James Maurice Loenshal (1923-1945)

James Loenshal was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania on August 17, 1923 and graduated from Hollidaysburg High School in 1941. He entered the College in the autumn with the class of 1945. He played on the basketball team and was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He was slated to join Skull and Key at the end of his sophomore year but by then he had already withdrawn to enlist in the Army Air Force, in February 1943.

Training as a pilot, Loenshal received his commission in Oklahoma in June 1944 and was posted to Italy and a B-24 squadron soon after. On a mission to bomb the Korneuburg oil refinery near Vienna, on February 7, 1945, the Liberator that Loenshal was co-piloting received a direct hit from enemy anti-aircraft artillery over Austria. Though initial reports from the squadron suggested that parachutes had been seen, official communications later confirmed that the aircraft had been seen to disintegrate in mid-air, changing his status from "missing in action" to "presumed dead." He was twenty-one years old.

More information about other Dickinson war casualties can be found through the online project "In Remembrance" (see link for related entries below).