Staff Sergeant Earl E. Eiberger

SSgt. Earl Eiberger, 21, was reported missing in action over Austria on March 22, 1945, while he was making a flight over enemy territory. Earl was inducted May 10, 1943. He was trained in gunnery, airplane mechanics, and engineering and was stationed in Italy as a machinist-gunner on a B-17 bomber with the 15th air force. Eiberger wrote home with many interesting stories including how his outfit rigged up a stove fashioned from a gasoline drum and how he traded American cigarettes with an Italian peasant for a dozen eggs. Earl was the third war casualty in the Eiberger family when his plane was shot down over Vienna, Austria.