Vernon Duncan
Vernon Walter Duncan (June 22, 1919 – March 25, 1945) was a U.S. Army soldier from Winfield who was killed in Japan during World War II.
See Also: Scott Countians killed in war
Biography
Born June 22, 1919 in Winfield, Vernon W. Duncan was the son of Walter Andrew Duncan (1888-1969) and Orlena Byrge (1888-1967). His siblings included Claude Chester Duncan (1912-1998), Ruby Braden (1913-1983), Golda Elizabeth Adkins (1914-2000), Blanche May Duncan (1916-1917), Irene Adkins (1918-1994), Zona Marie Duncan (1922-1923), Mary Alice Cross (1923-2012), Hettie Beulah Duncan (1924-1924), Jasper Donald Duncan (1926-1926), and Robert Curtis “Bobby” Duncan (1928-2016).
Vernon married Norma Mayor in 1944. They had one child, Donna Gayle, born in 1945.
The Duncan family dates back several generations in Winfield. Vernon’s great-grandparents were Joshua Duncan (1808-1890) and Rosa Sartin (1810-1878). His great-uncle, Oliver Duncan, was present at Buffalo in 1862 when Larkin Cross and Ransom Vanover were murdered by Confederate soldiers, but he managed to escape.
World War II
Lt. Duncan enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in June 1940 and trained in Monroe, La. before departing the states for overseas duty in December 1944. He was assigned to the 499th Bomber Group, 878th Bomber Squadron. He fought in the Pacific theater of World War II. He served as a navigator on a B-29.
While stationed in Monroe, La., Lt. Duncan met his wife, Norma Mayor. They were married in June 1944 at Baca Ritone Air Base in Florida.
On March 24, 1945 — just one day after the birth of his daughter — Lt. Duncan and the rest of his crew departed a base at Saipan in the Marianas Islands for a combat mission in Nagoya, Japan. The plane caught fire in the air and crashed, exploding upon impact with the ground. Witnesses said one man was seen parachuting from the burning plane, but his ‘chute failed to open. All nine men aboard the plane were assumed dead.
Aftermath
The remains of the seven men who went down with the burning plane were initially interred by the Japanese, and later reinterred in a group burial at Ft. McPherson Military Cemetery in Maxwell, Neb. It is not known which man bailed out of the plane.
A cenotaph for Lt. Duncan is at Walter Duncan Cemetery on Pleasant Grove Road in Winfield, where many members of his family — including his parents — are buried.
Lt. Duncan was awarded the Purple Heart. He is listed on the VFW Post 5669 Memorial Wall in Oneida, the Scott County Veterans Memorial in Huntsville, and the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial in Knoxville.
Norma Mayo Duncan never remarried. She lived her life in Louisiana and was credited with helping to shape state law and constitution through her role as a researcher at Louisiana Law Institute and as a staffer in the state senate. She died in 1993 and is buried in Baton Rouge, La.
Donna Gayle Duncan grew up in Louisiana, and died at the age of 29 in 1974. She is also buried in Baton Rouge, La.