From the Olney Daily Mail - Olney, Ill.

By Kevin Ryden

Four days before Christmas 1942, Sgt. Harry Melvin Sloan went missing while flying from Puerto Rico to British Guiana in South America during a mission for the Army Air Corps.

Neither he or his crew were seen again.

On Jan. 4, 1943, an article was published in the Olney Daily Mail about Sloan's disappearance.

A letter was sent from the War Department to his family in Richland County exactly one year from the date of his disappearance, on Dec. 21, 1943.

The letter described the situation and how a search was conducted for two weeks with no results. The military had to wait a year in order to declare Sloan dead.

After nearly 65 years since his disappearance, Sloan is being memorialized with military honors.

After a trip to Washington, D.C., in April, Sloan's niece, Janet Smallwood, of Dundas, visited Arlington National Cemetery and wondered what it took to get a Missing In Action marker placed there.

She learned a marker could be placed if the family requested it. After she returned home, Smallwood collected information she had about her uncle, including his military numbers, made some telephone calls and sent the information to Arlington officials.

In June, she received notification that a marker had been placed at the cemetery. Smallwood then called and made arrangements for a memorial service.

It will be held at 2 p.m. EST Aug. 2 at Arlington National Cemetery. Smallwood and about 10 others will be attending the service, but it is open to the public and will include full military rites.

“They will have a 21-gun salute,” she said, adding that a chaplain will conduct the service.

The service and marker cost the family nothing. Smallwood said she, along with other family members, feel “this is necessary.”

The memory of her uncle has strengthened Smallwood's resolve to have everyone remember the sacrifices of all veterans. “Those who fought and died, we take it for granted,” she said.

Sloan was one of three sons of Lora and William F. Sloan Sr. who left home to fight in World War II.

The other two sons were Dewey Rex Sloan, who joined the Navy after Harry went missing, and Smallwood's father, William F. Sloan Jr., who fought at Iwo Jima.

Dewey Rex Sloan died last August and William F. Sloan Jr. died in August 2004. Other siblings are sisters Orpha Vail and Grace Leaf.

Harry's widow, Marguerite, lives in Florida.

After Harry went missing, his mother wrote a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt, demanding, “I want to know where my boys are,” Smallwood said.

William F. Sloan Jr. was told by his commanding officer that he needed to write his mother to let her know how he was doing.

Smallwood's father was a Marine and through the years she went to reunions with him. She continues to attend, keeps in routine touch with a lot of his fellow Marines and is organizing the next reunion, which will be held in September in St. Louis.

“I admire the bond the men had with him (her father),” she said of why she continues to be so involved. “It's just unbelievable what little things you can find out about him.”

She was told by her father's fellow Marines that he was the first one to cross the island of Iwo Jima. “That's what they told me,” she said.

Her father did not speak much about the experience while she was growing up and only usually simplified it by explaining that they went to do a job and then left. She learned a lot more about it, however, when she started attending reunions with him.

“Then he started talking,” she said. “I learned a whole lot more than I did when I was growing up.”

Arlington National Cemetery has left a lasting impression upon Smallwood. “It just makes you think what they went through to get there,” she said.

The cemetery marker and memorial service for Smallwood's uncle Harry are not only ways to remember him: They are also meant to honor her father and uncle Rex.

“It's a way to say, ‘I remember you here,'” she said.

Kevin Ryden can be reached at kryden@olneydailymail.com.