Verona Heroes

05/24/2025

AFTER 82 YEARS, ANSWERS AT LAST

On the night of September 15, 1942, seven B-17 bombers departed for a high-risk mission over Japanese installations in the South Pacific. One of those aircraft, co-piloted by Lieutenant Robert Royden Wilson of 53 Forest Avenue in Verona, NJ, vanished without a trace—and for more than eight decades, the fate of Bob Wilson and his crew remained unknown.

That has now changed.
Recently, a logging company working in a remote region of Papua New Guinea discovered the wreckage of a WWII-era B-17 bomber. Investigators have confirmed it is the aircraft co-piloted by Lt. Wilson and his crew.

Human remains were recovered from the site and have been sent to Dover Air Force Base, where the Department of Defense is working to positively identify the crew members. Lt. Wilson’s family has been notified and has provided a DNA sample, with the hope that Bob can finally be identified and brought home.

Lt. Wilson was reported missing on his 24th birthday. He was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action just days before his final flight. He earned the Silver Star after his B-17 bombed 4 Japanese ships, and then shot down 4 Japanese Zero airplanes on the way back to their base. Now, more than 80 years later, there is hope for closure, honor, and remembrance for a hometown hero and his fellow airmen.

05/29/2023

The street signs around Verona honoring our fallen heroes were completed in 2015. Children carried a duplicate of the sign in the parade and then it was given to the families in attendance. There are still several families that have not been located. If you are a family member of a Verona Hero please message us through Facebook to obtain the sign. Biographies of each Verona Hero can be found at https://veronaheroes.wordpress.com/

05/30/2022

Private John B. Wands of Verona and the rest of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment “jumped” in behind N**i lines and took the French town of Ste. Mere-Eglise out of German control. He was killed in action by a gr***de on June 14, 1944, after eight days of heavy fighting while defending the town from a German counterattack. The nineteen year old Hero from Verona left behind a young wife and an eight month old daughter who would have to grow up never knowing her father. The movie “The Longest Day”, shows the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and Private Wands’ commanding officer, Colonel Ben Vandervoort, was played by John Wayne.

03/28/2022

Memorial Day 2015

06/14/2020

05/27/2020

Capt. David Quick Hammond

Four Essex County pilots were among a group of airmen in the Mediterranean theater to be cited by General Charles de Gaulle according to a release from a 12th Army Air Force B-26 Marauder bomber group. Commended for “outstanding achievement during April, May and June when the 12th AAF flew important missions over Italy.” The pilots are 1st Lt. James Ayre of Bloomfield; 1st Lt. Robert Borden, Jr. of Montclair; 1st Lt. Richard Dodelin of Glen Ridge; and Capt. David Hammond of 37 Upland Way, Verona. They participated in raids in direct support of the French forces.

During the three months when his group flew 2,000 sorties and dropped over 3,000 tons of bombs with a loss of only six planes, Capt. Hammond was a flight leader. He enlisted in the Army in December, 1941, and has been overseas since May.
-Newark Evening News September 27, 1944

Essex Pilot Listed As Missing in Italy Capt. David Q. Hammond Jr., Marauder pilot who received a citation from Gen. De Gaulle last Fall, has been reported missing in action over Italy since November 7, according to word received by his wife, Mrs. Sarah Underwood Hammond of 37 Upland Way, Verona. Operations officer of his squadron, he had completed 35 missions and held the Air Medal. A graduate of Montclair Academy, Capt. Hammond was employed by a New York insurance company before entering service.
-Newark Evening News December 16, 1944

U.S. Army Air Forces, 444th Bomber Squadron, 320th Bomber Group, Medium
Died: November 8, 1944
Buried at: Florence American Cemetery Via Cassia, Italy
Plot F, Row 14, Grave 8
Awards: Air Medal with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters, Purple Heart

05/27/2020

Specialist Alan K Taylor

A lifetime Verona resident at 37 Derwent Ave, Alan was born October 1, 1946. He attended Our Lady of the Lake School and Bloomfield Technical High School graduating in 1965.�
In May, 1966 he was drafted into the Army. After basic training he was stationed at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. His next set of orders sent him to Kaiserslautern, Germany as part of the 3rd Armored Calvary Division in October, 1966.��He was tragically killed in an accident in Germany on July 4, 1967.

05/26/2020

American Civil War soldier Walter S Personett of Grove Avenue in Verona, enlisted as a private on 9 July 1863 in Company I, 2nd Cavalry Regiment New Jersey. Died of disease while a POW on 1 October 1864 in Andersonville, Georgia. Andersonville National Historic Site

05/26/2020

Pvt. Benjamin F. Douglass of 102 Sunset Avenue, Verona, is still dangerously ill at Camp Dix. Douglas has had a severe time during the past three weeks following a trip to Jersey City that he made in the line of duty, with a particularly stubborn case of pneumonia. He was taken sick while there waiting the return of the officers whom he had taken to the city, and he was unable to drive his car back to the camp. They left him without procuring medical aid. That night he stayed in the apartment over the garage and was cared for by the garage man and his wife. He had a high fever. About three o’clock in the morning he received a telegram ordering him to return to the camp at once. He started out to do so despite the strong protests of the garage man and his wife. After his arrival at camp, which he accomplished with great difficulty at that hour of the night, he became rapidly worse, and two weeks ago the authorities telegraphed his parents to come to him at once as he was critically ill. The telegram was delayed twenty four hours in its delivery, which of course added to the anxiety of the parents. Mrs. Douglas broke down after one week at the camp and is now in a rest house near the camp.
-The Caldwell Progress Saturday, October 12, 1918

Funeral Services for Private Benjamin Franklin Douglas were held Tuesday morning at the residence of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. David Douglas, 102 Sunset Avenue, Verona. Private Douglas died at Camp Dix of Pneumonia, following influenza last Friday night. He had been ill about three weeks. The soldier was twenty-seven years old. He was born in Verona May 25, 1891, and resided there up to the time of his induction into service in June. He was a member of the Verona Congregational Church. Besides his parents, he is survived by two sisters and three brothers. They are Mrs. L. W. Jacobus, Mrs. Henry B. Roy, and David R. Douglas of Verona.

05/26/2020

Lt. Edwin E. Courter

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP)– The Grand Island Army Air Base announced yesterday that 2d Lt. Edwin E. Courter of 151 Linden Avenue, Verona, died Sunday of injuries suffered in a bomber crash January 26, 1945 near Fort Riley, Kan.

Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Courter of the Linden Avenue address had been previously notified their son was seriously burned in the crash.

Lt. Courter, 21, was a B-29 navigator. Born in Verona, he lived in Cleveland 10 years while his father was employed there. He was a senior at Balwin-Wallace College, Berea, O., when he enlisted in the AAF in February, 1943. He was
commissioned last July. He had been in the Caribbean area until his return to this country recently.

05/26/2020

Memorial Day is the one time each year when we honor and remember those that gave the supreme sacrifice for our freedoms. 43 Verona residents are among the over one million since 1776. Honor their memory by reading their stories in the attached link.
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An honor roll of heroes from Verona, NJ who died while protecting America's freedom

01/09/2017

In September 1944, after two years of suffering in POW camps in the Philippines, U.S. Army Lt. George Washington Pearcy entrusted his diary to a fellow prisoner. Now, almost 75 years later, the Library of Congress has acquired both men's writings and posted them online.