Les Ventes, France "They don't forget" WWII Pilot

That was MIA to Wife here for years.

Normandy still honors American WWII pilot's sacrifice

June 6, 2012 - On this anniversary of D-day, we continue the story of one of the American soldiers who fought to liberate France from the Nazis, 1st Lt. Billie Harris. On Tuesday, the "CBS Evening News" reported on how it took Harris' widow six decades of battling bureaucracy to learn his fate.

But it turns out his death was just the beginning of an amazing tale.

It's now been 67 years since the liberation of France, but at Wednesday's D-Day ceremony in Normandy there was one woman who's still in mourning. In fact, until recently, Peggy Harris of Vernon, Texas, didn't even know her husband Billie was buried here. And certainly didn't know the story of what he means to Les Ventes, France.

Billie was a fighter pilot, shot down and killed in July of 1944 over Nazi-occupied northern France. But because of a series of snafus, miscues and miscommunications, that information never got to his wife. As far as she knew, Bill was just missing.

She waited, she said, "All of my life."

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A hero in death, at first they buried Billie in their local cemetery and covered his grave with flowers -- knee deep. Even after his body was moved to the American cemetery at Normandy, the town continued to take flowers to his grave, assuming he had no living relatives to do so. read more>>>

Another article at the CBS site brings us another report and video about this widows long search and especially the seemingly total lack of help from her elected respresentative who apparently he and his staff were stonewalling her while doing absolutely nothing to help in her requests seeking information.

For WWII soldier's widow, a 60-year mystery finally solved

5 June 2012 - Peggy was very frustrated. She waited. Months turned into years -- "and still no answer." Years turned to decades. So she wrote her congressman.

Wrote repeatedly, in fact, asking for any information about the fate of her husband. The last letter, in 2005, was directed to Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, who also happens to be vice-chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

In his reply, Thornberry said Billie was "still listed as 'missing in action' in the National Archives."

Billie's cousin, Alton Harvey, grew up with this mystery.

"Didn't feel it was right that he just went off to war and didn't come back - end of story," Alton said. "You need to know what happened to him."

So a few years ago, he decided to try and get to the bottom of it for Peggy. He started by requesting Billie's military records.

And that's all it took.

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So why then, as late as 2005, was Peggy's congressman still telling her that her husband was missing in action? Turns out, there are no records of Rep. Thornberry ever even checking with the National Archives. And if he had, as CBS News did, he would have seen it says right there - KIA: killed in action.

Thornberry didn't want to talk to us. And for her part, Peggy harbors no grudge.

"You have to learn to be forgiving," she said.

She's just glad to finally have an answer. read more>>>

So much for your government representatives, on our payrolls as well as their staffs, working for you the people. And back in '05 many claiming all this patriotism as they were sending soldiers into two more wars and rubber stamping those costs off the books to boot. I guess though if hands were greased with large campaign contributions the short time of researching would have been quickly done!

UpDate: The congressman finally {non} apologizes to Peggy Harris after the airing of the two above reports on CBS. Some seven years later and tries to lay blame on the network to soften any blame, with absolutely no guilt, to him and his staff.