Lt. Bakalar Listed Killed In France

Mrs. Dorothea Bakalar, of 6326 Garfield street, Hammond, received a war department telegram notifying her, her husband, Lt. John (Buck) Bakalar, 24, Mustang fighter pilot, was killed in action somewhere over France, September 1st.  He is the son of Mrs. Marie Bakalar, 227 Lawndale street.  His wife resides with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Daily.

Bakalar is a graduate of Hammond high school and also attended the University of Idaho and, prior to his enlistment, January 1942, was employed as an electrician at the E. I. Du Pont de Nemours company, Grasselli chemicals department.

He received basic training at the Ryan School of Aeronautics at San Diego, Calif., transferring to Mather Field, Calif., for further training.  He was commissioned a lieutenant and received his wings in October, 1942, at Luke Field, Phoenix, Ariz., where he then became an instructor in an officer's training unit.

He joined a special Mustang fighter group in March, 1944, and was sent overseas to England in May, 1944, where he received further training.  He also was awarded the air medal with three oak-leaf clusters for successfully completing 45 combat missions and his squadron received the Presidential Unit Citation.

On the eve of D-Day he was assigned to the ninth air force pioneer P-51 Mustang fighter groups and since the invasion has dive-bombed and strafed targets in France.

Besides his wife and mother, he is survived by two children, Susie and Robert Edmund; a sister, Mrs. J. V. McLaughlin of Hammond; his grandfather, R. H. Wills, and his grandmother, Mrs. John Bakalar, Sr., of Elyria, O.