By Misty Cryer
United States Army Air Force Staff Sergeant John A. Tarbert was determined to be Missing in Action when his plane was shot down during World War II. Earlier this year, S/Sgt. Tarbert was accounted for by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, and a burial, with full military honors, was scheduled for November 8 at Gerald B.H. Solomon National Cemetery
in Schuylerville, New York.
John Mezger of Carlsbad is the nephew of S/Sgt. Tarbert. "That's my uncle; they called him Johnny; in fact, my mother named me Johnny after him. He was my mother's brother," Mezger said.
Documents provided by Mezger from his mother’s mementos say that Tarbert attended Jacob Tome Institute in Maryland prior to enlisting in the Army in June of 1939. He served as a teletype operator for three years in Panama, returning to the United States when he transferred to the Air Corp. When at Lowry Field, he met Jenevieve Judd, who he married in November of 1943. In May of 1944, Tarbert was sent overseas.
“John Tarbert was shot down four years before I was born, so I never knew him,” said Mezger. He said his daughter, who was close to his mother, had been actively searching for information on the Kassel Mission that Tarbert was on when he was shot down.
“An interesting thing, if you read about the Kassell Mission, is this mission lost more men in in just a few minutes than any other previous air battle,” said Mezger, referencing the Kassel Mission Historical Society.
A press release titled “Airman Accounted for from WWII” from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency dated September 10 provided details about the incident that took Tarbert’s life at the age of 24, along with information about recovery efforts and methodology used to identify Tarbert’s remains.
“In late 1944, Tarbert was assigned to the 703rd Bombardment Squadron, 445th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 8th Air Force in the European Theater. On September 27, Tarbert, a waist gunner onboard the B-24J Liberator Mairzy Doats, was killed in action when his plane was hit by heavy anti-aircraft fire over Bassenheim, Germany. None of the six surviving crewmembers reported seeing Tarbert successfully bail out of the crashing plane, which landed in a local hill called Karmelenberg near the towns of Ochtendung and Bassenheim, Germany. After the war, there was no record of the missing crewmembers being taken as POWs by German forces. The three crewmembers, including Tarbert, remained unaccounted for following the war,” the press release said.
Reading an account thought to be from an airman from documents of Tarbert’s funeral service back in the 40s and commenting, Mezger said, “The fellows called this mission a ‘milk run’ before they started. Their target was Kassel, Germany. The fellows got their equipment and their instructions in a usual quiet tension. They finally started their planes and, one by one, took off. In a short while, they were in formation. They reached their target with no flack and bombed their target—still no flack. They turned to return to England when out of the clouds came 150 Luftwaffe fighters; those were the German fighters against our 35 planes, which were the bombers, I guess. The first wave got all but two planes, and they were badly shot up. Johnny’s plane—that’s my uncle—had the outside motor on the left wing shot out that hit the inner left motor, which left just two motors on the right wing. They flew for over 40 minutes. It took all the pilot’s and copilot’s strength at five-minute intervals to keep the plane up. They were losing altitude and speed so fast that they had to bail. Six of the crew are back in the states; three were killed—the pilot, tail gunner, and Johnny.”
In the mementos provided by Mezger was a text from the telegram sent to Mrs. Tarbert from J. A. Ulio, Adjutant General, which she received in mid-October 1944. It stated, “The Secretary of War desires me to express his deep regret that your husband, Staff Sergeant John A. Tarbert, has been reported missing in action since September 27, over Germany. If further details or other information are received, you will be promptly notified.”
Mezger said Jenevieve Tarbert received the telegram on the day she gave birth to his cousin John Allen Jr., S/Sgt. John A. Tarbert’s son. “I think it is kind of sad that a woman has a baby; she’s in the hospital and gets a telegram that her husband’s been missing,” said Mezger.
Further notification in the mementos indicates that Tarbert’s death was presumed a year after the incident. A notification dated March 21, 1946, stated, “An official report, based upon information compiled from captured German records, has now been received which states that your husband was killed in action in an airplane crash on September 27, 1944, near Mayen, Germany.”
The press release states that unidentified remains were recovered from the Bassenheim Cemetery in 1946 and from the crater at the crash site in 1951. DPAA historians determined a “strong possible connection” between recovered remains and Tarbert, and an investigation team was sent to the crash site thought to be of the Mairzy Doats. Through the use of anthropological and DNA analysis, the remains of S/Sgt. Tarbert were identified, and he was accounted for.
“They don’t give up on trying to identify—whether it’s from WWII, Korea, or Vietnam. If someone is missing, they are trying to do all they can to find them,” said Mezger.
“When my mother was dying—she had cancer and Alzheimer’s also and was on hospice–she thought I was her brother; she was talking to me, and she said, ‘Johnny, remember when we were kids, and we played hopscotch out on the sidewalk in front of the house.’ I really wish that she would have lived…I wish she could have had some kind of closure,” said Mezger.
“Tarbert’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Luxembourg American Cemetery, Luxembourg, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for. Tarbert will be buried in Schuylerville, New York, on November 8, 2024,” the press release stated.
Mezger said he’s not fit to travel to go to the service in New York, but his daughter, Tracy Carr, and her two sons are going to represent his family. Mezger said he also has a son named John B. Mezger. “It’s going to be a hero’s funeral with full military honors. My cousin was telling me they are going to have a flyover, weather permitting,” he said.
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