About
World War II (1939-1945)
Henry Escher Jr. was born in Brooklyn, New York, on July 1, 1913. After graduating from Princeton University, he relocated to the city of Schenectady from New Jersey. At General Electric, he worked in the aeronautics and marine division.
On February 9, 1943, Henry enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps. He was a first lieutenant serving with the 793rd Bomber Squadron, 468th Bomber Group. Henry was on board a B-29-1 BN super bomber on June 16, 1944, when it crashed into a mountain 200 miles from Cheng Tu, China, while on a bombing mission to Yawata, Japan. The residents of the mountain buried the crew because no one survived. At Fort McPherson National Cemetery in Nebraska, the entire crew was reinterred.
Sources: The Schenectady Gazette, Find A Grave, Ancestry