Anthony A. Kuzdrall
First Lieutenant Anthony A. Kuzdrall — Camden Courier-Post, 1941
First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Forces
Service Number: O-548608
Unit: 6th Bomber Squadron, 29th Bomber Group, Very Heavy
Role: Bombardier, B-29 Superfortress
Entered the service from: New Jersey
Died: April 16, 1945 — Missing in Action or Buried at Sea
Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii
Awards: Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters, Purple Heart
First Lieutenant Anthony Kuzdrall was a career soldier. He had enlisted in the Army in 1929 as a private in the Field Artillery. Given an opportunity to join the Air Corps, he re-enlisted in 1932 at Wheeler Field in Hawaii, and had been in the Air Corps for eight years at the time of Pearl Harbor. He was serving as a Technical Sergeant at Hickam Field in Hawaii when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Hickam Field. His wife Merle and daughter Irene were with him in Hawaii at the time.
Once conditions allowed, Merle and Irene Kuzdrall went to live in Lansing, MI. Another child was apparently on the way — a son, James Kuzdrall. At some point thereafter, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, and subsequently promoted to First Lieutenant. A photo of Lieutenant Kuzdrall was published in the Camden Courier-Post right after Pearl Harbor. Another story about him ran in the February 4, 1944 edition of the Courier-Post. At that time, he had written home stating that “he enjoys jungle life, but it lacks razor blades and scissors.” He is sporting a full beard in that photo.
Anthony Kuzdrall was awarded the Silver Star for heroism during the Battle of Midway, and the Distinguished Flying Cross for actions at Guadalcanal. On April 11, 1944, it was reported in the Camden Courier-Post that Lieutenant Kuzdrall was awarded the Air Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster for operational and combat missions at Guadalcanal, in a ceremony at Colorado Springs, CO. Mrs. Kuzdrall and the two children were at that point living at Colorado Springs. He went on to win two more Oak Leaf Clusters for the Air Medal.
At the time of his death, he was serving as a bombardier on a B-29 Superfortress in the crew of Captain William W. Watson, with the 6th Bomber Squadron of the 29th Bomber Group, Very Heavy, based on the island of Guam, and engaged in the bombing of the Japanese home islands.
Anthony Kuzdrall was survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Kuzdrall, of 111 Church Street, Atco, NJ; his wife Merle C. Kuzdrall; and children Irene and James; two sisters, Miss Florence Kuzdrall of Atco and Mrs. Elizabeth Sikora of East Berlin, NJ; and three brothers, Thaddeus M. of Berlin, NJ, Stanley Jr., also of Berlin, and John Kuzdrall, of Atco.
Source: American Battle Monuments Commission
Camden Courier-Post — February 4, 1944
First Lieutenant Anthony A. Kuzdrall — Camden Courier-Post, February 4, 1944
Camden Courier-Post — April 11, 1944
First Lieutenant Anthony A. Kuzdrall at the Air Medal ceremony, Colorado Springs, CO — Camden Courier-Post, April 11, 1944
Missing Flier's Wife Gets Final Word Of Death in Action Three Years Ago
Camden Courier-Post —
Confirmation Comes To Founder of Gold Star Wives Unit
By WILBUR MORSE JR.
Three long years of uncertainty have come to an end for Mrs. Merle Kuzdrall, spunky, spirited organizer and president of the Camden County Gold Star Wives.
In April of 1945, Mrs. Kuzdrall, who lives with her three small children at 4727 West End avenue, Pennsauken, received word from the War Department that her husband, Lt. Anthony A., Air Corps bombardier, was missing in action after a raid on Tokyo.
Shortly afterward came a more definite report. Lieutenant Kuzdrall’s plane had been shot down near Enoshima Island, and all but three of the 11-man crew had perished. Those three had been taken prisoner.
Prisoners Die in Fire
Months passed and new word came from Washington. The three prisoners, from Lieutenant Kuzdrall’s crew, had died in a fire at the military prison in Tokyo, but they had been identified. Lieutenant Kuzdrall was not one of them. He was officially reported dead, however.
Then, just a few days ago, and almost three years to the day from his death, Mrs. Kuzdrall received from Maj. Gen. Edward F. Witsell, adjutant general of the army, a final and full report of how her hero-husband had been killed.
After 128 bombing missions in the South Pacific, Kuzdrall had gone down with his plane when it exploded and sank in Sagami Bay, General Witsell wrote. General Witsell set the date as April 16, 1945.
Banishes All Hope
There was a finality about this latest communication.
No longer could Mrs. Kuzdrall, a dark eyed, wiry little woman, nurse even a faint hope that her husband had somehow miraculously escaped.
The flaming plane had sunk with all but four of its crew still aboard, General Witsell wrote. These four had parachuted from the fiery B-29, the three who were taken prisoner, and a fourth whose body washed ashore on Enoshima.
Mrs. Kuzdrall, a Michigan girl, met her husband in Honolulu in 1940, when she went there as a civilian employe of the Air Corps. Kuzdrall was a master sergeant, then. He’d been in the Regular Army since 1929.
Meet at Dance
They met at a serviceman’s dance and were married some months later.
When Pearl Harbor Day came, they were living at Hickham Field, one of the targets of the Jap raid on that “day of infamy.”
The Kuzdrall’s house was hit but neither of them injured.
Shortly afterwards, Kuzdrall was commissioned and soon was off for the battle of Midway. After 118 missions, he returned to the States as an instructor, but in 1945, he was ordered back to the South Pacific where he completed 10 more missions before the fatal raid on April 16.
Wins Many Decorations
In those 128 missions, Lieutenant Kuzdrall won a number of decorations; the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with three clusters and two Presidential citations.
When her husband was reported killed, Mrs. Kuzdrall came to New Jersey to live, near her husband’s folks in Atco. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Kuzdrall, a sister, Florence, and a brother, John live there. Two other brothers, Thaddeus and Stanley Jr., live in Berlin and another sister, Mrs. Frank Sikora, resides in East Riverton.
It was last fall, that Mrs. Kuzdrall undertook to organize a Camden county chapter of the Gold Star Wives.
Difficult for Widows
“The role of the war widow is a difficult thing to understand,“ she says. ”Many people think the government has taken care of us very generously. As a matter of fact, many war widows, with children, find it very hard to live on the small pension they are granted.
“That is one of the things the Gold Star Wives, in their national organization, are trying to remedy. We are working to win medical and dental care for the widows and children and educational advantages for our children.
“But it is not just the material aid the Gold Star Wives as an organization offers. It fills a big empty space in many women’s lives, in its social contacts.”
Organizes Unit
When she read about the work the Gold Star Wives were doing in other communities, Mrs. Kuzdrall decided there should be a chapter in South Jersey.
Singlehandedly she undertook to gather the war widows of this area together in a unit. A charter was granted by the national group and from a handful of six original members, the chapter has grown to more than 30, with new applications being received at every semi-monthly meeting in city hall.
The Gold Star Wives, under Mrs. Kuzdrall’s energetic leadership, have held several successful benefits, a card party, a rummage sale, and sponsored a concert.
ANTHONY A. KUZDRALL
Mrs. Merle Kuzdrall
Charter Members at Meeting of Gold Star Wives
Camden Courier-Post —
WHEN THE Camden County Chapter of Gold Star Wives of War II, organized Monday night, these charter members attended. Seated from left to right are Mrs. Caroline Simone, Mt. Ephraim; Mrs. Marion Rhinnes, Audubon; Mrs. Merle Kuzdrall, Merchantville, and Mrs. Lucille Hernandez and Mrs. Gertrude Fay, both of Westmont. Standing, from left to right, are Mrs. Sallie H. Oswald, Camden; Mrs. Lillian A. Lockwood and Mrs. Dorothy M. Ware, both of Haddonfield; Mrs. Katherine Palmer, Camden, an honorary member; Mrs. Agnes Keane, Pennsauken; Mrs. Ruth Hartline and Mrs. Margaret Murray, both of Camden, and Mrs. Evelyn Rock, Audubon. Mrs. Kuzdrall, organizer of the group, was named temporary president. This is the first chapter in this area.
County's Gold Star Wives Seek Records on Kin of War II Dead
Camden Courier-Post —
The Gold Star Wives organization of Camden County has launched a program to find as much information as possible about the survivors of men who were killed or died in War II. Mrs. Merle Kuzdrall, Pennsauken, said this information is necessary to further the organization’s efforts to help war widows, orphans, and others who need service dead.
Plans are to establish medical and dental funds to care for those who are in need. “To do all that is planned, however, we will need as much information as possible about those who survived war dead,” Mrs. Kuzdrall said.
The Courier-Post will list the county’s war dead alphabetically. Survivors of those listed, and to whom personal letters will be sent, should write to Mrs. Kuzdrall at 4717 West Elm Avenue, Pennsauken, as soon as possible. — Camden Courier-Post, April 26, 1948