YOUNG, JR., Herbert V. (Buddy)

The Verde Independent, Cottonwood, Arizona Wednesday, October 15, 2014 PRESCOTT - The remains of 1st Lt. Herbert V. "Buddy" Young Jr., who was missing in action for more than 70 years after his plane was shot down in World War II, will be coming home for burial this week at the Prescott National Cemetery. And, the daughter who never knew him, Diana Young Long, will be able to, at last, welcome her father back to his homeland and bid him farewell. Born June 6, 1920, Young grew up in Clarkdale. He played football at Clarkdale High School and later at Arizona State University. He received his wings from Williams Air Force Base in Mesa, Ariz., an active training base for the U.S. Air Force from 1941 through 1993. He entered the service Feb. 6, 1943, and served with the 321st Bombardment Squadron, 90th Bomber Group of the Fifth Air Force Command in the Pacific Theater of World War II. He normally flew his own plane, but on his fateful day, Young was assigned to fly as co-pilot with another crew on the Hot Garters B-24D, because his plane was not air worthy and the Hot Garters crew was short a pilot. By that time, Young had flown 43 combat missions for approximately 300 hours. On April 10, 1944, Hot Garters was participating in a bombing mission in Hansa Bay, New Guinea, when the B-24D was hit by enemy fire and crashed into a bamboo forest five to eight miles west of Nubia Air Strip, New Guinea. The crews on the other aircraft on the same mission reported seeing five parachutes open from Young's aircraft before it crashed. Because no information about his whereabouts was found, Young, just 24 years old, was declared missing in action on April 11, 1945, and a Death of Missing Person was issued on Feb. 8, 1946, in accordance with a 1942 act of the 77th Congress. Of the five men believed to have parachuted out, only four were later identified as crew members of the downed plane, and these four were captured and later killed by Japanese forces. No information regarding the fifth man whom observers in the other aircraft thought parachuted from the plane exists. In an investigation regarding the fate of all 12 of the men aboard Hot Garters, the Adjutant General's Office determined that the remaining crew members and possibly the fifth parachuting from the plane perished in the crash, which caused an explosion and jungle fire. But, after waiting all of her life, Young's daughter, Diana, learned this summer that her father had been accounted for and that his remains would be returned to the United States. Young had married Zoe McLain, a Prescott native, two years before he joined the military. When her husband left for war, Zoe was two months pregnant with their first child, Diana, and stayed with Young's parents in Clarkdale. Zoe died in 2000, but Diana lives on to celebrate her father's memory. For his service, he received the Air Medal and Purple Heart. He is memorialized on the on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines. Military officials visited Diana in her Lake Almanor, Calif., home this summer to tell her that her father's remains had been located, and her small town immediately reacted by putting on a parade in Young's memory. His remains were to arrive at Sky Harbor Airport Sunday night, where he also will be accorded full military honors before Hampton Funeral Home transports him to Prescott. Young's family will celebrate his life and sacrifice at the Prescott National Cemetery at 2 p.m. Wednesday. Zoe's sister, Joyce McLain Peters of Prescott, her brothers Jack and Brad McLain, and the two sons of Young's eldest brother will be alongside Diana at the memorial service. Of her cousin Diana, Kathleen Yamauchi, also of Prescott, writes, "My cousin never met her father. As a little girl she silently hoped for his miraculous return with a story of amnesia or something. It was never to be. But now, at least, she has closure and the opportunity to put her father's remains to rest in his homeland."