Master Sgt. Allen Arthur Gregory was killed in an airplane crash in England on May 20th, 1944, at the age of 23. At the time of his death, his parents lived in Chicago.
It is believed that he was one of the United States soldiers killed when a bomber crashed on an airfield. Born in Downers Grove in 1920 to Frank and Helen Gregory, he graduated from the local grade school and high school. He attended the Methodist Sunday school and was member of the boy scouts and sea scouts of the Village.
During his high school days, he was a member of the A Cappella Choir, Chess, Club, Hi-Y, Model and Skating clubs and was a favorite with his classmates. A lover of the outdoors, he was especially interested in hunting and fishing. Allen enlisted in the Army Air Corps ground forces on September 25, 1940 and graduated from training at Chanute Field on September 12, 1941.
He was a crew chief at Randolph Field in San Antonio, TX when he volunteered for foreign service in December of 1942 when he was sent to Wendover Field on the Nevada/Utah border for heavy bomber training. He left for foreign service in June 1943 and was a flight engineer on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. Beside his parents, he is mourned by his brother, Robert F., a Warrant Officer in the Air Corps, and two sisters, June and Virginia. Memorial services were held at the Toon Funeral Home on June 14, 1944, with the Rev. A. J. Pitman, pastor of the Congregational Church, officiating. Songs were sung by Mrs. Myrtle Potter and Mrs. Marie Lehmann and the Alexander Bradley Burns American Legion post had a Guard of Honor at the service.
His name is engraved on the plaque at Memorial Park in Downers Grove honoring local servicemen who never returned home from World War II.
