Staff Sergeant Julius Cornelius Nord was born in Indiana in October 1, 1923 to Mr. and Mrs. Richard "Dick" Sweetman. He spent two years at Pensacola High School, Class of 1941 before enlisting on April 15, 1943 in the US Army Air Corps. He was trained as a machine gunner aboard a B-25 bomber and assigned to the 319th Bomb Group in the 438th Bomb Squadron. In mid-1944 the squadron moved to Corsica where it began bombing the railroad bridges in Northern Italy. Later that same year, they began attacking the railroad lines through the Brenner Pass that connected Germany and Austria with Italy.
On December 22, 1944, Sgt. Nord's bomber took off for the last time to bomb the Torreberetto railroad bridge. As they approached their target their bomber was hit by enemy antiaircraft flak and caught fire. The pilot nursed the damaged aircraft out over the ocean and toward home, but he and his crew had to make a decision to stay with the plane and risk it blowing up or bail out over the cold ocean and take their chances. They chose to bail out together while they had the chance. They all landed in the water, but none survived and their bodies were never recovered. Their names are now located on a memorial at the American Military Cemetery in Florence, Italy.
B-26 Marauder medium bomber World War II
Staff Sergeant Julius Cornelius Nord,
USAAC, KIA WWII 1944
Pensacola News Journal Article 1-19-1945