2d Lt Henry Pollard, Jr.
1919 – May 22, 1944
Class: 43-K-SE
Graduation Date: December 5, 1944
Graduation Rank: 2d Lt
Unit: 302nd Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group
Service # O-817592
Henry Pollard, Jr. was born in 1919 in rural Georgia to Henry and Pauline Pollard. In the 1920s the family moved to Buffalo, NY. Henry graduated from FosdickMasten Park High School. He became a local musician playing the saxophone and was a member of Local 533 (Colored Musicians Club).
He had enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces on June 9, 1942 in Buffalo. He was noted as being employed as a musician and/or teacher of music and single with dependents. After serving in the military police in Oswego, New York and attaining the rank of staff sergeant, Henry applied for and was accepted into the Army Air Corp.
He trained to become a pilot and was commissioned on December 5, 1943. Second Lieutenant Pollard was initially sent to North Africa and later reassigned to Italy. His military occupation or specialty was pilot, his service number assignment was 0-817592. He was attached to 302nd Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group.
On May 22, 1944, he died instantly in a plane crash in the “line of duty” of a non-battle related incident during the war. Henry Pollard Jr. is buried in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial near Rome, Italy. This is an American Battle Monuments Commission location.
Sources:
Historically Speaking – AAHANF
