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Remember...Edsell Neil Poe
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Edsell Neil Poe was born March 26, 1923, to Virgil Ona Poe and Ottie Lena Campbell Poe in Grafton, Taylor County, West Virginia. Edsell was the middle child; he had two siblings—older brother Roy Ona (b. 1921) and younger brother Norman Lee (b. 1924). Roy died in 1936. Edsell and his brothers grew up on Barrett Street during the Great Depression. Edsell graduated from Grafton High School in 1941.
Grafton was a railroad town (B&O), and Virgil worked for the railroad. He later became a deputy sheriff for Taylor County. Edsell briefly worked for the railroad before his enlistment in the U.S. Army Air Corps in December 1942.
Completing basic training, Edsell became a radio operator on a B-17 Flying Fortress. Then he went on to gunnery school. Because he was trained as both a radio operator and gunner, he was awarded the Combat Crew Badge and promoted to staff sergeant. He was assigned to the 32nd Bomb Squadron, 301st Bombardment Group. In 1943, Edsell married Lenora A. Ridenour; to this union a daughter, Edsell Jean Poe, was born in 1944.
Flying Fortresses were major players in the Allies' air assault in the European Theater of Operations. The crew of a Fortress consisted of ten men; Edsell's duties were primarily those of the radio operator, but he had his own machine gun "if the fighting grew desperate." Edsell was stationed in Lucera, Italy, when his plane took off on April 2, 1944, on its final mission. Their target was a German ball-bearing plant in Steyr, Austria. Almost immediately after take-off, his Fortress fell behind, but it is unclear why his pilot, First Lieutenant Calvin Miller, did not turn back. The crippled ship continued valiantly on, dropping their bombs on or near their target, but enemy resistance was more than the plane could handle. German fighter planes targeted the Fortress, which "broke in two" and fell to the ground. All ten crew members perished; Edsell was one of the four whose remains were identified.
Staff Sergeant Poe's remains were repatriated in 1949, and he was interred in the Grafton National Cemetery. He posthumously received a Good Conduct Medal, a Purple Heart, and the Europe-Africa-Middle East Medal. Lenora remarried to Charles L. Clark.
Essays from the National Cemeteries Project are posted on the West Virginia Humanities Council's website. For a more comprehensive biography of Edsell Poe, refer to the essay written by Jamie Eickleberry and Emma Mayle of Grafton High School at https://wvhumanities.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Poe_Edsell_Neil-USA.pdf.
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.
