It’s a time to be grateful for those willing to give their last full measure of devotion for the nation.

There are thousands of stories that can be told on Memorial Day. Every man and woman that has died in service to the country has a story that should be told.

A theme throughout those stories, though, is just how quickly one’s life can change. There is an obvious finality in death. But for the family of Lt. Arthur Lindell, Dec. 26, 1944, changed their lives, too; even if they wouldn’t know it for sure for over a year.

Lindell was born in Russell on July 31, 1924, the youngest of five children of Andrew and Delia Lindell. The society pages of the Warren Times-Mirror paint a picture of Lindell growing up in a small town.

First Lieutenant Arthur Lindell was just 20 when his B-24 Liberator was shot down over the skies of Poland in December 1944. Photo by Josh Cotton

In August 1940 he was to perform in a concert with the VFW Band.

“Also to be featured will be a trumpet duo from Russell High school. Arthur Lindell and Donald Branstrom, two members of the Russell band, will be heard in a duet number,” the report explained. “Lindell is a junior and has played with the Russell band for four years….”

The following June he was one of “twenty-three high ranking students in vocational agriculture” from across Warren and Forest counties selected to go to State College and participate in a Future Farmers of America competition.

“These students were selected for being the leaders in their respective schools,” according to the Times-Mirror. He was one of two students, the other being Norman Martin, to participate from Russell.

That fall when school opened in early September, Lindell was elected president of the senior class.

In November, his name can be found in the Times-Mirror when students from Russell High School toured the Times-Mirror office.

This was typical small town life in Warren County. It still is.

Lindell graduated as part of the Class of 1942 at Russell High School and enrolled in the fall at Westminster College.

By then, the United States had been directly involved in World War II for nearly a year. Lindell enlisted in the Army Air Corps in December 1942 and was called to duty the following April, reporting to the Nashville, Tenn. classification center.

He was 19-years-old at the time.

It’s an open question why he enlisted. Some responded out of a deep sense of duty. For others it was a grand adventure not to be missed.

For Lindell, a country boy from Russell, it took him to the skies.

After classification, he was stationed at Maxwell Field, Ala. for pre-flight training, according to the Times-Mirror. From there, he went to two bases in Arkansas for basic instruction and advanced training after which he received his pilot’s wings and commission as a second lieutenant in March 1944.

From there he went to Smyrna, Tenn. for additional training, including how to fly four-engine airplanes.

The Times-Mirror noted in May 31, 1944 that “Lieut. Arthur Lindell from Camp Smyrna, Tenn. spent a ten-day furlough with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Lindell. He left Saturday for camp at Lincoln, Nebraska.

Little did he, his parents or his family know that this was quite likely the last time he would be at home.

After several more months of training, he was assigned his B-24 Liberator crew at Topeka, Kansas, flying to Newport News, Va. where he left for Europe on Oct. 13, 1944.

His was a crew of nine. Merging together a couple sources, we know that 2nd Lt. Avery Gilliland was Lindell’s co-pilot abut the B-24 known as “Butch.” The navigator was 2nd. Lt. Howard Boslow, Sgt. Alex Abramovich was the left waist gunner, Sgt. Travis Burns was the upper gunner, S. Sgt Joseph F. Lajkowicz was the nose gunner, Sgt. Joseph D. Ryan was the right waist gunner, Sgt. Michael C. Papadopulos was the tail gunner and, below the plane, was ball turret gunner Sgt. Myron Yaw of Athens County, Ohio.

Times-Mirror readers learned on Jan. 3, 1945 that Lindell’s parents had “received word from their son, Arthur E. Lindell, that he has been promoted from second to first lieutenant. He is serving as a pilot somewhere in the European theatre.”

Little did they know, though, that Lindell had been dead for over a week by the time that report was published.

The Titusville Herald appears to have been first to report that Lindell was “missing over Germany since Dec. 26.”

It would take a year before the Lindell family received word that Arthur “was presumably killed in action,” according to an article announcing the news in Jan. 2, 1946.

“Final word has been received from the War Department by Mrs. and Mrs. Andrew Lindell, Russell, that 1st Lt. Arthur E. Lindell was presumably killed in action at Bleckhammer, Germany, on Dec. 26, 1944. Accordingly, an official finding of death has been recorded,” the report said.

“Arriving in Italy, he was assigned to fly combat missions with a B-24 Liberator Group. He was a member of a veteran group which took part in air attacks that pounded Balkan targets. On December 21, 1933, he received his promotion to first lieutenant.”

Five days later, his plane was shot down over Poland in a combat mission that bombed Bleckhammer, Germany. The target included Nazi chemical plants in the area.

From the Times-Mirror: “The plane was struck by flak over the target, broke in two, and crashed. A flash, when it struck the ground, indicated it had exploded. No report on file in the War department indicates that any crew member bailed out and no crew member is presumed to have survived.”

Lindell was just 20 years old.

According to a description at honorstates.org, Lindell was part of the 828th Bomber Squadron, 485th Bomber Group.

“Their mission,” that site explaines, “was to bomb the synthetic oil refinery at Blechhammer, Germany. Approximately one minute after bombs away, flak made a direct hit on their airplane. It broke in half and started to spin to earth. No parachutes were seen and all nine crew were missing and killed.”

Lindell’s name is listed in a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency report as one of the “service personnel not recovered following WW II.”

From the Jan. 10, 1946 Times-Mirror: “A memorial service for Lt. Arthur E. Lindell will be held at three o’clock Sunday afternoon, January 13, in the Russell Methodist church. Friends are asked to kindly omit sending of flowers.”

In many instances, that might be where the story ends.

But as recently as 2019, a group of airplane modelmakers held an event near where “Butch” went down.

“In Kedzierzyn-Kozle, the Memorial of the Crew of Lieutenant Arthur Lindell from the United States Air Force is taking place,” according to an article from a Polish radio station translated via Google Translate.

More from that article: “In the House of Culture ‘Lech’ in the Blachownia estate you can admire the modeling works submitted to the competition. The Memorial Chamber of the Airmen of the 15th United States Air Force and the memory of Forced Workers and Prisoners of War are also open to visitors.”

In addition to a memorial stone where his parents are buried at Pine Grove Cemetery, Lindell is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial in Belgium.