Missing in Action Notice

This telegram arrived at the Hanson home just fifteen days after Richard's B-24 was shot down over Belgium on April 12, 1944. For the family, it began an agonizing period of uncertainty that would last nearly two months.

The standard War Department telegram informed the family that their son was "missing in action" over Europe. No details were provided about whether he had survived, been captured, or was killed. The family would not learn of his fate until late June, when word arrived through the Red Cross that Richard was alive as a prisoner of war.