Final Flight Sgt. William A. Poche
Joe Crossan of the 494th BG announces the passing of his last surviving crewmate, William A. Poche. I asked Joe to tell me what he remembered about his Radio/Gunner.
“When we were at Lake Charles, La, for training, William took our crew to his home in the French Quarter of New Orleans, La. for a weekend. He took us to many places in the French Quarter.
While stationed at A-59, we went to a swimming Hole in France while stationed there. He was a real nice guy. We visited Paris as a crew, on a three day pass.
After the war ended we were sent home, I finally found out Poche’s address and wrote to him and from then on we were writing to one another. That`s when I found out that he became an optometrist. I have been writing his son Craig for a while now, since Bill became somewhat blind with macular degeneration.
Bill loved fishing and hunting. He has a daughter whom he had living with him. His wife died several years ago. His hobby was making fly casting fishing poles.
I never got to go visit him after the war. I would have liked that. I asked his son to send me his obituary from the hometown paper as I have all the other obits except Bills. I haven`t been able to find it online. He is to be cremated and at a future date the family plans to take his ashes to their hunting and fishing lodge and spread them where he loved to be.
Picture below: Our crew photo taken at Barksdale field Shreveport, La. in 1944 Left to right 2nd Lt. Donald O’keefe, 2nd Lt. Jerome Simms, 2nd LT. Lloyd Mellious, SGT Joseph Crossan, Sgt William Poche , Sgt Steven Millet. We were only corporals when this photo was taken.
