Lieut. Dennis J. Lacey was Returning to New Guinea on Cargo Plane after Rest Leave
Lieut. Dennis J. Lacey, 21 year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Martin Lacey of
900 River road,
New Milford, was killed in the crash of a cargo plane on which he was a passenger on Nov. 7 at Townsville Queensland, Australia, according to a telegram from the War Department received by his parents last Sunday.The pilot of a single--seater fighting plane in numerous combats in the South Pacific area, Lieut. Lacey was returning from a rest leave in Australia to take his station in New Guinea when the C—47 cargo carrier plane crashed. A graduate of
New Milford Junior High School and Hackensack High School, he left Norwich University in Vermont to enter the service in February 1943. He trained at Atlantic City and later attended Coll {Colbey} College in Maine, from where he was sent to Maxwell Field Ala, and then to Cochran Field Ga. He was graduated and commissioned at Dolphin Field Ala. last February and was stationed there until volunteering for overseas duty, when he was sent via California to New Guinea. Besides his parents, he is survived by three brothers, Sergeant James Lacey, who is with the Airborne Force in Arnhem Germany, Pvt. Martin T. Lacey, who is home on furlough from Indiantown Gap Pa., and Paul who is attending Hackensack High School, and four sisters
Mrs. Alice Demarest of Berkley, New Milford, Mrs. Mary Bessler, of Stockton Street,
New Milford, Mrs. Winifred Rausenberger of River Edge, and Mrs. Madeline Brown of Newburgh, N.Y. Announcement of his engagement to Miss Jeanne Arline Worster, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Worster of Paramus was made in April.
NOTE: I copied this article over so it would be easier to read. Although the word (Coll) is unreadable I believe it to be Colbey College. The cargo plane Dennis was on crashed on
November 7, 1944. This article from a local newspaper probably appeared between three to
six weeks after the accident. The article was obtained from a scrap book of Alfred Bliss who lived in New Milford and served in the Army Artillery during the invasion of Tarawa in the Pacific during World War II.
-Bob Meli-