charlie sherrill
Member
He had been gone three months shy of 80 years. 21 year old 2ND. Lt. Theodore Frank "Ted" Scarborough was a bombardier on a plane named the "Kate Smith", a B24 Liberator and was taking part in Operation Tidal Wave on August 1, 1943 which was a massive low level bombing of the German oil fields near Ploiesti, Romania. Kate Smith successfully dropped her bombs on the target and was then shot down by German anti-aircraft fire as were 50 other bombers in the 177 plane wave of the attack. Many of the downed airmen's remains were buried in a common grave by Romanian citizens. Most of the men were unable to be identified at the time. The remains of most of the flyers were later moved to Belgium when in 2014 DNA and other tests were run on the remains and Ted's remains were positively identified. Ted attended Forrest County Agricultural High School at Brooklyn, Ms. where his name has been on a monument at the entrance to the school along with about 20 other names of young men who were KIA in WWII. That monument is over 70 years old. His family also placed a headstone monument in the cemetery of the Maxie Methodist Church, a small church located a few miles south of Brooklyn. Ted was finally buried in front of that headstone. My son and I attended the services today. The escort consisted of 37 Patriot Guard Riders and numerous law enforcement cruisers. The services were with full military honors with a three helicopter flyover. One of his older relatives cried as she told me she was happy he finally came home.
