USAAC 2Lt. Clarence Cecil Daw was born in Pensacola, Florida on September 20, 1921, the son of Charles Andrew Daw (1882-1935) and Amanda Josephine Bailey (1887-1955). His father supported his family as a machinist for the steam railroad until his death in 1935. Cecil and his brother Ray Kendrick Daw both graduated from Pensacola High School in 1940 and 1942 respectively. When WWII began, all six of the Daw brothers enlisted in the Army one by one. The oldest James Kenneth (1911-1957) enlisted on 4-30-1942 while his brother Joseph Arthur (1912-1965) did the same on 4-29-1943. The next brother was Reginald Otto (1914-1997) who left on 4-14-1945 and served during WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. Next came Clyde Andrew (1918-1968) who was the first to enlist as a radar operator on January 6, 1941. And the youngest was Raymond Kendrick (1924-1981) who was drafted on March 11, 1943.
Cecil would marry Dorothy Margaret Sutton on August 15, 1942, a union that only lasted till 1943. In the meantime, after his enlistment on October 8, 1942 at Ft. McClellan, AL, Cecil left for Maxwell Airfield in Montgomery. Following basic training, he entered the aircraft mechanic school at Keesler Airfield, Mississippi in January 1943. Upon completion in May, advanced training soon followed in Laredo, TX and Gowen Field, Idaho. Cecil was finally assigned to the 753rd Squadron, 458th Bomber Group of the 8th Air Force. On October 21, 1943 he joined his crew at Tonopah, NV commanded by Lt. Harley T Gaines. When it was time to go, the crew flew to England where they were stationed at Horsham after their arrival on January 29, 1944.
Then came the big mission on March 6th, the first American air raid on the German capitol of Berlin! But for some reason, Gaines and his crew were told to stand down from the mission. Buy Cecil, their ball turret gunner, was to fly as a replacement on a B-24 commanded by Lt. Jesse L. McMains. When they arrived over Berlin, they were hit by intense flak and swarming enemy fighters filled the skies. Severely damaged, they fell out of formation and crashed 123 miles away near Uelzen, East of Munster, Germany. The pilot McMains, radioman Hoffstot, and top gunner Cecil Daw were all killed while the others bailed out and were captured.
Back home, his mother was notified that her son Joseph had been wounded in action in Italy. Then she was told that Cecil was missing in action and six months later her oldest was hit by a train and lost his right leg! Tearfully, Cecil's remains were eventually recovered and brought home after the war aboard the SS Haiti Victory along with five other Pensacolians. Today, Cecil lies buried in the Union Hill Cemetery surrounded at last by his family.
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