‘Young faces that are gone’

Sometime before 1 a.m. on Tuesday, June 6, 1944, Lt. Howard Carey Brewster climbed into the pilot seat of his Waco CG-4A Hadrian glider at Ramsbury Field, England.

Inside the boxy- looking aircraft, built of fabric- covered wood and metal, was a jeep, an anti-tank gun, and an unknown number of soldiers.

At 1:20 a.m., the first C-47 transport planes towing Waco gliders took off in Operation Detroit. The gliderborne landings were to be on the western flank of the allied invasion of Normandy.

Brewster, a 26-year-old farm boy from Ruston, was in that initial lift of planes and gliders.

An intelligence interrogation of the pilot of the tow plane behind which Brewster was flying later showed the glider was released about 16 miles from Landing Zone “O,” a spot in France near the German- occupied town of Sainte-Mère-Église. That was probably between 3 and 4 a.m.

Based on the pilot’s information, Brewster’s glider apparently crash- landed in enemy territory, killing Brewster. His passengers survived.

It would be four months before Brewster’s family would learn he was among the more than 4,400 confirmed allied D-Day casualties, some 33 of which were from Louisiana.

“These were boys. These were young men who gave for us,” state Rep. Charles Owens, R-Rosepine, said.

Owens authored a resolution approved by the Legislature last month commemorating the Louisiana soldiers who died on D-Day, 80 years ago this week. The list was read during the House of Representatives’ annual Memorial Day observance.

“When the world was literally at risk, where liberty was imperiled from Japanese imperialism and German fascism, the United States undertook a great cause to try to invade Europe and try to reclaim that land for free people,” Owens, a retired Air Force officer, said during the ceremony.

In a subsequent interview with The Leader, Owens said the research he did on the Louisiana casualities, including Brewster, “emotes tears.”

“I see those young faces that are gone,” he said.

Carey Brewster was born in 1918, the youngest of 12 children.

“I remember he was very good looking,” Doris Thompson, Brewster’s niece who lives in West Monroe, said.

Thompson said she was “very, very young” when her uncle went into the service, but she still remembers his smile.

There’s a picture online of a smiling Brewster wearing a leather flying helmet, goggles on his forehead.

According to a story in the March 23, 1932, edition of the The Leader, Brewster’s father, George W. Brewster, was a well-known farmer, who at the time owned 480 acres located 10 miles northeast of Ruston on what was then the Ruston-Farmerville Road.

Carey Brewster graduated from Ruston High School, where family members say he played football, and in 1941, he earned a degree from Louisiana Polytechnic Institute, now Louisiana Tech University. He played football at Tech, too.

The same year he graduated, Brewster joined the National Guard as a sergeant in the coastal artillery corps. According to the American War Memorials Overseas website, Brewster, who was single at the time, listed his civilian occupation as “actors and actresses.”

In January 1942, he volunteered for the Army Air Forces and trained as a pilot in Texas.

That’s apparently where he met his wife, Kate, who was teaching home economics at Dalhart High School.

Though online burial records indicate Brewster had a daughter, it appears from his date of deployment to England for final D-Day training that he likely never knew her.

Brewster was assigned to the 9th Air Force 437th Troop Carrier Group 84th Squadron. He earned his wings in November 1942. He was an operations officer for the 84th and 86th squadrons.

In December 1943, U.S. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed as Supreme Allied Commander, in overall charge of Operation Overlord, the code name for D-Day. Detailed preparations were about to get underway, though no precise date had been set for the invasion.

At the start of 1944, planning for D-Day took on a greater urgency.

The newly appointed Allied commanders begin revising the draft plans. They decided the number of troops to be landed on D-Day needed to be considerably increased, and that more aircraft needed to be pulled in.

At the time, Brewster was still apparently training stateside.

The motorless Waco-CG that he piloted was the most widely used American troop and cargo glider in World War II. It was America’s first military stealth aircraft.

The 48-foot-long gliders had a wingspan of almost 84 feet and a maximum towed speed of 150 mph. The gliders were expendable by nature; for that reason, some sources say being a glider pilot was not always considered a plum assignment.

In February 1944, aircraft from Brewster’s 437th TCG began to arrive at Ramsbury.

In March, pilots began practicing towing gliders.

By April, the Allied commanders had completed the plan for D- Day.

According to an online history of Ramsbury, the men there were briefed about their pending mission on June 4 and sworn to secrecy. June 5 was to be the day.

But the weather didn’t cooperate.

At 4:15 a.m. on June 5, 1944, the Allied commanders met one final time to hear the weather forecast. This time it was good, and D-Day took place the next day.

A few hours later, junior officers began to open their sealed orders and find out the location of the landings.

It took four months for the War Department to announce that Carey Brewster had been killed in action.

According to a story in the Oct. 12, 1944 edition of The Canyon ( Texas) News — Brewster’s wife’s parents lived there — Brewster was reported missing in action following the D-Day operation.

The War Department revealed his death via telegram in early October 1944.

“He was with the first wave of gliders that swooped down into those muzzles of the German guns on the Normandy peninsula and helped prepare the landing for the boys on the beaches,” the story said.

When word of Brewster’s death was received, his wife and 2 ½-month-old daughter were visiting Brewster’s parents in Ruston. The story said Brewster’s widow and child moved back to Texas to live with her parents.

Brewster was awarded the Air Medal for heroic actions or meritorious service while participating in aerial flight, and the Purple Heart.

Carey Brewster is buried in the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France.