Richard Horrigan, M.D.
Remember...
Richard William Horrigan
1921-1945
"Time will not dim the glory of their deeds."
General of the Armies John J. Pershing
Richard Horrigan, M.D. |
Remember...Richard William Horrigan
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Although he spent most of his early life in Hancock County, West Virginia, Richard William Horrigan was born across the Ohio River in Steubenville, Ohio, on January 17, 1921. Richard's parents were Cornelius Patrick Horrigan (1860-1944) and Elizabeth Agnes Krause Horrigan (1873-1939). Richard had three siblings: John Michael Horrigan (known as Clarence; 1899-1985), Verna A. Horrigan (1901-1937), and Gertrude E. Horrigan (married name: Mrs. R. D. Watkins; 1904-1960).
| Richard graduated from Chester High School in 1938. He was employed in the office of Taylor, Smith & Taylor (pottery) Company until he was inducted into the service. On June 29, 1944, he married Dorothy Louise Conklin (1920-2007) in Hancock County, and they had a son, Richard William Horrigan (b. 1945). |  |
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First Lieutenant Richard W. Horrigan was inducted into the Army Air Corps on June 12, 1942. He received his training at Syracuse University and at Maxwell Field, Alabama; Lafayette, Louisiana; and Walnut Creek, Arkansas. He received his commission in May 1944 at Richmond, Virginia. He was assigned to the 36th Fighter Group, 22nd Fighter Squadron, 9th Air Force as a pilot. It should be noted that training to be a pilot during World War II was lengthy, grueling, and intense. It was not for the faint of heart. |
| On April 19, 1945, as World War II was coming to an end, Lt. Horrigan was part of an armed reconnaissance mission over Germany, bent on strafing the Alt Lonnewitz Airfield. Ten miles north of Muhlberg, his plane was shot down. The incident was witnessed by First Lieutenant John L. Reddy Jr., who stated: "On the 19th of April 1945 I was flying Lt Horrigan's wing, slightly to the left and behind, when making the last strafing pass on the airfield from east to west. Lt. Horrigan was strafing planes dispersed in woods while I was strafing targets to his left. I glanced out of the right side of my cockpit and saw an explosion on the ground. I did not see Lt. Horrigan pull out of his strafing pass so undoubtedly, this explosion was his airplane." ("Horrigan, Richard W.," Fields of Honor--Database, accessed 3 March 2022, https://www.fieldsofhonor-database.com/index.php/en/american-war-cemetery-henri-chapelle-h/43994-horrigan-richard-w.) |  |
But that is not the end of Lt. Horrigan's story. Fast forward to August 19, 2021, more than 76 years after his death. His remains had finally been located and recovered. According to a press release from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), identification procedures were as follows:
The American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) was charged with recovering the remains of fallen service members in the European Theater following the war. Because Alt Lonnewitz Airfield was under strict control of Soviet forces, they could not investigate Horrigan's crash. A German national was able to investigate on behalf of the AGRC in 1953, confirming through an eyewitness human remains had been seen at the crash. However, they were never recovered and buried. Because the AGRC was not allowed to investigate the site, Horrigan was declared non-recoverable in October 1953.In 2004, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, a DPAA predecessor, in conjunction with third-party researchers, investigated the site. It was approved for excavation in 2006. However, important site and logistical information was missing, and a recovery team was not sent out.
In March 2017, a DPAA investigation team returned to the site and located what they believed was Horrigan's aircraft. In June 2019, DPAA contracted History Flight, Inc., a nonprofit organization, to excavate the site. They recovered material evidence and possible remains that were initially transferred to the police in Herzberg, Germany, before being sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for analysis in August 2019.
To identify Horrigan's remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), Y chromosome DNA (Y-STR), and autosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis.
Horrigan's name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Hombourg, Belgium, along with the others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for. ("Pilot Accounted for from World War II [Horrigan, R.]," Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency website, 9 February 2022, accessed 11 March 2022, https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/News-Releases/PressReleaseArticleView/Article/2746344/pilot-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-horrigan-r/.)
Lt. Horrigan's return to his home state required that several factors come together, according to Justin LeHew, chief operating officer of History Flight, Inc. The end of the Cold War, denoted by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, meant that the American Graves Registration Command could search the area where the German national had located human remains as far back as 1953. In 1992, Dorothy Horrigan wrote to U.S. Senator John McCain asking for help in locating Lt. Horrigan's remains. It's unclear whether anything came of this inquiry, and further investigation did not occur until 2004. Approved for excavation in 2006, the DPAA investigation was further delayed to 2017. In 2019, the DPAA contracted with History Flight, which did the actual excavation and recovery. (Stephen Huba, "WWII Pilot's Remains Return Home to Chester," "The Review" [East Liverpool, OH], 28 May 2022, accessed 31 May 2022, https://www.reviewonline.com/news/local-news/2022/05/wwii-pilots-remains-return-home-to-chester/.) Meanwhile, the use of DNA to identify human remains was being fine-tuned, and Lt. Horrigan's son, Dr. Richard Horrigan, provided a sample that confirmed the results.
The narrative of Lt. Richard William Horrigan did not end with his untimely death. Dorothy had a young son to care for. Her mother and stepfather, Russ and Clara Davis, owned the IGA store in Chester, and young Richard regarded Russ as a father figure. When he was about six years old, the family moved to Arizona to avoid the Chester winters, but they later moved back to Chester to manage the stores, sans Dorothy and Richard.
When her son entered college Dorothy, who had attended Duquesne University for two years, went back to school and obtained teaching certification. Richard attended the University of California at San Francisco and graduated as an M.D. in 1971. When he was young, he and his mother returned to Chester every summer, and he has fond memories of the area.
Dr. Horrigan said that he had the option of burying his father in Arlington National Cemetery, but he chose Locust Hill Cemetery in order to reunite him with his beloved Dorothy Louise Conklin Horrigan, who never remarried. Thus, as of June 26, 2022, Lt. Richard William Horrigan will rest in his hometown of Chester.
Family information and photos provided by Richard's son, Richard W. Horrigan, M.D. Article prepared by Patricia Richards McClure
June 2022
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.