Moslener graduated from Monaca high school in 1935 and attended Carnegie Tech. He left to join the U.S. Army Air Corps May 13, 1940 at the Tulsa OK training school, then to Maxwell Field in Alabama and later to Miami University in Coral Gables FL, where he graduated in the first Aerial/Celestial Navigator Training class (Class 40-A) conducted by Pan American Airways. He was stationed at Fort Douglas, Salt Lake City UT.
He was navigator on B-24A Liberator #40-2371. He and his crew belonged to the 88th Reconnaissance Squadron, andarrived at Hickam Field, Hawaii on December 5, 1941 to complete final preparations for a secret project to photograph Japanese military bases in the Marshall and Caroline Islands. Problems were encountered in installing the machine guns and the aircraft was still there on the morning of 7 December. That morning, Moslener and his crew were at hangar 15 preparing their plane for a short check flight before leaving on the next leg of their journey when the Japanese attack began. A bomb hit the hangar, killing Moslener along with another crew member and wounding four more of the crew.
Moslener was one of the first Americans killed in World War II, and the plane was the first US aircraft destroyed in the war.
Cemetery records show that he was buried here October 25, 1947, before that he was buried in Hawaii.
______________
THE PITTSBURGH PRESS, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1941, PAGE TWO
THREE MORE FROM DISTRICT REPORTED KILLED IN HAWAII: ALTOONA, MONACA AND UNIONTOWN AIR CORPS MEMBERS ARE JAP VICTIMS
Monaca, Pa., Dec. 10--Second Lieutenant Louis G. Moslener Jr. left California for "the big trip" last Thursday night.
Three days later he was "killed in action."
A former Carnegie Tech engineering student, Lieutenant Moslener, 23, of 356 Twelfth St., Monaca, was a navigation officer for the U.S. Army Air Corps and had been commissioned last April.
"He was home on leave in October," his father, Louis G. Moslener Sr., a civil engineer, said here today, "and he left for the West Coast on Oct. 29."
After a brief stay at Sacramento, Cal., Lieutenant Moslener wrote his parents last Thursday from San Francisco.
'DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME'
"I came down here from Sacramento last night," he said, "and I'm leaving here tomorrow for the big trip. Don't worry about me. I'll write again when we get there."
Apparently because of Army regulations, the letter did not specify his destination but indicated that he was anticipating action by concluding: "I don't even think I'll get to sleep any."
Last night, the Mosleners received word from the War Department that their son had been "killed in action" on Dec. 7, presumably during the Jap bombing raid on Hawaii. A personal telegram of regret and sympathy also came from General George Marshall, the Chief of Staff.
'SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF'
"His interest was all with the Air Corps," the elder Mr. Moslener said, "So if he died facing the enemy, that's something to be proud of."
Lieutenant Moslener's death was the third reported today by the War Department in Western Pennsylvania.
He was navigator on B-24A Liberator #40-2371. He and his crew belonged to the 88th Reconnaissance Squadron, andarrived at Hickam Field, Hawaii on December 5, 1941 to complete final preparations for a secret project to photograph Japanese military bases in the Marshall and Caroline Islands. Problems were encountered in installing the machine guns and the aircraft was still there on the morning of 7 December. That morning, Moslener and his crew were at hangar 15 preparing their plane for a short check flight before leaving on the next leg of their journey when the Japanese attack began. A bomb hit the hangar, killing Moslener along with another crew member and wounding four more of the crew.
Moslener was one of the first Americans killed in World War II, and the plane was the first US aircraft destroyed in the war.
Cemetery records show that he was buried here October 25, 1947, before that he was buried in Hawaii.
______________
THE PITTSBURGH PRESS, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1941, PAGE TWO
THREE MORE FROM DISTRICT REPORTED KILLED IN HAWAII: ALTOONA, MONACA AND UNIONTOWN AIR CORPS MEMBERS ARE JAP VICTIMS
Monaca, Pa., Dec. 10--Second Lieutenant Louis G. Moslener Jr. left California for "the big trip" last Thursday night.
Three days later he was "killed in action."
A former Carnegie Tech engineering student, Lieutenant Moslener, 23, of 356 Twelfth St., Monaca, was a navigation officer for the U.S. Army Air Corps and had been commissioned last April.
"He was home on leave in October," his father, Louis G. Moslener Sr., a civil engineer, said here today, "and he left for the West Coast on Oct. 29."
After a brief stay at Sacramento, Cal., Lieutenant Moslener wrote his parents last Thursday from San Francisco.
'DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME'
"I came down here from Sacramento last night," he said, "and I'm leaving here tomorrow for the big trip. Don't worry about me. I'll write again when we get there."
Apparently because of Army regulations, the letter did not specify his destination but indicated that he was anticipating action by concluding: "I don't even think I'll get to sleep any."
Last night, the Mosleners received word from the War Department that their son had been "killed in action" on Dec. 7, presumably during the Jap bombing raid on Hawaii. A personal telegram of regret and sympathy also came from General George Marshall, the Chief of Staff.
'SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF'
"His interest was all with the Air Corps," the elder Mr. Moslener said, "So if he died facing the enemy, that's something to be proud of."
Lieutenant Moslener's death was the third reported today by the War Department in Western Pennsylvania.
Moslener graduated from Monaca high school in 1935 and attended Carnegie Tech. He left to join the U.S. Army Air Corps May 13, 1940 at the Tulsa OK training school, then to Maxwell Field in Alabama and later to Miami University in Coral Gables FL, where he graduated in the first Aerial/Celestial Navigator Training class (Class 40-A) conducted by Pan American Airways. He was stationed at Fort Douglas, Salt Lake City UT.
He was navigator on B-24A Liberator #40-2371. He and his crew belonged to the 88th Reconnaissance Squadron, andarrived at Hickam Field, Hawaii on December 5, 1941 to complete final preparations for a secret project to photograph Japanese military bases in the Marshall and Caroline Islands. Problems were encountered in installing the machine guns and the aircraft was still there on the morning of 7 December. That morning, Moslener and his crew were at hangar 15 preparing their plane for a short check flight before leaving on the next leg of their journey when the Japanese attack began. A bomb hit the hangar, killing Moslener along with another crew member and wounding four more of the crew.
Moslener was one of the first Americans killed in World War II, and the plane was the first US aircraft destroyed in the war.
Cemetery records show that he was buried here October 25, 1947, before that he was buried in Hawaii.
______________
THE PITTSBURGH PRESS, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1941, PAGE TWO
THREE MORE FROM DISTRICT REPORTED KILLED IN HAWAII: ALTOONA, MONACA AND UNIONTOWN AIR CORPS MEMBERS ARE JAP VICTIMS
Monaca, Pa., Dec. 10--Second Lieutenant Louis G. Moslener Jr. left California for "the big trip" last Thursday night.
Three days later he was "killed in action."
A former Carnegie Tech engineering student, Lieutenant Moslener, 23, of 356 Twelfth St., Monaca, was a navigation officer for the U.S. Army Air Corps and had been commissioned last April.
"He was home on leave in October," his father, Louis G. Moslener Sr., a civil engineer, said here today, "and he left for the West Coast on Oct. 29."
After a brief stay at Sacramento, Cal., Lieutenant Moslener wrote his parents last Thursday from San Francisco.
'DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME'
"I came down here from Sacramento last night," he said, "and I'm leaving here tomorrow for the big trip. Don't worry about me. I'll write again when we get there."
Apparently because of Army regulations, the letter did not specify his destination but indicated that he was anticipating action by concluding: "I don't even think I'll get to sleep any."
Last night, the Mosleners received word from the War Department that their son had been "killed in action" on Dec. 7, presumably during the Jap bombing raid on Hawaii. A personal telegram of regret and sympathy also came from General George Marshall, the Chief of Staff.
'SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF'
"His interest was all with the Air Corps," the elder Mr. Moslener said, "So if he died facing the enemy, that's something to be proud of."
Lieutenant Moslener's death was the third reported today by the War Department in Western Pennsylvania.
He was navigator on B-24A Liberator #40-2371. He and his crew belonged to the 88th Reconnaissance Squadron, andarrived at Hickam Field, Hawaii on December 5, 1941 to complete final preparations for a secret project to photograph Japanese military bases in the Marshall and Caroline Islands. Problems were encountered in installing the machine guns and the aircraft was still there on the morning of 7 December. That morning, Moslener and his crew were at hangar 15 preparing their plane for a short check flight before leaving on the next leg of their journey when the Japanese attack began. A bomb hit the hangar, killing Moslener along with another crew member and wounding four more of the crew.
Moslener was one of the first Americans killed in World War II, and the plane was the first US aircraft destroyed in the war.
Cemetery records show that he was buried here October 25, 1947, before that he was buried in Hawaii.
______________
THE PITTSBURGH PRESS, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1941, PAGE TWO
THREE MORE FROM DISTRICT REPORTED KILLED IN HAWAII: ALTOONA, MONACA AND UNIONTOWN AIR CORPS MEMBERS ARE JAP VICTIMS
Monaca, Pa., Dec. 10--Second Lieutenant Louis G. Moslener Jr. left California for "the big trip" last Thursday night.
Three days later he was "killed in action."
A former Carnegie Tech engineering student, Lieutenant Moslener, 23, of 356 Twelfth St., Monaca, was a navigation officer for the U.S. Army Air Corps and had been commissioned last April.
"He was home on leave in October," his father, Louis G. Moslener Sr., a civil engineer, said here today, "and he left for the West Coast on Oct. 29."
After a brief stay at Sacramento, Cal., Lieutenant Moslener wrote his parents last Thursday from San Francisco.
'DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME'
"I came down here from Sacramento last night," he said, "and I'm leaving here tomorrow for the big trip. Don't worry about me. I'll write again when we get there."
Apparently because of Army regulations, the letter did not specify his destination but indicated that he was anticipating action by concluding: "I don't even think I'll get to sleep any."
Last night, the Mosleners received word from the War Department that their son had been "killed in action" on Dec. 7, presumably during the Jap bombing raid on Hawaii. A personal telegram of regret and sympathy also came from General George Marshall, the Chief of Staff.
'SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF'
"His interest was all with the Air Corps," the elder Mr. Moslener said, "So if he died facing the enemy, that's something to be proud of."
Lieutenant Moslener's death was the third reported today by the War Department in Western Pennsylvania.
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