Howard Bollerud

Howard Bollerud enlisted into the US Army Air Forces in 1942 while studying at UW-Madison. He was called into active service on June 29, 1943. Bollerud was selected for aviation training and sent to San Marcos Army Airfield in Texas. He completed training as a navigator in May 1944 and was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant. Lieutenant Bollerud was deployed to India, where he accumulated over 200 combat hours flying over the infamous "Hump" in the eastern Himalayas. In April 1945, he was promoted to 1st lieutenant and awarded the Air Medal. On his 21st birthday, in 1945, he was sent to a new base on Tinian Island. Bollerud and his crew departed on their second mission off of Tinian on May 26, 1945, to bomb Tokyo, Japan. While on their way to the target, they began having difficulty with the aircraft. Their last transmission was to tell the other B-29s in the formation that they had fixed the problem. Bollerud's B-29 "Mammy Yokum" then disappeared from view and was never seen again. The crew of "Mammy Yokum" was officially declared dead on May 27, 1945. Lieutenant Howard Bollerud is memorialized at Milton Lawns Memorial Park in Janesville, Wisconsin, as well as the Courts of the Missing in Honolulu, Hawaii.