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World War IIUS Army Air Force9th Bomb Squadron, 7th Bomber Group, 10th Air Force Service Number: O-742495 Born: August 5, 1921 Inducted: December 1941 Killed in action December 1, 1943 at Insein, Burma Buried: Grandview Cemetery, Range 8, Lot 26, Wray Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal |
Son of George and Dora Maag of Wray. Husband of Earlene Frances "Cherie" Buchanan Maag of Wray.
Wray Gazette December 9, 1943
LT Morris Maag Is Missing In Action In Asia
War Department Advises Relatives That Wray Youth is Missing Since Dec. 1.Second Lieutenant Morris Maag, youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. George Maag of Wray, was reported as missing in action by a telegram to his wife, the former Earlena Buchanan, received at Wray Tuesday night. The message was telephoned to Mrs. Maag, who is now at Upland, California, by her mother that night.
Lt. Maag is a favorite among Wray people and the news that he was missing has caused great concern here. In a recent letter to his parents from India, where he has been serving with distinction as a pilot in the Air Force, he told that he had completed more than 200 hours of combat duty, and that he was scheduled fro a vacation beginning on December 1. That was the day he was reported as missing.
He graduated from the Wray High school, attended Colorado State college at Fort Collins, and went into the army at about the time the war began. After several months in the regular army, he was selected for pilot training and returned to Wray to spend several weeks waiting his orders. After winning his commission and wings, he was assigned to the Asiatic area and has been serving with distinction there.
Following is the text of the message received here Tuesday night: "The Secretary of War desires to express his deep regret that your husband, Second Lieutenant Morris P. Maag, has been reported missing in action since December 1 in the Asiatic area. If further details or other information are received you will be promptly notified. Adj. General."
Wray Rattler December 1943
Lt. Morris P. Maag Reported Missing In Action
The following telegram from the War Department, sent to Mrs. Morris P. Maag, was received here Tuesday evening:
"The Secretary of War desires me to express his deep regret that your husband Second Lieut. Morris P. Maag has been reported missing in action since One December in the Asiatic area. If further details or other information are received you will be promptly notified."
Lt. Maag is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Maag of Wray. Mrs. Morris Maag went to Upland, Calif. several months ago to make her home, and Mr. Geo. Maag notified her immediately by long distance telephone of the message from the War Department.
Morris, the youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. George Maag, graduated from the Wray high school, where he took a prominent part in athletics, starring in football. He attended Colorado State at Ft. Collins. In December 1941 Morris entered the U.S. Army, and started his aviation training in the U.S. Army Air Corps in July 1942 receiving his pilot's wings at Douglas, Arizona on April 12, 1943. He was united in marriage with Miss Earlene Buchanan, eldest daughter of Mrs. Lena Buchanan, on June 1, 1942. On July 29th of this year the Liberator bomber "Burma Bitch," with Lt. Maag as co-pilot, took off from a Florida base for India where the crew began their combat duty.
The entire community feels deeply the shock of learning that one of our finest young men is missing in action.
Wray Gazette December 30, 1943
Memorial Service is Held Here Tuesday Afternoon in Honor of Lieutenant Morris Paul Maag
On Tuesday afternoon the people of Wray, members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, service men home on furlough and members of the Maag family attended an impressive memorial service honoring the memory of the heroic youth at the Presbyterian church. Business houses closed for the service.
Service men opened the service by marching up the church aisle with the colors and the national anthem was played. A quartet sang "Nearer My God to Thee," and Rev. James E. Harris gave a prayer and scripture reading. The following obituary was read:
"Lieutenant Morris Paul Maag, youngest son of George and Dora Maag of Wray, was born August 5, 1921 and gave the supreme sacrifice of his life in the defense of his country, somewhere in India on December 1, 1943 at the age of 22 years, 3 months and 26 days. Morris was born at Wray and spent all his childhood days at his home. He completed the grade school at Wray and graduated from Yuma County High School with the class of 1939. He entered college at Fort Collins in the fall of 1939 and continued in school until joining the Army in 1941.
"On June 1, 1942 Morris was united in marriage to Miss Earlena Buchanan at Raton, New Mexico. This marriage was the climax of a courtship during school days at Wray.
"After spending 14 months as a supply sergeant with the 168th Field Artillery he entered the Army Air Corps on July 14, 1942 and received his silver wings as a pilot and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant at Douglas, Arizona on April 12, 1943. Morris left the states from the air base at West Palm Beach, Florida on June 29, 1943 and was assigned to the 10th Air Force in India with which unit he was serving on combat duty when his plane went down in flames on December 1, 1943."
He was the youngest of six sons of George and Dora Maag and all survive to mourn his passing. The sons are Arthur of McCook, Nebraska, Claude of Peetz, Clarence of Fort Collins, Dale of Tomah, Wisconsin and Ralph of Eaton. These brothers, father, mother and Earlena, wife of Morris, are left to mourn his passing, and the sympathy of the entire community goes out to them in this hour of trial.
E.M. Hedrick sang the Army Air Corps song and T.J. Serafini, his former teacher in Sunday school and high school, gave a beautifully worded address in which he paid honor, not only to Lt. Maag, but to the precepts of liberty and justice which he died defending. He closed by placing a gold star by his name on the church honor roll. There was a memorial prayer by the V.F.W. chaplain and the Commander presented a gold star flag to the chaplain who presented it to Mrs. Maag. Following another hymn and the benediction, taps were played, the colors were retired and the congregation filed past a photograph and memorial to the deceased.
The huge crowd that attended in tribute to his memory and the many beautiful floral tributes paid testimony to these fine qualities of character which Lt. Maag possessed and which made him a favorite in his home town.
Wray Gazette March 8, 1945
Mrs. Morris Maag Receives D.F.C. for War Hero Husband
At a special ceremony at Lowry Field in Denver yesterday afternoon at 2 o'clock Mrs. Morris Maag, the former Earlene Buchanan of Wray, was presented with the Distinguished Flying Cross, posthumously awarded to her husband, Lt. Morris Maag, whose plane was shot down on a mission over Burma late in 1943. Presentation was made by Col. Patrick of Lowry Field. Mr. and Mrs. George Maag, parents of the deceased flyer, and Mrs. Maag's mother, Mrs. Lena Buchanan, went to Denver Wednesday morning to attend the ceremony. When the latter returned last night she was accompanied by another daughter, Mrs. James Darden and baby son.
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