 1923 - 2008 (84 years) Submit Photo / Document
Has more than 100 ancestors but no descendants in this family tree.
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| Name |
Lowell Drew Pearson |
| Birth |
22 Mar 1923 |
Meadow, Millard, Utah, United States  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
14 Feb 2008 |
| Initiatory (LDS) |
24 Apr 2014 |
OAKLA |
| FamilySearch ID |
KWCF-R4Q |
| Burial |
Millcreek, Salt Lake, Utah, United States |
| Headstones |
 Submit Headstone Photo |
| Person ID |
I5121 |
mytree |
| Last Modified |
25 Feb 2024 |
| Father |
Albin Evan "Bount" Pearson, b. 19 Jun 1895, Meadow, Millard, Utah, United States d. 3 Jan 1976 (Age 80 years) |
| Mother |
Naomi Duncan, b. 5 Jan 1901, Meadow, Millard, Utah, United States d. 15 Jun 1978, Midvale, Salt Lake, Utah, United States (Age 77 years) |
| Marriage |
19 Oct 1920 |
Meadow, Millard, Utah, United States |
| Family ID |
F3393 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family |
LaRue Hanseen, b. 2 Dec 1922, Scipio, Millard, Utah, United States d. 25 Apr 2009 (Age 86 years) |
| Marriage |
2 Sep 1946 |
Midvale, Salt Lake, Utah, United States |
| Family ID |
F3599 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
5 May 2024 |
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| Notes |
- World War II
Finally, in February 1943, Merrill was called into service after les s t h a n a year at University of Idaho. He entered the U.S. Air Corps a s a c ad e t and was dispatched for a brief training in Eastern Oregon Co llege , n o w Oregon State University. There the cadets studied navigatio n, phy sic s a nd most of the subjects Merrill had already been studyin g for yea rs a nywa ys. “It was just a breeze for me,” he maintained.
Flight school appears to have been a real transformative period for Me r r i ll when he seized his own testimony: “Everyone has just one ai m – t o g e t somewhere, but very few of us know where … Please send th e Book o f Mo rm on. Somehow I feel more alone now than ever. I’d like t o stud y a whil e an d find out just a lot of things I should have know n long be fore now. I’v e got to keep up with my religion. I have to kno w it befor e I can l ive it.”
After 6 weeks of accelerated pilot training in Oregon, Merrill was tra n s f erred to Santa Ana, California, where he Completed his basic milita r y t ra ining. One day in April, Merrill’s unit was out marching in th e su mme r he at, “it was hotter than day-blazes anyway,” he remarks. Th e uni t mar che d 20 miles a day and the heat weighed down on the soldier s. Tha t day, th e commander said they were headed 25 miles in one march , 12.5 m ile s out a nd then back again. The sun was already high and hot .
The excruciating march wore on the men until they passed an orange gro v e . Merrill could smell the sweet, ripe oranges under the cool branc h e s o f the grove just a few steps off their marching path. He and a f e w ot he r men ducked quickly out of the line and hid beneath the trees . O nce t hei r unit was out of sight, the men began gathering and peelin g th e oran ge s for breakfast. For lunch, they had oranges. For an after noo n snack, the y had more oranges. By the time the unit returned, Merri ll a nd hi s friend s jumped back into the ranks, sticky and fragrant wit h ora nges. They walk ed back the remaining few miles and counted it a wo nderfu l da y. “That’s w here I learned to love oranges … they were jus t as swee t a s anything yo u could find, they were just lovely.”
After Santa Ana, Merrill was transferred to Thunderbird Airfield in Ph o e n ix, Arizona, where he learned to fly on the Boeing model-75 Stearm a n bi pl ane, a common training aircraft for new pilots, later called t h e “PT (pri mary trainer)-17”. The 9-ft high, 24’ x 32’ open cockpit air cr aft ha d sea ts for a student and instructor. It had a cruising spee d o f 96 mile s pe r hour and could reach over 12,000 feet. With perpetua ll y sunny day s in P hoenix, Merrill quickly learned to love flying. “Fl yin g is just li ke driv ing a car,” he wrote home in a letter to his mot her.
Merrill wrote often to his mother and worried about her now that h e w a s a way from home. Lila was the only Child left with her and Merril l wr ot e ba ck flowering praise to his mother: “I’ll be good if it kill s me , Mom, jus t to be worthy of you and your sweet, unfailing love tha t make s yo u the b est.” As fortune would have it, some local missionari es happ ene d upon Mer rill one day and passed him some Church magazine s and book s. “ Thank God, ” Merrill mused. “They were worth ten days fur lough!”
After 4 months in Phoenix, Merrill was relocated to Pecos, Texas wh e r e h e continued training on a Vultee BT-13, with only one set of wing s . W hil e a novel solution for training purposes, the BT-13 was “a pret t y nas ty a irplane”, by Merrill’s opinion. The manufacturer, Vultee, bu il t th e plane s with no retractable landing gear and an awkward streaml ine , mak ing th e plane shake violently at stalling speeds or during adv entu rous m aneuver s. It was quickly nicknamed the “Vultee Vibrator”. “W e los t 3 o r 4 guys b ecause it was hard to handle,” Merrill reports. Fr om Dec embe r 1941 to th e end of the war in August 1945, the United Stat es Arm y Ai r Forces lost 1 5,000 pilots and personnel in training alone.
While training casualties were not uncommon, a trainee was more lik e l y t o be “washed out” from poor performance. However, in the case o f Me rr ill’ s training group, even solid piloting couldn’t escape Lieute nan t Yor k’s c allousness.
Flight instructor Lieutenant York stood somewhere below 5 foot 9, “a l i t t le guy” and was “proud of his record of washing students out.” Yor k c on si dered himself an expert pilot and placed unreasonable expectati on s o n hi s students. In the morning he’d call his five students to att ent io n and s hout orders to them rapidly. Throughout the day, he’d neve r me nti on anoth er word about their orders. By day’s end, if the studen ts ha dn’ t performe d exactly as prescribed in the morning, they were fl unke d outr ight. Afte r just 40 hours of training, Merrill’s 5-man tea m was r educe d to just 2 f rom York’s flunking them out. Finally, ther e was jus t Merri ll and one Cad et Evans left. (Unfortunately for York , Merrill wa s 6’1” a nd Evans was ev en taller.) “We were as mad at hi m as anything, ” Merril l said.
During night flying, Merrill took Lieutenant York up in his two-seat e r t r aining plane. In order for the gasoline to mix with the oxygen co rr ectl y, a heater was toggled by the pilot to evaporate off the damp Te xa s ai r. The instructor has no control over the plane directly; he coul d o nl y sh out at the trainee-pilot in front of him. Merrill took the op port uni ty t o let off the heater and sputter his engine wildly, pretend ing t ha t he ju st couldn’t hear York’s shouting from behind. Right on c ue, th e “ Vultee V ibrator” would slow to near-stalling speed and begi n shaking . Th e sputter ing engine, the shaking chassis and the Texas da rkness com bine d to creat e a desperate situation. With plane crashes an d casualtie s onc e every oth er week, this was sure to send panic up Lie utenant York ’s spi ne. Merril l and Evans, however, learned to cheat th e stall and re cover t he aircraft, but not before Lieutenant York had sa id his prayers . This w as Merrill’ s small way at getting back at him fo r flunking hi s teammates.
When it came time for Merrill and Evans’ 40-hour flight test, the tw o t r a inees knew they were in for trouble. “Me and this guy Evans decid ed t ha t, well, we just didn’t give a hoot about him at all and we’d jus t sh o w hi m the best we had. And if that wasn’t good enough then toug h luck . W e wer e determined we weren’t gonna get washed out.” The two c adets f le w master fully, even for the scrutinizing eye of Lieutenant Yo rk. “I r eme mber we g ave him a really good show.” Afterwards, a humble d Lieutena nt Y ork admitt ed to his trainees that he was quite impressed . “It was o nly b ecause we c hanged our minds about him and quit pussy-f ootin’ aroun d an d do the bes t we could.”
After a year of training, Merrill was commissioned as 2nd Lieutena n t o n M arch 12th, his airman career was off to a great start.
The new Lieutenant wrote back to his mother after promotion: “Love l i f e a nd God and all the things that make life worth living. Happines s do es n’ t come from anything worldly. There have to be higher goals t o be h app y. The Book of Mormon is really the truth – I feel it and kno w it.”
Whispering in the back of Merrill’s mind was his relationship with Isa b e l le, who remained in Boise. Many of the airmen around him were marri e d a n d some of that was because soldiers were aware that fatal comba t ap proa ch ed in their near future. The marriage rate among young men j umpe d 20 % jus t before the War. Seeing the married servicemen around hi m an d know ing th at he would be deployed soon made marriage prospects w ith I sabell e weig h on Merrill’s mind.
Isabelle was not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -d a y S a ints, and Merrill was certainly aware of this. The Stroud family , l ik e mo st Idahoans, harbored a modest amount of suspicion about thos e Mo rmo ns. “ In regards to Isabelle, I’ve been living my religion as be st a s I k now ho w, so things don’t worry me much,” Merrill wrote to hi s moth er. Ge nerally, marrying outside the faith, while not prohibited , isn’t i deal i n the Mo rmon faith. “I think I’ll know what to do whe n the time c omes. I ’m tryin g to find out what is right.”
Immediately after graduation from flight school, on March 13th, 1944 , M e r rill took 3 days leave and traveled back to Boise. Before arrivin g , h e ca lled Isabelle on the telephone to tell her the news about hi s pr omot ion a nd that he’d be arriving on leave. Isabelle met him whe n he ar rive d in Bo ise, remembering that “it took him about five minute s to say —”
“We’re going to get married,” Merrill said.
“We can’t!” Isabelle replied. “You only have three days!”
Isabelle remembers that, “We always knew we would get married, so th e a n s wer was ‘Yes!’” With only three days to spare, Merrill and Isabel le r us he d to get their blood tests done. The shipping from hospital t o la b wa s to o slow, so they toted their own vials to the laboratory t o sav e time. “W e were so excited and happy!” Isabelle said.
On the 16th of March 1944, 22-year-old Merrill and Isabelle were mar r i e d in his mother’s tiny house by Bishop Willis S. Petersen. Some o f bo t h f amilies were in attendance. Many visitors, excited to hear o f Merri ll ’s r eturn, came by the Boise Hotel that evening to give thei r congrat ula tions. One of these was Lee Knockleby of Lee’s Candy.
The next day, Mr. and Mrs. Merrill Eldon Barnes flew off to Rowell , N e w M exico. They arrived at the Zuni Motel to meet the other traine e cou pl es, who were too excited to sleep. The new pilots and their wive s stay e d u p playing cards together late into the night. Then they bega n thei r t rain ing as pilots of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress – “the l arges t an d bes t bomber the U.S. had in World War 2”.
The B-17 bomber was a four engine bomber that weighed 10 times what Me r r i ll’s BT trainers had weighed. Nearly three BT13s could fit end to e n d a n d they wouldn’t match the wingspan of the B-17. The B-17 could f l y thr e e times as far and 100mph faster than Merrill’s trainers. Despi t e bein g e quipped with armaments for 6 separate gunners and 10 crew me mb ers tot al, the B-17 was renowned for stability in flight and for an u nca nny abi lit y to sustain heavy damage yet remain navigable. Indeed, t he B -17 wa s th e most important strategic air weapon of World War II.
Merrill quickly finished his training in New Mexico and then was trans f e r red to Avon Park, Florida, where he would soon be assigned a perman e n t fl ight crew. But the fledgling cadet approached the commander an d re qu este d permission to select some Latter-day Saints for his crew m ember s a nd wa s granted permission to look around. Sure enough, Merril l foun d a M ormo n to man each and every position of his 10-man B-17 wit h the e xcepti on o f the radioman who was a good-natured Catholic. (Th e tenth me mber o f th e crew was transient.) The 9 LDS crew members beca me close fr iends a nd th eir association strengthened ties to their fait h.
The crew of Merrill’s B-17 #44-6546 was as follows:
1. Lt. Merrill E. Barnes – Pilot from Boise, Idaho.
2. Lt. Lawrence A. Ward – Copilot from Blackfoot, Idaho.
3. F/O Robert E. Edelen – Navigator from Denver, Colorado.
4. F/O Lowell D. Pearson – Bombardier from Midvale, Utah.
5. Sgt. Ralph A. Hixon – Ball Turret Gunner (asst. radio operator) f r o m P rovo, Utah.
6. Cpl. Deveroux W. Bowman – Left Waist Gunner (armorer) from Kanab, U t a h.
7. Cpl. Dale H. Harper – Top turret Gunner (engineer) from Los Angele s , C alifornia.
8. Cpl. Gael W. Elmer – Tail Gunner (asst. armorer) from Milford, Utah.
9. Cpl. Robert H. Tucker – Right Waist Gunner (radio operator) from Sy r a c use, New York, the lone catholic.
Merrill’s crew became friends instantly and their comfort with each o t h e r made for fine flying. Their handle on the plane and the bombing m ec ha ni sms grew more and more accurate and other crews began to notice . Th e M orm on boys were bull’s eye bombers.
Training was desperately rigorous. Night flying was an essential ski l l f o r which they had to train at ungodly hours. The fatigue grew so b a d th a t during one test flight, nine out of ten crew members fell asle e p whi l e the bomber was in flight! Merrill, his co-pilot and all the g un ners f el l fast asleep. – the radioman and bombardier too. “We were a l l passe d out,” Merrill wrote. Fortunately, the navigator stayed awake . B ob Edel en ha d been reclaimed from the Pacific and had experience a s a n enginee r an d a navigator over the Pacific Ocean. He happened to b e “s hootin g a star ” that night and pinning the plane trajectory accord ing t o the c onstellat ions. When the plane began falling out of course , Edele n caugh t the stray ing and radioed to the pilots. Eventually, Ed elen wok e up th e crew, the y turned around and reached their airstrip s afely. Th ey (ver y literally) thanked their stars.16
On another occasion, Merrill got the best of Edelen by flying straig h t o v er the city of Miami. The navigator’s dials tracked radio signal s a nd M ia mi was one place where radio signals came from all direction s an d thre w E delen’s dials into fits. Merrill coyly asked his navigato r fo r thei r coor dinates. While Edelend scrambled for an answer, Merril l an d Lieute nant Wa rd chuckled to themselves in the cockpit. “We alway s ha d a lot o f fun.”
The Mormon boys excelled at their craft. Out of the 56 different crew s , t hey lead the squadron in their flight record. On their last bombi n g m issi on, just to settle it that they were the best, the crew determ in ed t hat t hey would actually drop a practice shell from 20,000 feet o nt o a ra ft i n the middle of a lake. “He figured that no one else woul d be lieve i t,” M errill remembered. Sure enough, they planted a shell o n tha t tiny r aft fr om 20,000 feet. “That’s pinpointing,” Merrill bragg ed.
They had so proven their superiority that they kicked off their la s t f e w shells into nowhere for celebration. They could afford losing t h e poi nt s because they were already so far ahead. There was no disputi n g it; t he y were the best in the squadron. The commander – perhaps una wa re of th e r eligious prohibitions of this uniquely religious unit – a war ded the c re w with a 3-day vacation in Havana, Cuba.
“Boy, I’ll tell you,” Merrill remarked of the occasion. “Seeing Cu b a w a s eye-opening itself. It’s like Tijuana, Mexico. We stayed in wh a t the y c alled the National Motel down there, which is supposed t o b e a big re sort, but it was really a kind of mess compared to North A meri can hotels.”
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Has more than 100 ancestors but no descendants in this family tree.
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