Staff Sergeant Garland C Alcorn, USAAF

Air Medal w/ Oak Leaf Cluster

Garland C Alcorn was born December 10, 1917 in Imboden, Arkansas and grew up NM on his family’s farm. He came from a large family and had nine brothers and one sister. In his teens he lived with foster parents, Mr. and Mrs. LP Glasscock in Hope NM, where he went to high school. He then moved to Artesia, which is where he listed as home when he enrolled at NMAMC. After graduating from Hope NM HS he arrived at NMAMAC in the fall of 1938 where he studied agriculture. He left school in May 1941. In January of 1942, shortly after the outbreak of hostilities he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. After training as a gunner, he was deployed overseas on October 15, 1943 and assigned as a waist gunner to the 332nd Bomb Squadron / 94th Bomb Group flying B-17’s out of RAF Bury-St-Edmunds, England. Less than a month later, on November 3, 1943, while flying on his 16th combat mission, his B-17G #42-31101 was hit by flak while on a mission over Wilhelmshaven Germany and subsequently crashed. Staff Sergeant Alcorn and seven of his fellow crew members died. After the war his remains were recovered and reinterred in Woodbine Cemetery in his hometown of Artesia New Mexico. He was 24 years of age at the time of his death.