The Wrangell sentinel., 1946-06-21
WRANGELL SUFFERS FIRST WAR CASUALTY IN
 PLANE CRASH IN ITALY

Sad news of Wrangells first and only casualty among it's service men of World War II, was received here | this week when Mr. and Mrs. Louis | Paul received word from Delegate E. L. Bartlett in Washington. that their son, Louis Paul, Jr., was ap- Iparently lost in a plane crash in the Gulf of salerno, Italy, June 1.
 On June the Associated Press carried the following news dis patch:
 NAPLES, June 4-Deep sea div CTS joined a search today for the bodies of 22 missing persons aboard U. s. Army transport plane which plunged into the sea near here Sat urday while enroute to the United States from India with 3S returning '. S. military personnel
 "Only eight persons were rescued from the four-engined ship, which a survivor said caught fire in the air. The bodies of eight others were recovered from the sea after the crash.
 Army officials said the crash Oe- cured after passengers. trying to escape the fire. ran to the tail of the ship. throwing it into tail spin"
 Last Friday Mr. Paul received a wire from Mrs, Paul, who was in Bremerton, Washington, at the time. saying the War Department had in- formed her that young Paul had been missing since June 1" in Italy.
 Mir. Paul wired Alaska's Delegate Bartlett seeking more information of his son and Tuesday received the following answer:
 Dear MT. Paul:
 This letter, written in response to yours of June 8. is one of the hardest I have ever had to write. l have no good word for you have only tragic news.
 Your son has been a casualty of war just as surely as if he had fal- len in battle.
 He was lost in an accident which befell an Army airplane over the Gulf of Salerno near Amalfi, Italy. There were 39 passengers on the plane; eight of them are known TO be dead and there were nine sur- viyors Twenty-two are still missing and the War Department informed me today that no hope can be held that any of these are still living.
 The plane. a C-54, was enroute from Cairo. Egypt, to Rome on the first stage of flight to the United States. There was considerable space in the local papers devoted to the Iaccident at the time it occurred but the names of those lost and those rescued was not given. You will undoubtedly receive particulars from the War Department.
 "There is nothing more I can say 10 you but I cannot refrain from extending my utmost sympathy to Mrs. Paul and yourself"
 Young Paul was born in Peters burg in September, 1923 and at tended the Petersburg and Wran- gell grade schools. He graduated from the Sheldon Jackson School at Sitka and was taking a post grad uate course there when the war in terrupted his schooling. He was in- ducted into the Army two years ago. received his pertaining in Anchorage and served some time on Attu.
 Later, he was transferred to h. dia preparatory to the Burma cam paign when the war ended He had spent some time with his parents in Bremerton before being shipped to India.
 At the time of the plane crash in Italy, he was headed home for dis charge.
 Besides his parents, young Paul is survived by sisters. Mrs. Mana King, Mrs. Jeanette Grant, Gladys Paul and a brother, Richard
 Mrs. Paul and his sisters arrived in Wrangell this week aboard the North Sea and did not learn the tragis news until they arrived here