Joseph C. GRAVES
Flight Officer - T-121464
b. March 11, 1919 - d. June 7, 1944

2nd Lt. Joseph Curtis Graves, from Amerillo Texas, graduated from Advanced Glider Training in the class 43-3 from Lubbock Texas.
Joseph was sent to the European Theater of Operations and assigned to the 81st Troop Carrier Squadron, 436th Troop Carrier Group.

Joseph’s squadron was tasked with flying in the Elmira mission; a resupply mission to the 82nd Airborne. Joseph would fly one of the 50 gliders the 436th TC Group would send into LZ-W, a mile south of Sainte-Mère-Église, in serial 32. The Landing Zone was nasty and Joseph was wounded in the leg but not fatally. He was transported to a forward hospital.
A fellow glider pilot reported on June 7th:

“On June 7th, our glider pilot Joseph Graves, in a forward hospital recovering from his injuries, was killed when the Germans shelled the building.”

J.J. DiPietro, Glider Pilot, 81st Troop Carrier Squadron. (Donald L. VanReken collection, Dover Air Mobility Command Museum Archives)