Tebo, Vernon Lawrence, LT

The following history has been provided by Mr. Richard B. Cogdal of Urbana, Illinois, who was Mr. Tebo's shipmate.
"Our ship was an escort carrier--the Makassar Strait CVE91. I was assigned to the ship before it was commissioned, April 27, 1944. Our ship sailed all around the Pacific from that date: to Hawaii, the Admiralities, the Marshalls, Guam, Saipan, Tinian, etc. We at first delivered supplies and personnel all over the Pacific Ocean. Then in January, 1945, Air Squadron VC97 came aboard and we became a war ship. At Okinawa and Iwo Jima our planes covered refueling operations at sea--refueling the large carriers and cruisers, etc. The air squadron protected these operations. At Okinawa we delivered supplies, ammunition and rockets to the marines. The air squadron also protected these operations. The squadron also made strikes at several Japanese bases in the area. Lt. Tebo was shot down near a place called Kerma Rhetto on April 16, 1945. He was pilot and his crew consisted of a navigator and a bombardier. The crew had dropped their bombs and had flown back to photograph results when the tail of their plane was shot off. The 3 men parachuted to the ground but were rescued and taken prisoner. They were questioned and tortured and dragged through the village and killed. Two of them were beheaded. We did not know about all this until several years later. The village people were shocked and devastated by this cruelty. They now have erected a shrine in the village to honor these 3 men."
- taken from University of Illinois records, Web site above, and Mr. Richard B. Cogdal, Urbana, Illinois