 Courtesy John Gyovai |
Remember...Jimmie Gyovai
|
| Jimmie Gyovai was born December 18, 1922, in Julian, West Virginia, the fifth of six children born to Steve and Ethel Pofoi Gyovai. Jimmie attended Whitesville High School and was a miner and mining machine operator at Red Dragon mine at Whitesville before entering the service. |  Gyovai family: Frank, Louis, Steve, Jimmie, Margaret, Ethel, baby Ethel, and Joseph Courtesy John Gyovai |
 Chimney Rock Mountain Courtesy Chris Riddels |
Jimmie enlisted in the Air Corps at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, on October 25, 1942. He eventually participated in USAAF training activities in Northern Ireland. On April 10, 1944, Jimmie and the rest of the crew took off from Toome Field on a gunnery training mission, his position being engineer/gunner. During the exercise, the plane piloted by 2nd Lieut. Howell C. Osborn Jr. disappeared into a cloud bank and was not seen again. Efforts to contact the plane failed. Later, members of the American 5th Infantry Division on a routine hike found wreckage of the plane, which had crashed into Chimney Rock Mountain. It was concluded that the crash was due to pilot error. |
Sgt. Jimmie Gyovai was initially buried in Lisnabreeny American Cemetery in Belfast. In 1948 his remains were returned to the United States and he is now buried in St. Nicholas Cemetery in Aurora, Illinois, where his parents has moved.
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.
