Hometown: Glenwood, IA
Branch: U.S. Army (Air Forces)
Unit: 613th Bombardment Squadron, 401st Bombardment Group, Eighth Air Force
Military Honors: Air Medal, Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: October 7, 1944 - KIA near Kattenhof, Pomerania, Germany 
Age: 26
Conflict: World War II, 1939-1945

Amid the farm fields of southwest Iowa, Blaine Bertrand Wilcox was born on February 22, 1918, in the small town of Glenwood. Glenwood is just outside of Omaha, Nebraska—a short drive south across the Missouri River and the Nebraska-Iowa border.

He was the third of seven children born to Henry “Bert” and Cecil (Anderson) Wilcox: two sisters (Beulah and Clarice) and four brothers (Elmo, Stewart, Lee, and Dwight).

Blaine attended Glenwood High School and later registered for military service on October 16, 1940, at the age of 22. At the time, war in Europe was raging and the world waited for a reluctant United States to get directly involved.

On June 15, 1941, Wilcox married Wanda Durkee, of nearby Pacific Junction, Iowa. He was 24 years old, she was 18. On their marriage certificate, Blaine listed his occupation as “farmer & trucker.”

Duty calls

Six months later, a surprise Japanese attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, launched the U.S. fully into World War II. Congress passed a declaration of war against Imperial Japan, and three days later Nazi Germany and Italy—allied with Japan—declared war on the United States.

Wilcox became a young father on May 25, 1943, when he and Wanda welcomed their son David to the family.

With the world at war, they’d have little time to enjoy family life. Wilcox was sent to the European Theater of Operations and assigned to the 613th Bombardment Squadron, 401st Bombardment Group, Eighth Air Force.

He was trained as a bombardier aboard the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress (tail no. 42-31081) nicknamed “Son of a Blitz.” His 401st Bombardment Group was stationed at England’s Royal Air Force (RAF) Deenethorpe airfield. From there, the Son of a Blitz flew strategic bombing missions across the English Channel and over Nazi-occupied Europe.

Final mission

Nine crewmembers, including 2LT Wilcox, took off on a bombing mission on October 7, 1944. Their target destination was a synthetic oil plant located in Politz, Germany. Oil from the plant was crucial to fuel the Nazi war effort in Europe.

As they flew directly over the target, the Son of a Blitz encountered intense German anti-aircraft fire. A subsequent Missing Air Crew Report (number 9757) recorded that the aircraft “received direct burst in vicinity of nose, blowing most of nose off; went down in vertical dive, hit ground and exploded.”

All nine crewmembers aboard the Son of a Blitz were lost in the crash near Kattenhof, Germany. 2LT Blaine Wilcox was 26 years old.

It was the second loss of the war for the Wilcox family. Blaine’s younger brother Stewart, serving as a Flight Officer aboard another B-17 bomber, was lost over the English Channel on July 24, 1944, after a mission to St. Lo, France. Stewart Wilcox was 21 years old.

The family waits for answers

Because they were lost in enemy territory, recovering the remains of the nine lost crewmen would have to wait until after the war ended.

Three years after the war, in 1948, five sets of remains were recovered from graves marked with American aircrew helmets. Two sets were identified as crewmembers from the Son of a Blitz. Three more sets were found in a common grave. There was no definitive proof that could identify any of the remains as those of 2LT Wilcox.

In 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) “surveyed several American aircraft crash sites in the area of Police, Poland. Investigators determined that one of these sites, located near the village of Katy, likely belonged to Wilcox’s aircraft.”

After more investigation and tips from local witnesses, “scientists from DPAA used anthropological and dental analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence” to identify Wilcox’s remains. After eight decades, 2LT Blaine B. Wilcox was listed as “accounted for”on April 1, 2025.

Coming home

Appropriately, Wilcox’s remains arrived in his hometown on the day of Glenwood High School’s homecoming, 90 years after he graduated.

On October 7, 2025—81 years to the day after he was lost over the skies of Germany—2LT Blaine B. Wilcox was laid to rest in Glenwood with full military honors. He was posthumously awarded an Air Medal and a Purple Heart Medal.

Sources
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency: Airman Accounted For From World War II (Wilcox, B.)
The Opinion-Tribune, May 21, 2026: A Hero’s Homecoming - Lt. Blaine Wilcox Laid To Rest In Glenwood Cemetery
KMTV3 News Now Omaha: World War II army airman returns home to Glenwood 81 years after going missing over Europe
Peterson Mortuary: Blaine B. Wilcox, 2nd Lt (USAAF)
Imperial War Museum, American Archive: 613th Bomb Squadron
Imperial War Museum, American Archive: Blaine Bertrand Wilcox
National Archives Catalog: Missing Air Crew Report number 9757
Burial Site: Find a Grave