Lemuel Angus “Buddy” McWhorter Jr. was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on 20 March 1920 to Lemuel Angus “Dog” McWhorter and Marie Louise White.
Sergeant
768th Bomber Squadron, 462nd Bomber Group
Flight Chief Armorer with B-29 aircraft with serialnumber 44-86344 in India and Tinian in the Pacific. He was killed as a tail gunner over Tokyo on 2 August 1945. He was initially buried at USAF Mausoleum No. 1, Yokohom, Japan. Buried at Chattanooga National Cemetery, Y 487.
The Chattanooga Daily Times, 23 October 1945
Friends and acquintances of Mr. and Mrs. L. Angus McWhorter are still asking them, “When is Buddy coming home?” And always the answer has to be, “Buddy is not coming home.”
The mother and father were among the happiest people in Chattanooga when the war ended, for both of their sons, Buddy (Angus McWhorter Jr.) of the Army Air Corps and Robert W. of the U.S. Navy, had seemingly been spared. But the shock was all the greater some days after the victory over Japan when news came that Sergeant Angus McWhorter Jr. was missing in action. He was the tailgunner on a B-29 which, just a few days before the unconditional surrender of the Japanese, attacked Hachioji, a strategic point close to Tokyo. Previously, Sergeant McWhorter had been classified as a turret gun specialist, which meant that he served with a ground crew in keeping the turret guns in good condition. The youth, wishing to spare his mother and father anxiety, did not tell them that he was going on a B-29 mission.
The Chattanooga Daily Times, 16 June 1946
Sgt. L. Angus McWhorter was on his sixth mission in the position of tail gunnera board a B-29 harassed by Jap night fighters on Aug. 2, 1945, when, in a third attack, the tail position was heavily hit. Nine crew members are known to have parachuted down and been picked up as prisoners by an isolated Jap unit operating around Subic Bay on Luzon. No trace of McWhorter was found after the plane crashed. The young Chattanooga was assigned to the original B-29 origanization which trained in Kansas. He sailed for India in February, 1944, as a corporal and member of an armament maintenance crew. After promotion to sergeant, he became a flight chief armorer, the change to flight duty having been at his own request and without the knowledge, until death, of his parents. McWhorter, before entering the army, had been associated with the Combustion Engineering Company in war production, and before that was emplooyed in the display department of Miller Bros Store. He was a Chattanooga High School graduate and was a member of the Thankful Memorial Episcopal Church. At the time of his death McWhorter was 25 years old.
He is survived by his parents, and a brothers, Ensign Robert W. McWhorter, USN, and was the grandson of Mrs. Irene Beene McWhorter of East. Terrace.
- Rank: Sergeant
- Date of birth: 20 March 1920
- Date of death: 2 August 1945
- County: Hamilton
- Hometown: Chattanooga
- Service Branch: Army/Army Air Forces
- Division/Assignment: 768th Bomber Squadron, 462nd Bomber Group
- Theater: Pacific
- Conflict: World War II
- Burial/Memorial Location: Chattanooga National Cemetery, Chattanooga, TN
- Location In Memorial: Pillar XI, Middle Panel
- Contact us to sponsor L. A. McWhorter Jr.
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