Men from Gowanda still missing from World War II | News, Sports, Jobs

Private Carroll D. Heath enlisted in the Army in February 1941. He underwent training with the Signal Corps at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and traveled to the Philippine Islands in August. On December 8, Japan attacked the Philippines. After that day, military records listed Heath as “beleaguered status–” surrounded by a hostile force preventing escape. Heath became Gowanda's forgotten warrior.

Coming from a broken home, Heath moved between family members before living with his aunt in Gowanda for high school. Most of the students in the class had been together since elementary school. Heath did not have long-term relationships with his classmates.

In November 1945, the Army informed Heath's aunt that her nephew had died on December 31, 1941. Heath became the first soldier from Gowanda to die in World War II. On January 1, 1946, General Douglas MacArthur sent his aunt a letter announcing that Heath had died a prisoner of war.

In 1951, the Army classified Heath's remains as unrecoverable due in part to tropical conditions that ruined means of identification as well as the destruction of the graves by Japanese soldiers.

Rolland J. Luce

Gowanda's World War II honor roll did not include Heath's name for 69 years. However, his name appeared on a cenotaph in Manila. In 2015, a classmate's interest in Heath's status led to a series of Associated Press articles. The Army, after a June 2015 analysis, asserted that Heath did not die as a prisoner of war. However, in a change of heart in July, the Army posthumously awarded Heath nine medals, including the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and POW medals. With recognition as a prisoner of war, Heath's name was added to the database of the National Prisoner of War Museum in Andersonville, Georgia. On September 2, 2015, the 70th anniversary of VJ Day, Carroll Heath's name and photo were added to Gowanda's World War II Honor Roll.

Heath's classmate, Rolland J. Luce, enlisted in the Army Air Forces in February 1943. After a series of training missions in the United States, Luce went to China as a pilot of B-24 bomber in February 1945.

On August 6, 1945, Luce was a flight officer on a B-24 delivering gasoline from India to China. This B-24, nicknamed Poco Moco, lost contact over Burma. No crew members or aircraft parts have ever been found. The 308th Bombardment Wing's unit history had no reference to this flight, according to the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

A May 18 letter from Luce's girlfriend could have predicted his fate. The young woman reprimanded him for writing “if I'm alive” in a previous letter that Luce had sent him. Luce and his crew flew over an area known as the “bump.” Their B-24 is one of around 500 aircraft still missing in this area.

A military summary from September 25, 1947, described efforts to find the missing B-24. Fifteen military planes spent 79 hours searching for the bomber. There was no ground search. According to the report, the 1352nd Base Unit, an Air Force search and rescue organization, reached the following conclusions because no parachutes or survivors were reported by the Burmese natives in the area: “…The plane either exploded in the area, scattering parts for miles, or crashed in the jungle and is not visible from the air.”

The families of Heath and Luce provided DNA samples to the Defense POW/MIA Agency (DPAA) in case any remains were found. As of April 2024, there was no new information on the fate of the missing classmates. Tombstones across Cattaraugus County await the return of Heath and Luce.

Gowanda native Alan E. Mesches retired from a career in sales and marketing and became a writer. Now living in Frisco, Texas, he is the author of “The Flying Grunt” And “Major General James A. Ulio; How the Adjutant General enabled the victory of the Allies » both published by Casemate Publishers.