Monument in Kansas farmland honors NJ airman killed there during WWII – NorthJersey.com

A ship built during WWII was intentionally sunk to be part of an artificial reef 26 miles off the coast of Cape May.

A granite monument in the farmlands of Kansas has revived a forgotten history for the descendants of one of Lyndhursts favorite sons.

Dedicated Saturday afternoonoutside of Hill City, Kansas just north of small town called Bogue, the oversize tombstone pays tribute to Lt. Paul Capaccio and five other U.S. Army airmen. The six died roughly one mile north on Feb. 2, 1943, when they hit amassive storm in their B-17and crashedinto a pasture.

Capaccio, 25, his fellow crewman and the one passenger were among thousands of airmen to die in training and transport during World War II. Often, they are the forgotten losses from the nations largest collective effort.

Ariana Pelosci, Capaccios 21-year-old great niece from Hamilton, said even in her own familyhisstory had been a bit of a mystery.

The monument created and the research completed by locals in Kansas, unearthed an entire family story that my mom or uncles hadn't heard about, Pelosci said.

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Paul Capaccio was a standout athlete at Lyndhurst High School, where a memorial athletic award was named in his honor.(Photo: Courtesy of Ariana Pelosci)

Mike Boss, a 69-year-old artist from Hill City, said the story has long captivated his community. One of the main driving forces behind the monument,Loren Johnson, wasamong those who first arrived at the crash scene nearly 80 years ago, he said.

Boss first heard Capaccio's story in high school. in November 2018 he renewed his interest in the local history andwas determined to honor the six soldiers with a monument.

I had been told that that crash was so bad that they had to pick those guys up in bushel baskets, Boss said. And I just said, OK by God thats it. They deserve more than this.

Details of the plane crash were few, said Shelia Blackford of the Graham County Historical Society. Wartime security tended to tamp reports of deaths during training flights or ferrying. Only a few papers published the wire report of a fiery B-17 crash that killed six soldiers in northwest Kansas. Even the local paper's report was thin.

Since it was a military plane, after the initial notification, our locals were not allowed access nor any more information on the event, she said.

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During the first32 months of World War II, the Army Air Forces reported 11,000 aircraft lost in the continental United States. Combat missions overseas accounted for 7,700. In the Navy, more aviation personnel were lost in training and transport than in combat, records show.

From December 1941 through August 1945, there were 52,651 Army Air Forces accidents in the states, half of which came during training flights. The domestic crashes killed 14,903 people, including the 1,757 that died during 284 fatal B-17 crashes, records show.

Capaccios B-17 was delivered from Boeing at the end of September 1942. Military officials registereditnumber 42-5105. B-17s 42-5102, 42-5103 and 42-5107 also wrecked.

Mike Boss (third from left) is seen setting the monument for personnel of the 100th Bomb Group from WWII with Ron Gallaway, Corey Johnson, Bob Saunders, Loren Johnson, Jez Rush near Hill City, Kansas in early 2020.(Photo: Courtesy of Mike Boss)

The news of Capaccios death made the front page of The Record on Feb. 5, 1943. The paper dubbed the 25-year-old Lyndhurst native a grid star for his athletic exploits on the football field and beyond.

While at Lyndhurst High School, Capaccio captained the track and wrestling teams and played football and basketball, The Recordreported. So renowned was Capaccio,the president of the senior class, the school started anathletic awardin his honor following his death.

After high school,Capaccio went on to Bergen Junior College, where he again played multiple sports andgraduated as the school's "most valuable man"in 1939. His next stop was Kutztown State Teachers College. He played football there too. Then, Uncle Sam came calling.

Paul Capaccio of Lyndhurst N.J. is seen in military uniform sometime i the early 1940s.(Photo: Courtesy of Ariana Pelosci)

He was only a couple of years older than me, and he willingly enlisted in this war, Pelosci said.

Capaccio joined the Air Corps in 1941. He made second lieutenant a year later. Just a week before his death, he was promoted to first lieutenant at the base in Capser, Wyoming.

The Feb. 2 flight was expected to take him and his crew on a new mission as members of the 100th Bomb Group, 350 Bomb Squadron based in Sioux City, Iowa, Boss said. From there, Capaccio was to go overseas in three months. He never made it past Bogue.

Military records show Capaccio and the other five men left the Army Air Base in Wyoming at about 1p.m. local time on Feb. 2, 1943. Capaccio piloted the aircraft towards Tinker Army Airfield in Oklahoma City.

The flight was expected to take five hours, but astorm likely pushed Capaccio north, Boss said.

More than four hours into the flight, Boss said the B-17 was roughly 125 to 130 miles north of where itshould have been. It was there where ithit what Boss suspects was the samestorm thatless than two hours earlierforced a fatal crash of a B-24in southern Trego County, Kansas.

"The guy who crashed that planecouldn't get above 20,000 feet of clouds,and that's what Paul flew into," Boss said. "I think he was trying to stay north of the storm and for whatever reason, he flew into it. I supposed he thought one way or another he had to deliver the plane."

Paul Capaccio is seen here as a youth with his brother Benjamin Capaccio.(Photo: Courtesy of Ariana Pelosci)

The Hill City Times reported that an eyewitness, Carl McKisson,saw the plane burst through the fog and into the hillside of a nearby pasture.

The 65,000-pound plane plowed a ditch 5to 6feet deep, 10 feet wide and about 100 feet long, according to the report. A resulting explosion spread the wreckage across more than a dozen acres.

Military officialsinitially identified the likely cause of the crash asice formingon the wings. Amiscommunication between pilot and co-pilot was also suspected.

Still,Boss said in no way should the crash be deemed thefault of the crew. Engine trouble may have been a factor.Moreover,Capaccio had a total instrument flying time of less than 36 hours in 1942, Boss said.

"They weren't trained for this," he said.

An Army Air Forces safety report after the war vowed to make changes to avoid heavy tolls on little trained pilots. However, it noted the accident toll was "the pricewhich had to be paid to achieve the air power required for victory."

Paul Capaccio of Lyndhurst, N.J. died in a plane crash at the age of 25 three months before he was to be sent overseas to combat in WWII.(Photo: Courtesy of Ariana Pelosci)

World War II pushed the Army's pre-Air Force air division to expand from51,165 to 2,372,292 personnel from 1940 to1944. The hurried expansion of theArmy Air Forces "was accepted as part of the cost of the war," according to the report.

The price those six soldiers paidis remembered in Graham County, Boss said, andis deserving of tribute.Pelosci said her family is overjoyed with the honor for "Uncle Paul."

In today's world, where so much is uncertain and where it can be a dark place, having someone do something like this is just amazing and it really brings hope, Pelosci said.

The six pilots killed in the crash on Feb. 2, 1943:

David Zimmer is a local reporter forNorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community,please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email:zimmer@northjersey.comTwitter:@dzimmernews

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Monument in Kansas farmland honors NJ airman killed there during WWII - NorthJersey.com