
Co-Pilot of B-24J Liberator #42-73138.
Lost over Czechoslovakia on mission from Italy to bomb Regensburg, Germany.
The plane crashed on Dubec Hill near Nepomuk, CZ.
Killed In Action were:
1st Lt. George M Goddard, Jr, Pilot
1st Lt. Haig Kandarian, Co-Pilot
1st Lt. Joseph F Altemus, Navigator
1st Lt. Charles F Spickard, Jr, Bombardier
TSgt. Oscar W Houser, Engineer
SSgt. Harold C Carter, Armorer-Gunner
SSgt. John A Goldbach, Nose Gunner
SSgt. Roy E Hughes, Radio Operator
SSgt. Wayneworth E Nelson, Tail Gunner
SSgt. Rexford H Rhodes, Asst. Engineer
Missing Air Crew Report 2726. Two sources has the bomber nicknamed "Butch" and also as "Miss Fortune."
The crew's sacrifice for freedom is told in "Miss Fortune's Last Mission" They were interred together on June 16, 1950, Jefferson Barracks St. Louis,MO.
Inscription
1LT, 343 AAF BOMB SQ, 98 BOMB GP WORLD WAR II
Gravesite Details
Entered the service from California; ASN O-527673
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