Pilot of B17 42-5865, Co-pilot: Jack Boyd, Flight engineer/top turret gunner: John Neal, Radio Operator: Theo Price, Ball turret gunner: Earl Griggs, Waist gunner: Pete Theodore, Waist gunner: Dale Huffer,T ail gunner: John Williams (8 Killed in Action); Navigator: Bob Rosenburg, B-Frank Coon (2 Prisoner of War); hit in #3 engine by aircraft above 42-5865 then crashed Beaumont, near Evreux, Fr; Missing Air Crew Report 685. BARKER'S BURDEN.∼Charlie was born on May 19, 1917, the third child of Theresa and Charles Floyd. He was athletic enjoying football, tennis and golf. He attended Catholic High School and played on the football team. Charlie loved aviation and in 1937 at age 19, he won the title of Champion Junior Aviator as a member of the Press-Scimitar Junior Aviator Squadron competing in the Championship Model Airplane contest. As the champion, he represented Memphis at the National Junior Air Races in Akron, Ohio.
Charlie joined the Air Force, became a lieutenant and piloted a B-17 Flying Fortress during World War II. He married Madeleine Brabant on February 27, 1943 while on furlough. He was sent overseas in May of that year as part of the 351st Squadron of the 100th Bomb Group stationed at Thorpe Abbotts in Norfolk, Engand. On September 3, 1943, after a raid of Paris, he was reported missing. From the Press-Scimitar on September 16, 1943:
"As a boy, he had always been mechanically minded. He designed and built his own model planes with which he won the Junior Aviator contest. As a Fortress pilot in England he had shown the same inventiveness. On one occasion he invented something which he believed improved the action of the guns on his plane and wrote that he might be court martialed for monkeying with the plane. Instead he got the Oak Leaf Cluster to an Air Medal he had previously won. He has two other inventions on file with the Army which may yet play a part in the defeat of the Axis, although he himself is probably out of the fight.
The last word from Lt. Floyd was a letter in which he wrote that he was grounded for a while because his plane was moth-eaten when I brought her home from the last raid," he wrote."
On October 27, 1943, word was received that Charlie had died. He was 26.
Charlie joined the Air Force, became a lieutenant and piloted a B-17 Flying Fortress during World War II. He married Madeleine Brabant on February 27, 1943 while on furlough. He was sent overseas in May of that year as part of the 351st Squadron of the 100th Bomb Group stationed at Thorpe Abbotts in Norfolk, Engand. On September 3, 1943, after a raid of Paris, he was reported missing. From the Press-Scimitar on September 16, 1943:
"As a boy, he had always been mechanically minded. He designed and built his own model planes with which he won the Junior Aviator contest. As a Fortress pilot in England he had shown the same inventiveness. On one occasion he invented something which he believed improved the action of the guns on his plane and wrote that he might be court martialed for monkeying with the plane. Instead he got the Oak Leaf Cluster to an Air Medal he had previously won. He has two other inventions on file with the Army which may yet play a part in the defeat of the Axis, although he himself is probably out of the fight.
The last word from Lt. Floyd was a letter in which he wrote that he was grounded for a while because his plane was moth-eaten when I brought her home from the last raid," he wrote."
On October 27, 1943, word was received that Charlie had died. He was 26.
Pilot of B17 42-5865, Co-pilot: Jack Boyd, Flight engineer/top turret gunner: John Neal, Radio Operator: Theo Price, Ball turret gunner: Earl Griggs, Waist gunner: Pete Theodore, Waist gunner: Dale Huffer,T ail gunner: John Williams (8 Killed in Action); Navigator: Bob Rosenburg, B-Frank Coon (2 Prisoner of War); hit in #3 engine by aircraft above 42-5865 then crashed Beaumont, near Evreux, Fr; Missing Air Crew Report 685. BARKER'S BURDEN.∼Charlie was born on May 19, 1917, the third child of Theresa and Charles Floyd. He was athletic enjoying football, tennis and golf. He attended Catholic High School and played on the football team. Charlie loved aviation and in 1937 at age 19, he won the title of Champion Junior Aviator as a member of the Press-Scimitar Junior Aviator Squadron competing in the Championship Model Airplane contest. As the champion, he represented Memphis at the National Junior Air Races in Akron, Ohio.
Charlie joined the Air Force, became a lieutenant and piloted a B-17 Flying Fortress during World War II. He married Madeleine Brabant on February 27, 1943 while on furlough. He was sent overseas in May of that year as part of the 351st Squadron of the 100th Bomb Group stationed at Thorpe Abbotts in Norfolk, Engand. On September 3, 1943, after a raid of Paris, he was reported missing. From the Press-Scimitar on September 16, 1943:
"As a boy, he had always been mechanically minded. He designed and built his own model planes with which he won the Junior Aviator contest. As a Fortress pilot in England he had shown the same inventiveness. On one occasion he invented something which he believed improved the action of the guns on his plane and wrote that he might be court martialed for monkeying with the plane. Instead he got the Oak Leaf Cluster to an Air Medal he had previously won. He has two other inventions on file with the Army which may yet play a part in the defeat of the Axis, although he himself is probably out of the fight.
The last word from Lt. Floyd was a letter in which he wrote that he was grounded for a while because his plane was moth-eaten when I brought her home from the last raid," he wrote."
On October 27, 1943, word was received that Charlie had died. He was 26.
Charlie joined the Air Force, became a lieutenant and piloted a B-17 Flying Fortress during World War II. He married Madeleine Brabant on February 27, 1943 while on furlough. He was sent overseas in May of that year as part of the 351st Squadron of the 100th Bomb Group stationed at Thorpe Abbotts in Norfolk, Engand. On September 3, 1943, after a raid of Paris, he was reported missing. From the Press-Scimitar on September 16, 1943:
"As a boy, he had always been mechanically minded. He designed and built his own model planes with which he won the Junior Aviator contest. As a Fortress pilot in England he had shown the same inventiveness. On one occasion he invented something which he believed improved the action of the guns on his plane and wrote that he might be court martialed for monkeying with the plane. Instead he got the Oak Leaf Cluster to an Air Medal he had previously won. He has two other inventions on file with the Army which may yet play a part in the defeat of the Axis, although he himself is probably out of the fight.
The last word from Lt. Floyd was a letter in which he wrote that he was grounded for a while because his plane was moth-eaten when I brought her home from the last raid," he wrote."
On October 27, 1943, word was received that Charlie had died. He was 26.
Inscription
Charles W. Floyd Jr.
1Lt ~ AAF ~ 351st Bomber Squadron,
100th Bomber Group, Heavy
Tennessee ~ September 03, 1943
Gravesite Details
Entered the service from Tennessee.
Family Members
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