"Community members are pitching in to help find out more about the World War II pilot whose plane was recently discovered by divers in the sea off Italy. Historian Robert Fridlington found several pieces of information in the archives of the Cranford Historical Society about the man, Neal Gundersen, who was the pilot of the ill-fated P47 Thunderbolt on April 14, 1944, when the plane was shot down. Quartermaster of the Cranford VFW Joseph DelGrippo said he didn’t know anything about Gundersen but would check the VFW’s records and contact members who served in World War II and ask them if they knew anything about the pilot. The men are trying to help Sergio Caci, the mayor of Montalto di Castro, a small town about 100 kilometers northwest of Rome, solve the mystery of what became of the man whose plane crashed into the sea not far from his town. Members of the Assopaguro Diving Association, who found the plane about 25 meters under the sea, did find out quite a lot about the pilot. They discovered the serial number of the plane and the name and rank of the pilot — Second Lieutenant Neal H. Gundersen of Cranford — and that he belonged to the 64th Fighter Squadron “Black Scorpions.” They also learned that, after Gunderso’s plane was shot down, he parachuted from the burning plane only to be captured and taken prisoner by the German Army. He was a prisoner of war until his release in May 1945. What the mayor and members of the diving association want to do is fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle. How and where was Gundersen captured? How did he get to the prisoner of war camp, what was it like there, what happened when the camp was liberated and, finally, what was his life like when he returned home?" Discovered undersea, WWII aircraft has Cranford searching for clues to pilot’s identity
The SSN Death Index here had only this info: [TABLE="class: p_resultTable"] [TR] [TH]Name:[/TH] [TD]Neal Gundersen[/TD] [TD="class: recordTN"] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TH]SSN:[/TH] [TD]140-14-4549[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TH]Born:[/TH] [TD]23 Jan 1921[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TH]Died:[/TH] [TD]Mar 1973[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TH]State (Year) SSN issued:[/TH] [TD]New Jersey (Before 1951)[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]
From Veteran Records: [TABLE="class: p_resultTable"] [TR] [TH]Name:[/TH] [TD]Neal Gundersen[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TH]Birth Date:[/TH] [TD]23 Jan 1921[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TH]Death Date:[/TH] [TD]28 Mar 1973[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TH]SSN:[/TH] [TD]140144549[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TH]Branch 1:[/TH] [TD]ARMY[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TH]Enlistment Date 1:[/TH] [TD]1 Feb 1943[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TH]Release Date 1:[/TH] [TD]18 Oct 1945[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TH]Enlistment Date 2:[/TH] [TD]3 Nov 1943[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]
