About

Henry Escher Jr., the son of Henry and Muriel (Goepel) Escher, was born on July 1, 1913, in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating from Princeton University, he relocated to Schenectady from New Jersey. At the General Electric Company, Henry worked in the aeronautics and marine division. 

On February 9, 1943, Henry enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps. He held the rank of First Lieutenant and served with the  793rd Bomber Squadron, 468th Bomber Group. Henry was on board a B-29-1 BN super bomber on June 16, 1944, when it crashed into a mountain 200 miles from Cheng Tu, China, while on a bombing mission to Yawata, Japan. The residents of the mountain buried the crew because no one survived. At Fort McPherson National Cemetery, Nebraska, the entire crew was reinterred. 

Sources: The Schenectady Gazette, Find A Grave, Ancestry