Finding of Death
Memorialized at East Coast Memorial, NY, NY.
Walter called Johnson City, Washington County, Tennessee home and lived with his grandmother after his father’s death in 1929. He was living in Thomson, McDuffie County, Georgia working as a Linotype Operator for McDuffie Programs when he enlisted in the United States Army on 29 December 1941 at Fort McPherson, Georgia. Since Walter was a high school graduate and did very well on his aptitude tests, he was accepted into the Army Air Forces (AAF).
Walter was assigned to the 4th Photographic Squadron, 1st Mapping Group as a Linotype Operator. On 8 June 1943, he was flying on a mission that encountered bad weather off the coast of Brazil near Rio de Janeiro, South America when his aircraft went off radar. His RE-34 Lexington/Ventura Mk. II #AJ346 was officially listed as MISW (Missing due to Weather) and the crew lost at sea.
Walter’s the son of Orville Treadway and Mary Lenora Tate.
Submitted by Allen D. Jackson, USAF (Ret)
The Johnson City Press, 18 June 1944
Mrs. Nora Treadway of 110½ Spring street, who is seriously ill in Banner Elk, N.C., last week received a message from the War Department that her son, Sgt. Walter R. Treadway, reported missing since June 8, 1943, has been officially declared dead. Sergeant Treadway was radioman in a charting and mapping Army Air Force squadron with headquarters at Laredo, Tex. He was on a routine flight from Porto Alegre, Brazil, to Rio de Janeiro when last word from his plane said it was encountering bad weather over the South Atlantic, northeast of Florianopolis, Brazil. An extensive search was made by United States and Brazilian army and navy units, but no trace of the plane or its crew was found. Mrs. Treadway has two other sons in service. They are Staff Sgt. William J. Treadway and Russell Treadway, both overseas. Two younger brothers, J.C. and Jimmy, are with their mother, who is ill at the home of her sister, Mrs. Iris Puckett, at Banner Elk.
- Rank: Corporal
- Date of birth: 28 April 1920
- Date of death: 8 June 1943
- County: Washington
- Hometown: Johnson City
- Service Branch: Army/Army Air Forces
- Division/Assignment: 4th Photographic Squadron, 1st Mapping Group
- Conflict: World War II
- Burial/Memorial Location: Monument East Coast Memorial Manhattan, New York County, New York
- Location In Memorial: Pillar XIX, Bottom Panel
- Contact us to sponsor Walter R. Treadway
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