Remember...
Fred Thomas Hartley
1924-1945
"We must go forward to preserve in peace what we won in war."
General Douglas MacArthu
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Remember...Fred Thomas Hartley
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Fred Thomas Hartley was born on January 16, 1924, at Crooksville, Perry County, Ohio, to Oakley C. (1886-1954) and Ellen West Hartley (1892-1956). His draft registration, however, states that he was born in Corning, Ohio, another Perry County community. Fred had four older siblings: Nelda Margaret Hartley Bankes (1911-1996), Earl F. Hartley (1912-1998), Clarence J. Hartley (1913-1990), and Gwendolyn Isabel Hartley (1916-1920). Later, Oakley and Ellen added two more children to the family: Maxine L. Hartley Morrison (1933-2014) and Willard E. Hartley (1936-2002). (Information from Find A Grave, Memorial No. 6355748) Little is known of his early life, but the entry for Fred in Young American Patriots indicates he graduated from Crooksville High School and was a Protestant.
While his early life was spent in rural southern Ohio, the adult Fred Hartley took up residence in New Haven, Mason County, West Virginia, where he married Leota Yonker, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Yonker of that community, while on furlough from his military service. Fred and Leota had a daughter, Ellen Faye (married name: Green) in 1944. Apparently, he had been living in the New Haven area for some time, as his draft registration, dated June 30, 1942, when he would have been eighteen years old, points to the fact that New Haven is his city of residence. At the time, he stated that his employer was Arthur Jewell of Graham Station, West Virginia. On December 22, 1943, at Huntington, West Virginia, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, indicating his residence was in Mason, West Virginia. He was single, had four years of high school, and was of the civil occupation of "farm hands, general farms," according to U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946. He entered service in January of 1944 at Keesler Field in Mississippi. While he was single at the time of enlistment, he married Leota while on leave.
Corporal Hartley was branched to the Army Air Force. Assigned to the 93rd Bomb Squadron, 19th Bombardment Group, he became a gunner on a B-29 in the Pacific Theater of Operations. Authorized as the 19th Observation Group in 1927 and redesignated as the 19th Bombardment Group (Heavy) in 1939, the unit was moved to the Philippine Islands during September through November 1941. In April 1944, the unit was again redesignated as the 19th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy) and trained for combat with B-29s. It was moved to Guam during December 1944 through February 1945 for duty with the 20th Air Force. On February 12, it entered combat with an attack against a Japanese airfield on Rota. The 19th flew its first mission against the Japanese home islands by striking Tokyo on February 25, 1945. It continued to conduct daylight raids against strategic objectives, bombing aircraft factories, chemical plants, oil refineries, and other targets in Japan. The unit participated in incendiary operations, receiving one DUC (Distinguished Unit Citation) for its low-altitude attacks on the urban industrial areas of Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, and Osaka in March 1945. ("19th Bombardment Group," Army Air Corps Library and Museum website, accessed 7 March 2023, https://www.armyaircorpsmuseum.org/19th_Bombardment_Group.cfm.)
This would have been the time period when Cpl. Hartley lost his life. According to Young American Patriots, after a mission over Japan, he was reported as missing in action on March 11, 1945. Military protocol at the time meant that he would be declared dead a year and a day later. But another source indicates that he was indeed not missing. U.S. Hospital Admission Files, 1942-1954, show his admission in March of 1945 but state that he was "not in medical installation prior to death." In other words, Fred was killed in action.
Cpl. Hartley's remains were returned to the States in 1950, and services were held at the Evangelical United Brethren Church in Corning, Ohio, where he had spent much of his young life. He was buried at the Oakfield Cemetery in Perry County, Ohio.
Fred's widow, Leota Yonker Hartley, is listed in the 1950 Federal Census as living in New Haven, Mason County, West Virginia, her native county. Although no record of a subsequent marriage was found when preparing this article, a posting for Fred on Find A Grave indicates that she remarried to a Kennedy. Leota died in 2004.
Article prepared by Patricia Richards McClure
March 2023
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.