Marjorie Casper and Lt. Michael R. Rusnack at Hollywood's Bar of Music on March 7, 1943. There is a note attached to the back of the picture. It reads:
These wings I send to you my love
To keep my spirit at your side
Till I come winging from above
To claim you as my loving bride
MICHAEL
Thanks to Lynne's Lens and Hawk 914 on Flickr for this information on Lt. Michael Rusnack:
He was born in 1915, was from Beaver, Pennsylvania, and enlisted in the Army Air Corps as a private in December 1940 at Fort MacArthur, San Pedro, CA.
If the Michael R. Rusnak I found above is the same as in this photo, he died during WWII:
warmemorial.us/mediawiki3/index.php?title=MIC HAEL_R._RUSN...(2_LT)_WWII
I went to the Army Air Corps casualties site and found out that he was a 2nd Lieutenant when he died, and he's listed as DNB (died non battle). His brother or other relative (also from Beaver), John Rusnak, also died in WWII. He was a PFC and was KIA.
...a search for this fella's last name on www.usaafdata.com and found an entry for him which gave the date of the accident in which he was killed (June 27th, 1943) as well as the type of aircraft and its serial number. (B-25C 41-12493)
Then, using the serial number of the bird, I found THIS entry in the AAIR website's database... (the search page can be found HERE)
Looks like our hero was assigned to the 377th Bombardment Squadron of the 309th Bombardment Group, based at Columbia Army Air Base in South Carolina and was killed when his ship crashed about 18 miles East of Sandersville, Georgia while being piloted by 2Lt. Gilbert P. Johnson. The Action Code 'KCRU' indicates that there were fatalities (K) and that the aircraft crashed (CR)... I do not know what the 'U' stands for, but it may be something like 'unknown' or 'undetermined', as in 'cause unknown'.
If you go back to www.usaafdata.com and enter the serial number of the aircraft in the 'Details' field, (specify 'Contains' in the drop-down menu) it will list all six crew who were killed that day...


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