NY - The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

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Not the Randall Jarrell poem. And yet.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:

Body brought to Arkansas in suitcase identified as N.Y. vet of World War II

Police identified the body of a man stuffed in a suitcase, driven from New York by his caregivers and left in a Prairie County field earlier this month as that of a World War II veteran from New York.

Robert Brooks, 89, of Johnstown, N.Y., died of natural causes at his home in March, Lt. David Gilbo of the Johnstown Police Department said.

"He was a war hero who could have been buried at the [Arlington] National Cemetery," Gilbo said. "Instead, he ends up in a suitcase dumped in a field in Arkansas."
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Authorities found family members of Brooks in North Carolina and learned Brooks served in the military and was a gunner in a B-17 bomber's ball turret.
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much more at the links

CBS News, pictures:

89-year-old man found in suitcase in Ark. field ID'ed as WWII vet
 
Aww, my dad was a ball turret gunner; the runt of the crew always got stuck with that spot. This is so sad.
 
Aww, my dad was a ball turret gunner; the runt of the crew always got stuck with that spot. This is so sad.
Mine was, very nearly. During the Second War, in the Navy, he was in line one day to volunteer for the Air Corps when a sage old officer from his training days happened upon him, called him out of line, and sent him on his way, having also informed him that at barely 5'6" he would immediately perish in some ball turret in some nameless air fight over the deep and blue Pacific.
 
At 89 years old, he must have been in the tail end of the war. Just a kid.
 
o/t-ish trivia: In the Great War, the average English soldier was 5'5" and weighed 112 lbs.
 
At 89 years old, he must have been in the tail end of the war. Just a kid.

Yep, my dad flew missions throughout the spring of 1945 and turned 19 just before Germany surrendered. He would've been 90 now.
 
58c0eb3fab978.image[1].jpgScreen_Shot_2017-03-10_at_7.19.12_AM_t630[1].pnghttp://www.arkansasmatters.com/news...-farm-believed-to-have-come-from-ny/668871902


http://www.rivervalleyleader.com/news/image_2b9f4b4e-048b-11e7-99b0-b7b103476537.html

its truly sad to these cases all the time. when old people are jut dumped somewhere in order for caretakers neighbors or family to take advantage of their money house land and material possessions.. these are the cases that really make me sad.


PRAIRIE COUNTY, AK — Police in two states are trying to determine why two caregivers*of an elderly man allegedly stuffed his body*in a suitcase and then loaded him into a car and drove more than 1,000 miles from Syracuse, in upstate New York, to dump the corpse in an Arkansas*rice field.

Virginia “Ginger” Colvin, 56,*and*Michael Stivers, have both been arrested, Arkansas State Police spokesman Liz Chapman said in a news release.

Both Colvin and Stivers are from Johnstown, New York, but have relatives in Arkansas, police said.
Police found the body on Sunday at a farm in Prairie County, about 50 miles northeast of Little Rock.
Police have not identified the victim, who they say died in his home in Johnstown sometime last week, pending the notification of family members. A preliminary autopsy conducted by the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock indicated that the man died of natural causes.

Investigators are still working to determine a motive for the marathon drive. Johnstown Police Lieutenant Dave Gilbo told ABC News 10 in Albany: “We just can’t determine why the body was transported from here to Arkansas.”
Gilbo did say*that there have been cases in Fulton County, New York, of people trying to collect the Social Security checks of the deceased. He*told*The Leader-Herald that police were investigating the case as a possible fraud for Social Security payments or insurance.

Police said that the man was not dismembered —*since it was a “big” suitcase and the victim was*around 4 feet 11 inches tall, “he fit.”
Authorities have not given the location of the farm, noting that the death is still under investigation.
http://crimefeed.com/2017/03/why-did-this-woman-drive-from-new-york-to-arkansas-to-dump-a-body/
 
o/t-ish trivia: In the Great War, the average English soldier was 5'5" and weighed 112 lbs.

How tall were American soldiers? After the diet of the Great Depression, I can't believe they were really very large. WWII hero Audie Murphy was 5'5".
 
How tall were American soldiers? After the diet of the Great Depression, I can't believe they were really very large. WWII hero Audie Murphy was 5'5".
Not sure; all I can add is that my granddad was 6'3".
 
How tall were American soldiers? After the diet of the Great Depression, I can't believe they were really very large. WWII hero Audie Murphy was 5'5".

Back then American males ranked 3rd in height though I'm not sure who took first and second. Once they enlisted there were weight and chest measurement standards.

My WWII grandfathers and great uncles were 5'11, 5'9, 6'. And two (atypical for the times!) at 6'1. (They'd also both fought in the Great War as well.) Although my great uncle born to German immigrants was 5'8ish.

Interesting I can find "average size" for U.K., Japan, Germany, and Axis, but nothing definitive for American soldiers.
 
Back then American males ranked 3rd in height though I'm not sure who took first and second. Once they enlisted there were weight and chest measurement standards.

My WWII grandfathers and great uncles were 5'11, 5'9, 6'. And two (atypical for the times!) at 6'1. (They'd also both fought in the Great War as well.) Although my great uncle born to German immigrants was 5'8ish.

Interesting I can find "average size" for U.K., Japan, Germany, and Axis, but nothing definitive for American soldiers.

Here's something for army.

http://www.qmmuseum.lee.army.mil/WWII/tailor.htm

Data compiled for millions of inductees shows the following to be the actual measurements of the "average" newcomer to the Army as he appears at the clothing counter of a reception center: 5' 8" tall; 144 pounds in weight; 33 ¼" chest measurement; 31" waist measurement. From the tariff tables showing the frequency of size issues it is found that the sizes most frequently issued are a 7 to 7½ hat, number 9 gloves, a 15 shirt with a 33" sleeve, a 36 regular jacket, a pair of trousers with a 32" waist and a 32" leg length, size 11 socks, and size 9-D shoes. These figures may be taken to indicate the size of the "average American young man.

The predominant size of the typical woman soldier, as shown by the tariffs, is 5' 4" in height and 128 pounds in weight. She has a waist circumference of 26 1/2 inches, wears a 22 hat size, and a 6-B shoe. Instead of being the traditional "perfect thirty-six" she takes a size 14 jacket. The collar of her O.D. shirt is 13 inches, and her ankles are neatly encased in size 9 1/2 rayon stockings.
 
Back then American males ranked 3rd in height though I'm not sure who took first and second. Once they enlisted there were weight and chest measurement standards.

My WWII grandfathers and great uncles were 5'11, 5'9, 6'. And two (atypical for the times!) at 6'1. (They'd also both fought in the Great War as well.) Although my great uncle born to German immigrants was 5'8ish.

Interesting I can find "average size" for U.K., Japan, Germany, and Axis, but nothing definitive for American soldiers.

I've always heard that the Dutch are the tallest people, probably from an old Dutch-Indonesian friend who grew up in the Netherlands. He was called peanut by his classmates. I asked if the name came from his size or that they grow peanuts In Indonesia and he said probably both. He hated it and eventually the schoolmaster got the boys to stop.

This confirms it and with something on Americans.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36888541

When it comes to height, Dutch men and Latvian women tower over all other nationalities, a study reveals.

The average Dutchman is now 183cm (6ft) tall, while the average Latvian woman reaches 170cm (5ft 7in).

snip

Indeed, Americans have tumbled down the rankings. Back in 1914, they had the third tallest men and fourth tallest women on the planet. Today they are in 37th and 42nd place.
 
Washington Post:

World War II vet found dead in a suitcase gets the dignity he deserves

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Robert D. Brooks enlisted in 1944. Military records list him as both 5-foot-5 and 5-foot-1. [His son] Jay figures he stood somewhere between the two.

Brooks’s small teenage frame made him a perfect candidate for one of the military’s most dangerous assignments: a “belly gunner,” whose job it was to shoot from inside the ball turret of the B-17.
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The belly gunners wore thick coats to fend off frigid temperatures along with their oxygen masks. Only a layer of glass separated the gunner inside from the anti-aircraft fire below.

The job was considered a suicide mission.
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much more at link above
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