Staff Sergeant Julius Cornelius Nord Jr. was born in Huntingburg, Indiana on October 1, 1923 to Julius C. (Sr.) and Beatrice Reeves. While there his father was employed as a "chicken dresser" before moving to Chicago by 1930 where his father supported them as a shipping clerk for a caterer. His father would pass away in December 1940 but not before spitting up with Beatrice. She would remarry Richard Sweeting in 1934 in Chicago. His brother and sister stayed with Beatrice, but Julius Jr. came to Pensacola to live with his maternal aunt and uncle L. J. Reeves in Myrtle Grove. He would spend two years at Pensacola High School, Class of 1941 and was employed with Hardaway construction company before enlisting on April 15, 1943 in the US Army Air Corps.
After processing and basic training Julius received training as a machine gunner aboard a B-26 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 earning him his first Purple Heart. By fall of 1944 when the Marauder was no longer being manufactured and parts were becoming scarce, the unit began training in the B-25 while continuing to fly missions in the B-26. The conversion was completed by the 1st of November 1944. On December 22, 1944, Sgt. Nord's bomber took off from their field in Corsica 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.
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