U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Paul Lewis (Retired), 101 years old, and a fifty-eight year resident of Hershey, died November 06, 2020 at Masonic Village.
He was born November 29, 1918 in Minersville, Schuylkill County, to Benjamin C. Lewis, a coal miner and Margaret L. (Brown) Lewis at their family home on Schaeffers Hill.
Vince, 2nd generation Irish, attended St Vincent's Primary School in Minersville and graduated from St Patrick's Catholic High School (now Nativity Blessed Virgin Mary), in Pottsville in May 1937.
After school, he worked as a Truck Driver in the coal mines and on the Pennsylvania Turnpike tunnels before enlisting in the U.S. Army in October 1940 - before World War II was declared.
Vince was a career U.S. Air Force Officer and Pilot as he initially joined to become a Fighter Pilot. After earning his Army Air Corps Aviator's wings in 1943, he was assigned instead to heavy bombers and became qualified on the Consolidated B-24 Liberator multi-engine heavy bomber.
He earned Command Pilot's wings in the 485th Bomber (HVY) Group, 15th Air Force in World War II as he participated from Tunisia, North Africa in the invasion of Italy in March 1944 and the D-Day Normandy invasion in June 1944.
Flying out of Verona, Italy Air Base on July 20, 1944, on his 33rd combat air mission over enemy lines, his 'Briny Marlyn' B-24 (Air Formation name 'Blue Echo') was shot down by Messerschmitt Bf 109's over Conegliano, Italy. Vince was injured, but kept flying the severely damaged B-24 and he was the last of his 10-man crew to bail out. For these actions, he received the Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross medals.
For the next five months, he led his crew, and other Allied military personnel, to escape through enemy positions out of Italy and Yugoslavia. Finally, they were rescued by a night-flight back to safety at Barrie, Italy Air Base.
Vince or 'VP' returned to Denver, Colorado, before Victory in Europe (VE) Day in 1945, where he married 2nd Lieutenant Miriam 'Lee' Savage, a U.S. Army Nurse from Fayetteville, Brown County, Ohio.
After a 25 year U.S. Air Force career as a highly-decorated pilot and veteran with tours in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Alaska, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Virginia and an overseas tour in Tokyo, Japan, he, Lee and their nine children eventually retired at Olmsted Air Force Base in Middletown on May 01, 1965 - the same base where he enlisted years earlier.
Vince completed a second career at New Cumberland Army Depot in 1981 as Chief of the Catalog Data Activity, which kept track digitally of all Department of Defense replacement parts. His knowledge of computers resulted in his self-taught Basic Programming skills - even filing his tax returns directly to the Internal Revenue Service in the 1980's before today's e-File.
After Lee's death on May 01, 1980, he began retirement that included his second marriage in 1983 to Janice Slagle, a Nurse Manager at the Hershey Medical Center. They enjoyed travel across the country, children's marriages, twenty-three grandchildren and twenty great-grandchildren and, a new hobby with pleasure boats on the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay.
Support to Catholic education also was central to Vince's belief of a better future.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his first wife: Lee; his grandson: Matthew; his daughter-in-law: Lynn; his son-in-law: Bradford; his sister: Catharine Mary; his maternal grandparents from Ireland with whom he was close as a young boy; his six maternal aunts and uncles; and, his seven paternal aunts and uncles.
Surviving are Vince's wife of thirty-seven years: Janice; his daughters: M. Kathy (Lieutenant Colonel (Ret) James) Filson of Boca Raton, Florida, Jean (James) Walmer of Three Springs, Patricia Ellermann of Lakeland, Florida, Sharon (Elvin) Shilling of Fredericksburg; his step-daughter: Kimberly Holmes of Elizabethtown; his sons: Vincent (Susan) of San Rafael, California, Warrant Officer 2 (Retired) Dennis of San Angelo, Texas, Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Stephan (Jan) of Gettysburg, Martin (Nancy) of Gloucster, Ohio, and Timothy (Kathleen) of Middletown; also married are sixteen of his twenty-three grandchildren who have twenty of his great-grandchildren living around the country.
There will be a visitation in the Hoover Funeral and Crematory, 88 Lucy Ave. in Hershey on Friday, November 13, 2020 from 10:00 - 11:00 AM. Mass and Christian Burial will follow at 11:30 AM in St Joan of Arc Catholic Church, 359 W. Areba Avenue, Hershey (where Vince and family attended for fifty-eight years).
Burial will follow in Indiantown Gap National Cemetery.
Hoover Funeral Home, Hershey
LT COL US AIR FORCE
WORLD WAR II, KOREA, VIETNAM
He was born November 29, 1918 in Minersville, Schuylkill County, to Benjamin C. Lewis, a coal miner and Margaret L. (Brown) Lewis at their family home on Schaeffers Hill.
Vince, 2nd generation Irish, attended St Vincent's Primary School in Minersville and graduated from St Patrick's Catholic High School (now Nativity Blessed Virgin Mary), in Pottsville in May 1937.
After school, he worked as a Truck Driver in the coal mines and on the Pennsylvania Turnpike tunnels before enlisting in the U.S. Army in October 1940 - before World War II was declared.
Vince was a career U.S. Air Force Officer and Pilot as he initially joined to become a Fighter Pilot. After earning his Army Air Corps Aviator's wings in 1943, he was assigned instead to heavy bombers and became qualified on the Consolidated B-24 Liberator multi-engine heavy bomber.
He earned Command Pilot's wings in the 485th Bomber (HVY) Group, 15th Air Force in World War II as he participated from Tunisia, North Africa in the invasion of Italy in March 1944 and the D-Day Normandy invasion in June 1944.
Flying out of Verona, Italy Air Base on July 20, 1944, on his 33rd combat air mission over enemy lines, his 'Briny Marlyn' B-24 (Air Formation name 'Blue Echo') was shot down by Messerschmitt Bf 109's over Conegliano, Italy. Vince was injured, but kept flying the severely damaged B-24 and he was the last of his 10-man crew to bail out. For these actions, he received the Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross medals.
For the next five months, he led his crew, and other Allied military personnel, to escape through enemy positions out of Italy and Yugoslavia. Finally, they were rescued by a night-flight back to safety at Barrie, Italy Air Base.
Vince or 'VP' returned to Denver, Colorado, before Victory in Europe (VE) Day in 1945, where he married 2nd Lieutenant Miriam 'Lee' Savage, a U.S. Army Nurse from Fayetteville, Brown County, Ohio.
After a 25 year U.S. Air Force career as a highly-decorated pilot and veteran with tours in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Alaska, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Virginia and an overseas tour in Tokyo, Japan, he, Lee and their nine children eventually retired at Olmsted Air Force Base in Middletown on May 01, 1965 - the same base where he enlisted years earlier.
Vince completed a second career at New Cumberland Army Depot in 1981 as Chief of the Catalog Data Activity, which kept track digitally of all Department of Defense replacement parts. His knowledge of computers resulted in his self-taught Basic Programming skills - even filing his tax returns directly to the Internal Revenue Service in the 1980's before today's e-File.
After Lee's death on May 01, 1980, he began retirement that included his second marriage in 1983 to Janice Slagle, a Nurse Manager at the Hershey Medical Center. They enjoyed travel across the country, children's marriages, twenty-three grandchildren and twenty great-grandchildren and, a new hobby with pleasure boats on the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay.
Support to Catholic education also was central to Vince's belief of a better future.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his first wife: Lee; his grandson: Matthew; his daughter-in-law: Lynn; his son-in-law: Bradford; his sister: Catharine Mary; his maternal grandparents from Ireland with whom he was close as a young boy; his six maternal aunts and uncles; and, his seven paternal aunts and uncles.
Surviving are Vince's wife of thirty-seven years: Janice; his daughters: M. Kathy (Lieutenant Colonel (Ret) James) Filson of Boca Raton, Florida, Jean (James) Walmer of Three Springs, Patricia Ellermann of Lakeland, Florida, Sharon (Elvin) Shilling of Fredericksburg; his step-daughter: Kimberly Holmes of Elizabethtown; his sons: Vincent (Susan) of San Rafael, California, Warrant Officer 2 (Retired) Dennis of San Angelo, Texas, Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Stephan (Jan) of Gettysburg, Martin (Nancy) of Gloucster, Ohio, and Timothy (Kathleen) of Middletown; also married are sixteen of his twenty-three grandchildren who have twenty of his great-grandchildren living around the country.
There will be a visitation in the Hoover Funeral and Crematory, 88 Lucy Ave. in Hershey on Friday, November 13, 2020 from 10:00 - 11:00 AM. Mass and Christian Burial will follow at 11:30 AM in St Joan of Arc Catholic Church, 359 W. Areba Avenue, Hershey (where Vince and family attended for fifty-eight years).
Burial will follow in Indiantown Gap National Cemetery.
Hoover Funeral Home, Hershey
LT COL US AIR FORCE
WORLD WAR II, KOREA, VIETNAM
U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Paul Lewis (Retired), 101 years old, and a fifty-eight year resident of Hershey, died November 06, 2020 at Masonic Village.
He was born November 29, 1918 in Minersville, Schuylkill County, to Benjamin C. Lewis, a coal miner and Margaret L. (Brown) Lewis at their family home on Schaeffers Hill.
Vince, 2nd generation Irish, attended St Vincent's Primary School in Minersville and graduated from St Patrick's Catholic High School (now Nativity Blessed Virgin Mary), in Pottsville in May 1937.
After school, he worked as a Truck Driver in the coal mines and on the Pennsylvania Turnpike tunnels before enlisting in the U.S. Army in October 1940 - before World War II was declared.
Vince was a career U.S. Air Force Officer and Pilot as he initially joined to become a Fighter Pilot. After earning his Army Air Corps Aviator's wings in 1943, he was assigned instead to heavy bombers and became qualified on the Consolidated B-24 Liberator multi-engine heavy bomber.
He earned Command Pilot's wings in the 485th Bomber (HVY) Group, 15th Air Force in World War II as he participated from Tunisia, North Africa in the invasion of Italy in March 1944 and the D-Day Normandy invasion in June 1944.
Flying out of Verona, Italy Air Base on July 20, 1944, on his 33rd combat air mission over enemy lines, his 'Briny Marlyn' B-24 (Air Formation name 'Blue Echo') was shot down by Messerschmitt Bf 109's over Conegliano, Italy. Vince was injured, but kept flying the severely damaged B-24 and he was the last of his 10-man crew to bail out. For these actions, he received the Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross medals.
For the next five months, he led his crew, and other Allied military personnel, to escape through enemy positions out of Italy and Yugoslavia. Finally, they were rescued by a night-flight back to safety at Barrie, Italy Air Base.
Vince or 'VP' returned to Denver, Colorado, before Victory in Europe (VE) Day in 1945, where he married 2nd Lieutenant Miriam 'Lee' Savage, a U.S. Army Nurse from Fayetteville, Brown County, Ohio.
After a 25 year U.S. Air Force career as a highly-decorated pilot and veteran with tours in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Alaska, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Virginia and an overseas tour in Tokyo, Japan, he, Lee and their nine children eventually retired at Olmsted Air Force Base in Middletown on May 01, 1965 - the same base where he enlisted years earlier.
Vince completed a second career at New Cumberland Army Depot in 1981 as Chief of the Catalog Data Activity, which kept track digitally of all Department of Defense replacement parts. His knowledge of computers resulted in his self-taught Basic Programming skills - even filing his tax returns directly to the Internal Revenue Service in the 1980's before today's e-File.
After Lee's death on May 01, 1980, he began retirement that included his second marriage in 1983 to Janice Slagle, a Nurse Manager at the Hershey Medical Center. They enjoyed travel across the country, children's marriages, twenty-three grandchildren and twenty great-grandchildren and, a new hobby with pleasure boats on the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay.
Support to Catholic education also was central to Vince's belief of a better future.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his first wife: Lee; his grandson: Matthew; his daughter-in-law: Lynn; his son-in-law: Bradford; his sister: Catharine Mary; his maternal grandparents from Ireland with whom he was close as a young boy; his six maternal aunts and uncles; and, his seven paternal aunts and uncles.
Surviving are Vince's wife of thirty-seven years: Janice; his daughters: M. Kathy (Lieutenant Colonel (Ret) James) Filson of Boca Raton, Florida, Jean (James) Walmer of Three Springs, Patricia Ellermann of Lakeland, Florida, Sharon (Elvin) Shilling of Fredericksburg; his step-daughter: Kimberly Holmes of Elizabethtown; his sons: Vincent (Susan) of San Rafael, California, Warrant Officer 2 (Retired) Dennis of San Angelo, Texas, Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Stephan (Jan) of Gettysburg, Martin (Nancy) of Gloucster, Ohio, and Timothy (Kathleen) of Middletown; also married are sixteen of his twenty-three grandchildren who have twenty of his great-grandchildren living around the country.
There will be a visitation in the Hoover Funeral and Crematory, 88 Lucy Ave. in Hershey on Friday, November 13, 2020 from 10:00 - 11:00 AM. Mass and Christian Burial will follow at 11:30 AM in St Joan of Arc Catholic Church, 359 W. Areba Avenue, Hershey (where Vince and family attended for fifty-eight years).
Burial will follow in Indiantown Gap National Cemetery.
Hoover Funeral Home, Hershey
LT COL US AIR FORCE
WORLD WAR II, KOREA, VIETNAM
He was born November 29, 1918 in Minersville, Schuylkill County, to Benjamin C. Lewis, a coal miner and Margaret L. (Brown) Lewis at their family home on Schaeffers Hill.
Vince, 2nd generation Irish, attended St Vincent's Primary School in Minersville and graduated from St Patrick's Catholic High School (now Nativity Blessed Virgin Mary), in Pottsville in May 1937.
After school, he worked as a Truck Driver in the coal mines and on the Pennsylvania Turnpike tunnels before enlisting in the U.S. Army in October 1940 - before World War II was declared.
Vince was a career U.S. Air Force Officer and Pilot as he initially joined to become a Fighter Pilot. After earning his Army Air Corps Aviator's wings in 1943, he was assigned instead to heavy bombers and became qualified on the Consolidated B-24 Liberator multi-engine heavy bomber.
He earned Command Pilot's wings in the 485th Bomber (HVY) Group, 15th Air Force in World War II as he participated from Tunisia, North Africa in the invasion of Italy in March 1944 and the D-Day Normandy invasion in June 1944.
Flying out of Verona, Italy Air Base on July 20, 1944, on his 33rd combat air mission over enemy lines, his 'Briny Marlyn' B-24 (Air Formation name 'Blue Echo') was shot down by Messerschmitt Bf 109's over Conegliano, Italy. Vince was injured, but kept flying the severely damaged B-24 and he was the last of his 10-man crew to bail out. For these actions, he received the Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross medals.
For the next five months, he led his crew, and other Allied military personnel, to escape through enemy positions out of Italy and Yugoslavia. Finally, they were rescued by a night-flight back to safety at Barrie, Italy Air Base.
Vince or 'VP' returned to Denver, Colorado, before Victory in Europe (VE) Day in 1945, where he married 2nd Lieutenant Miriam 'Lee' Savage, a U.S. Army Nurse from Fayetteville, Brown County, Ohio.
After a 25 year U.S. Air Force career as a highly-decorated pilot and veteran with tours in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Alaska, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Virginia and an overseas tour in Tokyo, Japan, he, Lee and their nine children eventually retired at Olmsted Air Force Base in Middletown on May 01, 1965 - the same base where he enlisted years earlier.
Vince completed a second career at New Cumberland Army Depot in 1981 as Chief of the Catalog Data Activity, which kept track digitally of all Department of Defense replacement parts. His knowledge of computers resulted in his self-taught Basic Programming skills - even filing his tax returns directly to the Internal Revenue Service in the 1980's before today's e-File.
After Lee's death on May 01, 1980, he began retirement that included his second marriage in 1983 to Janice Slagle, a Nurse Manager at the Hershey Medical Center. They enjoyed travel across the country, children's marriages, twenty-three grandchildren and twenty great-grandchildren and, a new hobby with pleasure boats on the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay.
Support to Catholic education also was central to Vince's belief of a better future.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his first wife: Lee; his grandson: Matthew; his daughter-in-law: Lynn; his son-in-law: Bradford; his sister: Catharine Mary; his maternal grandparents from Ireland with whom he was close as a young boy; his six maternal aunts and uncles; and, his seven paternal aunts and uncles.
Surviving are Vince's wife of thirty-seven years: Janice; his daughters: M. Kathy (Lieutenant Colonel (Ret) James) Filson of Boca Raton, Florida, Jean (James) Walmer of Three Springs, Patricia Ellermann of Lakeland, Florida, Sharon (Elvin) Shilling of Fredericksburg; his step-daughter: Kimberly Holmes of Elizabethtown; his sons: Vincent (Susan) of San Rafael, California, Warrant Officer 2 (Retired) Dennis of San Angelo, Texas, Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Stephan (Jan) of Gettysburg, Martin (Nancy) of Gloucster, Ohio, and Timothy (Kathleen) of Middletown; also married are sixteen of his twenty-three grandchildren who have twenty of his great-grandchildren living around the country.
There will be a visitation in the Hoover Funeral and Crematory, 88 Lucy Ave. in Hershey on Friday, November 13, 2020 from 10:00 - 11:00 AM. Mass and Christian Burial will follow at 11:30 AM in St Joan of Arc Catholic Church, 359 W. Areba Avenue, Hershey (where Vince and family attended for fifty-eight years).
Burial will follow in Indiantown Gap National Cemetery.
Hoover Funeral Home, Hershey
LT COL US AIR FORCE
WORLD WAR II, KOREA, VIETNAM
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