ID'd 461st BG., 764th Sq. gunner grouping

**RustyRelics** · 03-15-2023, 08:38 AM

Here's a neat little grouping belonging to Technician 3rd Grade Charles Ayers Cashon. He enlisted at the age of 20 in 1943, and joined the 461st Bomb Group, 764th Squadron, 15th Army Air Corps. Charles was trained as a gunner and that was the role he served as an enlistedman aboard a B-24 Liberator.

The uniform is in excellent condition, although the cap has a tear. The dogtag matches up with the laundry numbers inside. The patch is a Kansas University Jayhawks patch, and was found in the right front breast pocket along with the dogtag many years ago. It's a mystery as to why it was there, because neither Charles nor his wife ever went to Kansas University, and Charles didn't train in Kansas from what I can tell. Even weirder, it's a design that was phased out before the 1930s.

Anyways, I'd love to learn more about this fellow, and hopefully with records from the NARA, I can.

The photo below is of Charles with the crew he was assigned to, with pilot Marion C. Sargeant top row, second from the right. Unfortunately, not all men in the photo are ID'd. However, with a few clues, I am pretty sure Charles is the young man in the bottom row, second from the left. Charles was 20 years old and newly married in 1943, and the fellow in the bottom row, second from the left is quite youthful looking, and has a wedding ring. Just a hunch of mine.