SCHUYLERVILLE — After a long wait of over eight decades, the airman John Tarbert was finally brought back to his homeland, the United States, and laid to rest on Friday.
John Tarbert, a native of Port Deposit, Maryland, tragically lost his life during a World War II air battle over central Germany, known as the Kassel Mission, on Sept. 27, 1944. He was just three weeks past his 24th birthday at the time. Over the past ten years, a son he never had the chance to meet embarked on a personal mission to identify Tarbert’s remains and bring him back home.
John Elliot, now 80, was born just 16 days after his father was reported missing following the battle in Germany. His mother, Jenevieve, received the devastating news while she was in labor with him.
“My father was rarely spoken about,” shared John Elliot, a resident of Schenectady, a day before his father’s funeral and military services at Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery in Saratoga County. “My mother remarried, and my step-father adopted me. I was initially named John Allen Tarbert, but later added Elliot, dropped Tarbert, and have been known as John Elliot ever since.”
Attempts were made in 1945 and 1951 to identify the remains, but they were unsuccessful, as stated in Tarbert’s obituary.
Elliot confessed that he didn’t hear much about his biological father as he grew older. It was his son Paul and his daughter-in-law who sparked the conversation about learning more about his grandfather.
“The journey began in 2012 when my son, Paul Elliot, and his wife expressed interest in knowing more about his grandfather,” Elliot explained. ”They conducted some research, visited some historical specific websites, and connected with people who had information about remains that were recovered from graves in Germany. It was concluded that the remains that had been buried were likely those of John Tarbet, my father.”
In 2014, Elliot collaborated with the U.S. State Department and received approval to disinter and compare his DNA with the remains. The approval came in 2015, but the remains were not exhumed for another seven years.
This delay gave Elliot ample time to reflect on his father.
“I had a box in the attic that my mother had sent me. I seldom looked at it,” Elliot admitted. “I finally opened the box and discovered a lot about my father.”
John Allen Tarbert, according to his obituary, attended the Jacob Tome Institute in northeast Maryland, located halfway between Baltimore and Philadelphia. He was a football enthusiast, had a keen interest in journalism and art, and was particularly fond of pencil sketches.
He joined the Army on June 28, 1939, spent three years in Panama in the Signal Corp as a teletype operator, and later transferred to the Air Corp and returned to the United States. He met his wife, Jenevieve Judd, while stationed at Fort Lowry in the Denver area, and they got married on Nov. 4, 1943. He was trained in the gunner schools and was sent overseas in May 1944.
Elliot also delved deeper into the event that led to his father’s death in 1944.
He was directed to The Kassel Mission Historical Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the history of the Kassel Mission, carried out by the 703rd Bombardment Squadron, 445th Bombardment group of the 8th Army Air Force, 2nd Air Division, 2nd Combat Wing, which was based in Tibenham, England.
During the mission, 25 Air Force bombers crashed in Germany, two planes crash-landed in France, and one in Brussels, Belgium. Of the 238 men on board the aircrafts, 115 were killed in action or later died from their injuries.
The aircraft Tarbert, a waist gunner on a B-24 Liberator, was on was shot down and crashed near Ochlendung near Mayen, Germany, as per his obituary. His remains were buried as an unknown airman in the cemetery at Bassenheim, District of Mayen.
Elliott’s DNA, along with his cousin’s, John Mezger of Carlsbad, New Mexico, were used by scientists of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System to identify Tarbert’s remains in May.
“The past few months have been quite emotional for me as I learned about the crew members of his plane and the circumstances of its crash in Germany,” Elliot shared. “He was on his knees praying when it crashed. I can only imagine what he was thinking. I believe they expected him to put on his parachute, but the plane crashed before he could.”
Just days before Veterans Day, Tarbert was honored and celebrated by his son and others at Glenville Funeral Home before being driven to Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery and buried with full honors.
“Knowing that he was a man of faith is very emotional for me,” Elliot said. “On his headstone at Saratoga, it will read ‘A man of faith and prayer.’ That is how I will honor him tomorrow [Friday].”
Agree with the sentiment of closure and respect for the family’s history.
profesyonel su kaçağı tespiti İstanbul Kadıköy’deki işyerimdeki su kaçağını çok kısa sürede tespit ettiler. Kesinlikle tavsiye ederim. https://www.redboxjobs.com/ustaelektrikci
Sanayi su kaçak tespiti Hızlı ve kaliteli bir hizmet, tekrar ihtiyaç duyarsam ararım. https://www.jaitun.com/100000000322