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Known as “Squirrel” to his friends, Fowler spent just a year at STC before enlisting in the United States Army Air Corps in June of 1942.
During his time on campus, he played soccer and was considered an excellent student. In summer, he worked for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad repairing tracks near his Locust Point neigborhood in Baltimore.
He became a Sergeant in September of 1942, and was made a Staff Sergeant by December. He was an aerial gunner on airplanes first in Hawaii, then Australia, and then finally, in the South Pacific.
“I am stationed in New Guinea,” he wrote to Rebecca Tansil in July of 1943. “Which I find to be anything but a tropical paradise. . . . Like any good airman, I think my crew is the best one America ever sent ‘over'”.
On August 2, 1943, when he was he was killed while flying an aerial raid somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.
Wilmer served as a Staff Sergeant, 500th Bomber Squadron, 345th Bomber Group, U.S. Army Air Force during World War II.
The stone cutter evidently made a mistake and noted him as being in the U.S. Army instead of the U.S. Army Air Force as all his records, including his burial card request, note him as being in the Air Force.
He resided in Baltimore, Maryland prior to the war.
He enlisted in the Army on June 22, 1942 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was noted as being employed as a Architect and also as Single, without dependents.
Wilmer was a Passenger on C-47-DL "Eager Beaver" (#41-7733), 40th Troop Carrier Squadron, 317th Troop Carrier Group, U.S. Army Air Force.
Wilmer died in the "Line Of Duty" when the "Eager Beaver", shortly after take off, crashed for an unknown reason into Cleveland Bay southeast of Townsville, Queensland, Australia during the war.
Service # 13073375
The aircrew of Dittum-Dattum, a B-25 Bomber in the Southwest Pacific. Fowler (2nd from the right) was the gunner.
Baltimore National Cemetery
Baltimore, Baltimore City, Maryland, USA
PLOT: SECTION D, SITE 1129