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WWII Pilot's Remains Found

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The Associated Press

Published: August 14, 2008

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Howard "Cliff" Enoch Jr. disappeared over what would become East Germany near the end of World War II, three months before his only son was born.

Six decades later, that son, Howard Enoch III, is getting to know his father while planning a funeral and memorial service for a man he never met.

"For 63 years, I had no reason to believe I would ever find out what happened to my father," Enoch said. "It's been remarkable."

The Department of Defense said Wednesday that it had identified the remains of 2nd Lt. Howard Clifton Enoch Jr. of Marion, Ky. His burial is scheduled for Sept. 22 at Arlington National Cemetery and a memorial service is being planned for Kentucky.

Lt. Enoch was a 20-year-old pilot of a P-51D Mustang, a long-range single-seat fighter aircraft, that was shot down near the village of Doberschutz, Germany, on March 19, 1945. Lt. Enoch's remains were not immediately recovered and the crash site fell behind Soviet lines when the war ended in May 1945.

His son, Howard Enoch III, grew up in Marion, about 66 miles east of Metropolis, Ill. His mother remarried and he was eventually told about his father's disappearance.

"He had never been there my entire life," Enoch said. "I virtually had no hope of ever knowing what happened to my dad."

Enoch, 63, lives in Framingham, Mass. He directs the E. Paul Robsham Jr. Theater Arts Center.

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