Staff Sergeant Alexander Triviz Chavez

Air Medal w/ 6 Oak Leaf Clusters

Alexander Chavez was born to Mr. and Mrs. Epefanio Chavez on February 19, 1919. Raised in Las Cruces, he graduated from Las Cruces HS in 1938. He enrolled at NMAMC and attended from fall 1938 to spring 1940. On December 11, 1941, shortly after the outbreak of the war, he enlisted in the US Army Air Force, training to become the radio operator / gunner aboard B 26 Marauder bombers. He was assigned to the 443rd Bomb Squadron, 320th Bomb Group operating in the Mediterranean theater. October 1943 arrived and with it the first original air crews assigned to the group were being rotated home. On 20 October 1943, his crew was assigned a different ship to fly, B-26-41-34912 "Ramblin Reck", because the ship they were normally assigned was not ready to go. They launched out of El Bathan Army Air Base in Tunisia for a bombing run on a railroad bridge west of Guardea in northern Italy. Prior to arrival on target the ship developed engine trouble requiring a water ditching 50 miles off the Italian coast near Giamutru Island. The crew was spotted in life rafts by the formation on the return leg. Despite repeated searches, they were never heard from again and presumed lost at sea. SSgt Alex Chavez was 24 years of age. He is memorialized at the Sicily Rome American Cemetery.