After 79 years, six months and three days, World War II veteran and Dublin graduate Noel Shoup has now been laid to rest.
Shoup, who was a 1936 graduate from Dublin High School, was considered Missing In Action/Killing in Action after his plane went down Feb. 28, 1944 near Le Translay, Somme, Picardie, France. He was the pilot of a B-17, on mission 114, his 18th mission.
The plane went down after being struck by antiaircraft flak, killing seven of the 10 men on board including Shoup.
He was laid to rest Monday, Sept. 11, on what would have been his 105th birthday, at Upper Greens Creek Cemetery with full military honors following a service at Greens Creek Baptist Church.
An Honor Guard from Ft. Cavazos (formerly Ft. Hood) served as pallbearers for the fallen soldier whose remains were only recently returned to the family along with his class ring.
In 2018, Shoup’s nieces Sandra Hammons and Brenda Baumert were asked to submit their DNA to the Army. The Defense POW/ MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) had performed an archaeological dig of the site where Shoup’s plane had gone down. His remains and the remains of his co-pilot James Litherland were identified and returned to their families after all those years.
Hundreds of friends and relatives of Shoup packed into the church to celebrate the life of the soldier and to pay their respects to all veterans and active military.
Baumert shared memories about finding out information about her Uncle Noel as she questioned her grandma about photos of him that hung on the wall.
“Those four small pictures hanging on grandma’s kitchen wall meant the man who I’d never met, was someone important in our family. Around the house there were other family pictures but that man’s picture was the only one who hung by the hall door that grandma passed through every morning and evening,” she said.
She was also shown a treasure trove of Noel’s things from the military – jacket, Purple Heart medal and many, many letters.
“We were told he would have been promoted if he made it back that day,’ Grandma said,” Baumert recalled.
Throughout her life, Baumert made it a goal to learn all about her Uncle Noel that she could.
“The more I’ve learned, the more I’ve been amazed at how one person could have so much goodness and so close to the perfect child and the ideal soldier,” she said.
Hammons also spoke in the service, thanking all of the military and veterans for their help in honoring Shoup.
“We say to all active military and veterans ‘thank you for your service.’ It has become as common as saying hello. Do any of us really understand what that service means?” she asked. “What the cost has been? How important that service has been to citizens like you and me? I hope to help us understand how meaningful that phrase should be to all of us, and how grateful we should be to men and women, past and present, who put their lives on the line every day in protection of our country.”
Shoup was one of more than 26,000 airmen who died flying out of Britain and one of more than 400,000 soldiers who died in World War II.
The casualties suffered by the 8th Air Corps were about half of the U.S. Army Air Corps casualties – about 47,483 airmen out of 115,332.
Hammons detailed Operation Point Blank, the operation Shoup was part of, that led to Operation Overload, which ultimately led to D-Day being successful.
“We must remember that in spite of the fact that two out of three of the airmen were casualties of war – either being killed, wounded or taken prisoner. In spite of the fact that it was minus 60 degrees at 20,000 feet and the airmen had to wear every article of clothing they owned along with a heated flight suit to endure winter over northern Europe in planes with no heating. In spite of the fact that crew stood on the tarmac to look for planes that never returned – losing friends and comrades. In spite of all of this, these men continued to climb into these planes and fight for our freedom,” she said. “Today we ask that you not only remember Noel but those 400,000 plus American who fought so you can have the freedoms we all enjoy.”