Friday, May 10, 2024
With Memorial Day soon approaching, a young Coryell County man should be recognized and remembered for his heroic actions during World War II, which resulted in him sacrificing his life for his country.
James Marion Hair, affectionately known around town as “Sonny Boy,” was born in Gatesville on Nov. 28, 1918. He was the only son of Marion Jackson “Byrd” Hair and Eugenia “Genia” Hair. Always known for his athleticism and good personality, he played football for three years at Gatesville High School, where he graduated in 1937. He would continue his football career while he attended Sam Houston State University in Huntsville where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1941.
Following his graduation from college, Hair enlisted in the Air Corps on July 12, 1941, five months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which launched the United States into the raging war. It was his lifelong dream to be a pilot. Soon after enlisting, he graduated from advanced flight training and would later receive special training for piloting the B-17 “Flying Fortress.”
Hair was first based in England where he participated in some of the earliest bombing raids over Nazi sites in occupied France. He later earned an Air Medal for “exceptional skill and resourcefulness” in navigating his bomber back to the base after it was damaged by enemy fire in October of 1942.
The unexpected happened on March 22, 1943, during a high-altitude bombing mission over Palermo Harbor in Sicily, Italy. The bomber that Hair was piloting, along with his co-pilot Lonnie Miers and seven other crew men, was hit by flack over their target, which resulted in the engine exploding and the air ship breaking up in mid-air.
According to War Department records, one of the crew members reported, “We were making our run over the target when all of a sudden the plane was full of fire, then everything went black.” Another crew member recalled Lt. Hair saying, “Sorry fellows, but you will have to bail out,” and some were able to parachute out of the bomber before it plunged to the earth below. Captain Emmet Cook would later write, “I am quite sure that 1st Lt. James M. Hair, the first pilot, was still at the controls when the ship blew up. Lt. Lonnie Miers, the co-pilot, was trapped near the forward escape hatch.” Both young men, both Texas natives, perished on that fateful day.
Hair’s parents were notified about the incident and held hope that he had been able to parachute to safety. The War Department first listed him as “Missing in Action.” His family continued to remain optimistic, but after four years of waiting for some kind of word, in 1947 they erected a large tombstone in the Gatesville Masonic Cemetery in his memory.
According to an article that appeared in the Gatesville Messenger, “… it was customary for the United States to report their men ‘Killed in Action’ unless evidence of the survival was discovered. No evidence of this was reported to the Hair family.”
In 1950, several years after the probable death of Lt. Hair and his co-pilot was first reported, new evidence emerged and it was discovered that their remains, along with their dog tag identifications, were located by a citizen living in Palermo where they were interred in a small cemetery. Seven years since the two went missing over Italy, their remains were returned to Texas where they were buried together in a common grave at the Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio. Due to the condition of their remains, and prior to DNA testing, it was impossible to identify Hair and Miers definitely, so it was decided that they would be buried together.
In 2009, the Sam Houston State University Lettermen’s Association reached out to the Gatesville Messenger with an inquiry into the life of Sonny Hair and his family. Hair had been elected to the SHSU Hall of Fame.
Upon reading the article of inquiry in the newspaper, Erle Powell and John Frank Post were the first to call with information about the former Gatesville High School football player. Both men described Hair as being “a good athlete.”
While a student at SHSU, Hair played football in the backfield from 1938 until 1940, earning All-America honors in 1938 and twice receiving all-conference honors. “To include a member of the ‘Greatest Generation’ will make this year’s event even more special,” Jack D. Kyle, secretary of the SHSU Lettermen’s Association said, in 2009. Lt. James Hair was inducted into the SHSU Hall of Fame during a fall ceremony.
While Hair’s remains are interred in the national cemetery in San Antonio, the marker in the Gatesville Masonic Cemetery reminds locals of an amazing young man who became known as a “World War II hero.”
