Funeral Of War Hero, Lost Decades Ago, Reunites A Family

Stamford Advocate - Stamford, CT, USA

Funeral of war hero, lost decades ago, reunites a family
By Allison Lowe
Hearst Newspapers
Posted: 11/21/2008 09:10:00 AM EST

WASHINGTON - Sixty-four years after his plane was shot down over Hungary, Staff Sgt. Martin Troy was buried Thursday with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery, a rite that brought together out-of-touch family members united by a common link: They remembered the tall, handsome airman who left Norwalk to fight in World War II.

Troy's sole remaining sibling, 90-year-old Julia Carvutto of Wilton - the youngest of the seven children in the Troy family - was presented with the flag commemorating her brother's military service.

"It's finally here," Carvutto said, referring to the long-awaited funeral. "It's something I'll never forget."

Troy's B-24 bomber was shot down by German Messerschmitt fighters June 30, 1944, over a swampy area in Hungary while on a bombing mission headed for Germany from an airbase in Italy. Troy was the tail gunner in the bomber, named "Miss Fortune" by its crew.

The crash site was identified long ago, but his remains were not discovered until bones were uncovered in Nemesvita, Hungary, in July 2007. DNA samples provided by Carvutto and her son, William Wilcox, confirmed the remains were Troy's.

As they came together under gray skies for the church service and burial of the airman who was 32 years old when he died, many of Troy's relatives expressed relief to see him finally laid to rest.

"It's just exciting to me that he's finally coming home," said Troy's niece, Carol Malley.

A church service at the small, brick Old Post Chapel in Fort Myer, Va., adjacent to the cemetery, was attended by about 30 family members, friends and military officers. The service, which included recitation of the Lord's Prayer and communion, focused on the complex emotions of gratitude and grief that surrounded Troy's unique return. It ended with the singing of "America the Beautiful."

The attendees then piled into cars for a funeral procession to bring his casket to its resting place in the southwest corner of the cemetery, where his grave will lie in a row marked by the cemetery's signature white gravestones.

Members of the group sat in two rows of green chairs along one side of the grave for a brief ceremony, which included a 21-gun salute and the playing of taps.

Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., and Jim Himes, who will take Shays' seat when Congress convenes in January, attended.

Shays, who has gone to several military funerals, said the service was special.

Though military funerals are meant to honor the fallen soldiers, Shays said, they are also a token to the family left behind.

"It's touching," he said. "It's amazing, really."

Carvutto said she decided to have her brother's remains laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, with military honors, because her brother deserved that kind of burial.

"It was like what you see on TV," said Troy's nephew, Benjamin Sugden of Stratford. "It was an honor to be here."

Family members shared memories of family dinners at the home of Troy's parents, John and Myra Troy, on Harbor Drive in Norwalk. Troy and his wife, Grace, who died in
1964, lived next door.

Malley, who now lives in Mansfield, Texas, recalled Troy as the "mild-mannered and sweet" uncle who used to accompany her on walks around the neighborhood when her parents wanted a respite from their then-5-year-old daughter.

Sugden remembered admiring his uncle's bomber jacket as a young child.

Carvutto, six years Troy's junior, says she vividly remembers standing outside as two soldiers approached the door to her brother's home to bring the sad news that her brother's plane had been shot down.

"In my mind, I knew right away," she said.

Troy's remains were submerged underwater in a nine-foot deep crater created by the explosion when his plane crashed.

Troy's remains were initially termed unrecoverable by the military's Joint Prisoners of War, Missing in Action Accounting Command, according to Joseph Jerome "Jerry" Conlon, 83, of Roaring Spring, Pa., a fellow airman.

In 1957, John Lenburg, another airman, began contacting congressmen and the Pentagon to urge them to find Troy's remains. Lenburg was joined in his efforts by another flier, Mike Brown, and, after both men died, Conlon took up the effort and "pestered the hell" out of the U.S. military to find Troy's remains.

Conlon made three trips to Hungary to push the effort.

In July 2007, Conlon was there when bones were uncovered at the crash site.

Conlon, who recounted the efforts to retrieve Troy's remains in remarks at Thursday's church service, said he was "happy in a muted sort of way" to see the ceremony come to fruition. Conlon said he never knew Troy well but "knew him to talk to."

"There were a lot of people involved in this," Conlon said, pointing to his contacts at JPAC and a Hungarian citizen, Nandor Mohos, who helped locate Troy's remains.

Troy's parting gift to the family may have been the family reunion occasioned by the funeral service, bringing together different sides of the family, whoÊ-Êthough most still reside in Connecticut - had long since lost touch with each other.

Malley said she hopes to bring the family together for a full reunion next summer.

"Even in death, he brought people together," said Janice Wilcox, Carvutto's daughter-in-law. "That's the gift of this."

"God works in strange ways," Carvutto said.