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Area 8

Louis G. Moslener, Jr.

We should mention the death on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941, of Louis G. Moslener, Jr., of Monaca, who is buried here. You may recall the U. S. Army technicians on duty that infamous morning to operate the very primitive radar then available, had indications that a large number of planes were approaching Pearl Harbor. Because a flight of B-17 bombers was expected to arrive that morning from the United States, they sounded no alarm, feeling confident that the radar "blips" they had observed were from the American planes. They were not, of course, and Pearl Harbor was soon under heavy Japanese attack. The flight of B-17s did arrive shortly thereafter, and flew right into the middle of the battle. Louis Moslener of the 88th Reconnaissance Squadron, was the lead navigator of the B-17 group and, while his plane managed to land at Hickham Field, it was machine-gunned on the ground by the Japanese, and he became one of the first casualties of World War II ... perhaps the first to be brought back home for burial in Beaver Cemetery.