Ray Alfred Millsaps was born, 23 June 1922 in Orland, California to the parents of Walter Guy Millsaps and Aleta Ione Cushman. There is some discrepancy in the official records regarding Ray’s mother. One newspaper article refers to her as his surviving ‘step-mother’ and Aleta was born in 1913, making her quite young when Ray was born.

Ray spent his childhood in Chrome, a small community in the hills, west of Orland. His father was a farmer and he had grown up in the Newville area which is just to the north of Chrome. In the 1960’s, some of the farm-land near Newville was taken over by the construction of the Black Butte Dam for flood protection on Stony Creek.

Ray enlisted in the Army Air Corps, 22 September 1942 at San Francisco, California. He served for several months as an airplane mechanic at Sacramento and Stockton, California. He then attended gunnery school at Las Vegas, Nevada. For some time he was a gunner on a B-29, in the 332nd Squadron, 94th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force in the European theatre. It appears that after the war in Europe was over in May of 1945, Ray was assigned to the 442nd Troop Carrier Squadron in the 9th Air Force. In the Fall of 1945, he was on regular flights between Germany and England.

In early November, Walter G Millsaps received a telegram that his son, Staff Sergeant Ray Alfred Millsaps had died in Germany on 4 November 1945. According to the American Air Museum records, a crash of a C-47 Skytrain, a troop transport aircraft, occurred on 4 November with the loss of all 16 on board. The flight was bound for Munich and crashed near Schlatt, Germany. According to a Missing Air Crew Report, the weather had deteriorated in Germany while the plane was enroute. The pilot flew below the clouds and struck trees on a mountain. The crew and passengers aboard the C-47, Tail Number 43-15104 were:

2nd Lt., Apple, Albert Bernard, Pilot, 16159449/O-831078, buried Ferndale, Michigan

2nd Lt., Dibble, Roger James, Co-Piot, 17114490/O-2009502, buried Lorraine Amer. Cem., France

Cpl., Jendral, Heinz Fred, Flight Engineer, 36851369, buried Barrancas Nat. Cem., Pensacola, Florida

1st Lt., Henderson, Norman Paul, Passenger, O-783765, ***

Flight Officer, Daves, Jackie Eugene, Passenger, 19181826/T-006255, buried Inglewood, California

S-Sgt., Moore, Morris E, Passenger,, 15383040, ***

S-Sgt., Millsaps, Ray A, Passenger, 19138243, buried Chrome, California

S-Sgt., Block, Earl Leroy, Passenger, 39410912, buried Lorraine Amer. Cem., France

Sgt., Cederberg, Arthur Bernhart, Passenger, 19176619, ***

S-Sgt., Gattermeir, John P, Passenger, 16052697, ***

S-Sgt., Jack, David, 36676404, Passenger, buried Lorraine Amer. Cem., France

S-Sgt., Kenez, Martin Jr., 12034722, Passenger, buried Perth Amboy, New Jersey

1st Lt., Koskela, Ernest William, Passenger, 16115826/O-828193, buried Wakefield, Michigan

S-Sgt., Peters, Harry V, Passenger, 35761629, ***

Tech. Sgt., Redfield, Laverne Frederick, Passenger, 36824420, buried St. Johns Lutheran Cem. Old Ahippun, Wisconsin

Tech. Sgt., White, Claude Morris, Passenger, 17127786, ***

*** Note: Cederberg, Gattermeir, Henderson, Moore, Peters, and White are all buried in the same plot at the Fort Scott National Cemetery in Fort Scott, Kansas. Due to the plane crash, their remains were, no doubt, co-mingled.

After a temporary burial in Germany, the body of Staff Sergeant Ray Alfred Millsaps was returned to the USA and re-interred in November 1948 at the Chrome Cemetery, otherwise known as the Millsap Cemetery. His Service Number was 19138243.

References

From - ancestry.com:

1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, 1950 US Census

From - Fold3:

Service Record

Missing Air Crew Report

From - newspapers.com:

Orland Unit, 8 January 1945

Orland Unit, 29 November 1945

Sacramento Bee, 1 December 1945

Online Resources:

americanairmuseum.com (American Air Museum in Britain), plane crash record

Books:

Orland’s Patriots, The Area Men Who Died in the Wars of the Twentieth Century, by Gene H Russell & Jay D Russell, Nov 2007

Findagrave:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18035688/ray-alfred-millsaps

Findagrave Memorial ID: 18035688

SBTS:

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 421,000+ of the US WWII fallen saved on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? These stories will be accessible via smartphone app at any war memorial or cemetery. If you noticed anything erroneous in this profile or have additional information to contribute to it, please email: feedback@storiesbehindthestars.org.

SBTSProject/California/Glenn

Ray A Millsaps