SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 60

(By Senators Prezioso, Edgell, Plymale, Stollings, Unger and Green)

Requesting that the Division of Highways name a section of Marion County Route 1, Marion County, West Virginia, from mile post 4.54 to mile post 9.15, the “USAF Sergeant Jerome E. Kiger Memorial Road”.

    Whereas, Jerome Elwood Kiger was born in Mannington, Marion County, West Virginia, on December 26, 1921, the son of Jasper Newton Kiger and Mary Peal Kiger; and

    Whereas, Jerome Elwood Kiger was educated in the public schools of Marion County, West Virginia, was a 1939 graduate of Mannington High School, Mannington, West Virginia, worked for Westinghouse Electric Company and enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps on August 17, 1942; and

    Whereas, From August 17, 1942, through August 16, 1943, Jerome Elwood Kiger trained with Squadron B, Radio School, Army Air Corps, Salt Lake City, Utah; attended flight school; was classified as an AAF MOS 611 Aerial Gunner; and was deployed to serve in the European Theater as a member of the 579th Bomber Squadron, 392nd Bomber Group, Eighth Army Air Force and, through his distinguished service, attained the rank of Sergeant; and

    Whereas, On July 21, 1944, the Eighth Air Force launched nine hundred sixty bombers on air raids on key industrial targets in southern Germany, targeting German aircraft plants and numerous targets between the cities of Suttgart and Munich; and

    Whereas, Sergeant Jerome Elwood Kiger was the tail gunner on a B-24 Liberator in the air raids, headed toward the village of Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich, when the aircraft came under heavy enemy fire; flak severely damaged the aircraft before it reached its target and it crashed southwest of Munich; and

    Whereas, Seven crewmen bailed out of the aircraft; one was killed when his parachute failed. The six crew members who successfully landed were captured by the Germans; their fellow crew members, Sergeants Jerome Elwood Kiger and Charles R. Marshall, were presumably in the aircraft when it crashed, and were declared Missing in Action by the United States War Department; and

    Whereas, During the following year, investigations and searches were conducted for the wreckage of the B-24 Liberator Bomber, and on July 22, 1945, the United States War Department officially declared Sergeant Jerome Elwood Kiger and his fellow airman, Sergeant Charles Marshall, as Killed in Action, even though neither their crash site nor their remains had been located, and in the interim years no further discovery was made of the official location of the crash site; and

    Whereas, On November 23, 2008, Mr. Markus Mooser, a German citizen, contacted Sergeant Kiger’s family, reporting that he had found a crash site in the Starnberg district of Bavaria, Germany, which he correlated with the B-24 Liberator airplane that crashed with Sergeants Kiger and Marshall on board, and based on this discovery, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) investigated the site and determined that it was the official site of the B-24 airplane crash. Remains were discovered, and the identities of Sergeants Kiger and Marshall were confirmed; and

    Whereas, On Sunday, July 21, 2013, the sixty-ninth anniversary of Sergeant Kiger’s death, a procession of family, friends, members of the military and representatives of the government accompanied the remains of Sergeant Kiger to Mannington Memorial Park, Mannington, West Virginia, where he was interred between the graves of his father and mother, in a designated grave site prepared for him by his parents prior to their deaths; and

    Whereas, Sergeant Kiger was awarded the Air Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one Bronze Service Star, the World War II Victory Medal, the Aerial-Gunner Badge Wing and the Army Service Ribbon, and will be awarded posthumously the Army Good Conduct Medal and the Purple Heart Medal; and

    Whereas, Sergeant Jerome Elwood Kiger made the supreme sacrifice for his country in a foreign land and brought honor to his family, the citizens of West Virginia and his country; therefore, be it

    Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:

    That the Legislature hereby requests the Division of Highways to name a section Marion County Route 1, Marion County, West Virginia, from mile post 4.54 to mile post 9.15, the “USAF Sergeant Jerome E. Kiger Memorial Road”; and, be it

    Further Resolved, That the Division of Highways is hereby requested to have made and be placed signs identifying the road as the “USAF Sergeant Jerome E. Kiger Memorial Road”; and, be it

    Further Resolved, That the Clerk of the Senate is hereby directed to forward a copy of this resolution to the Commissioner of the Division of Highways.