Army identifies remains of World War II, Medal of Honor pilot from Ohio
Last Saturday, John L. Baker gathered with family at the Coventry Township home of his cousin, David Baker, for a family meeting unlike any they thought would — or could — ever take place.
The remains of their uncle Addison E. Baker, a World War II hero killed in a bombing mission over Romania 78 years before, had been identified.
Two weeks earlier, the Baker family had been told the news, and now they were assembled to hear representatives from the U.S. Army tell the story of the pilot most had never met but all knew about.
Two nephews — John L. Baker and David Baker, now in their 80s — had known Addison Baker as young children. They still have a photo from 1941 of a family gathering much like the one Saturday, with their uncle seated as guest of honor next to his wife.
Their memories are as wispy as a fog over nearby Hower Lake.
But they kept Addison Baker’s story alive through the decades, passing along what they remembered and what they had learned through research.
“We’ve known about Addison our whole lives,” said New Franklin resident Mary Ostrow, David Baker’s daughter and Addison Baker’s grandniece.
Fifteen local relatives were at Saturday’s presentation, said David Baker.
“All the generations were here,” he said.
Search for DNA
Three years ago, the call from the Army came out of the blue. Could John L. Baker contribute his DNA to help identify his uncle? He could.
“I took the swab and sent it back,” Baker said. “They had another person they found on my grandmother’s side.”
Armed with modern DNA capabilities, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has been peering deeper into the past, identifying remains once thought unidentifiable.
“After they had done all their work on Korea and Vietnam, (they went) back and looked at what happened in the Second World War,” Baker said.
For months, he heard nothing. But eventually he found out that his DNA was a match for the recovered remains.
“All the points they checked … I matched,” he said.
The investigators still had work to do before the bones could be positively identified as those of Addison Baker. But they were back on the trail that had vanished for more than a half century.
Before the war
Addison Baker was born in Chicago, but his family moved to Coventry Township when his father got a job at B.F. Goodrich, John L. Baker said.
He went to school in Akron, attending Central High School. The family lived in a house by Hower Lake, and Addison’s wife later became a teacher at
Coventry schools.
Addison Baker joined the Army Reserves and went into the service in 1939, John L. Baker said. By the time of the mission to bomb oil refineries at Ploiesti, Romania, Addison Baker had become Lt. Col. Addison E. Baker.
“He had flown all of his missions (but) he didn’t have to go,” John L. Baker said.
That wasn’t the Addison way, however.
In a visit home during his service years, he made his presence known.
“He would fly in and dip down near the water,” John Baker said.
He said he still remembers an incident from his early childhood, one of the few memories he has of his uncle.
“I was walking up a fire lane next to the house,” he said. “I was halfway up.”
A plane swooped in and almost dipped its wheels in Hower Lake.
“I ran, I found my dad,” he said.
“Don’t worry about that,” his father told him. “It’s just Addison.”
Operation Tidal Wave
On Aug. 1, 1943, Addison Baker took off from an airfield in Libya, headed for the oil production region near Ploiesti, Romania. His plane was joined by 177 of the planned 178 bombers tasked with bombing an area that provided more than half of the German oil needs.
During his bombing run, his plane was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed, but not before he dropped his bombs on the target and avoided crashing into the other B-24s in his formation.
Survivors of the bombing raid said Lt. Col. Baker had an opportunity to crash land his plane, but continued flying with the cockpit on fire, leading other aircraft along their planned route.
“Even after he was hit, he continued to stay on target so no one could veer off course,” Ostrow said.
Of 177 planes and 1,726 men who took off on the Ploiesti mission, 54 planes and 532 men — Baker and the others in his crew among them
— did not return, according to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force website. Some accounts place the casualties and number of planes much higher.
Addison Baker was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously, and the award was received by his wife, Fran.
Back to the states
Along with other remains that could not be identified, Baker was buried as an unknown in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan in Romania.
After the war, the American Graves Registration Command disinterred all American remains from the Bolovan Cemetery for identification but was unable to identify Baker and more than 80 other unknowns. His remains were permanently interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, both in Belgium.
Lt. Col. Baker’s medals are on display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton.
At the meeting Saturday in Coventry Township, the 15 family members voted on where Baker would find his final resting place, deciding on Arlington National Cemetery. They hope his funeral will take place later this year.
John L. Baker said he never imagined his uncle’s remains would be identified and returned to the nation he fought for.
“We were shocked,” he said. “We thought they would never find him.”