Fire of Patriotism: Basil A. Coats

Basil Arhtur Coats
Staff Sergeant, United States Army Air Forces
Crew 67, 571st Bomber Squadron, 390th Bomber Group
B-17 Bomber Waist Gunner - German Prisoner of War

August 3, 2015 - On December 16th, 1919, thirteen months after the end of World War I, Basil Arthur Coats was born to Walter Luther (1897-1920) and Alpha Elizabeth Byrd (1901-1973) Coates in Shelbyville, Texas. His father had registered for the World War I draft on September 12th, 1918 but was never called to serve as the “Great War” ended two months later. He listed his occupation as a Derick Man with the Texas Oil Company in Shelbyville. Walter died at the age of 22 on April 24th, 1920 and the 1920 census showed Basil and his mother were boarders with the Thomas Cagle family at Paul’s Store and Shelbyville Road. She remarried Willie Waymond Dalby and a baby brother, Harold Lee Dalby was born in 1925. Basil graduated from Shelbyville High School with the class of 1928 and was then employed by the same company his father worked for, The Texas Company.

At the age of 22 Basil enlisted the US Army Air Forces on November 7th, 1942 in Houston, Texas “for the duration of the war or other emergency, plus six months subject to the discretion of the President”. He was sent to gunnery school and then joined crew 67 of 571st Bomb Squadron, 390th Bomb Group flying out of Framlingham, England as a waist gunner. The 390th flew its first B-17 bomber mission on August 12, 1943.

US Army Air Forces Patch, Enlisted Aircrew Member Wings, 371st Bomb Squadron Patch, Bronze Star Medal with 1 Oak Leaf Cluster, Prisoner of War Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, and World War II Victory MedalFrom that time until June 5th, 1944 Staff Sergeant Basil Coats had flown an incredible 119 combat missions over Europe. On mission 120 he was part of a 10 man crew aboard B-17G # 297473 “Berlin Express” that took off with a mission to bomb military targets at Boulogne, France in support of the D-Day invasion. The plane took a direct hit in the bomb bay by German flak and crashed near Dargniers. The pilot Earl Armstrong and ball turret gunner Paul Ortega, both on their 120th mission also, were killed and the other eight crew members were taken prisoners of war by the Germans.

For the next eight months Basil would remain a POW of the Germans at Stalag Luft III in the German province of Lower Silesia, 100 miles southeast of Berlin and the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany. After his return to American control he was returned to the United States and then released from active duty on November 4, 1945, two days shy of three years’ service. Somewhere in that 36 months and the many combat missions he flew, two Bronze Stars were earned for valor and a lifetime of adventure was lived.

Basil married Gertrude Louviere in 1951, and graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in anesthesiology and raised two daughters and two sons. He was a retired CRNA (nurse anesthetist) and resident of Thibodaux, Louisiana when he died from complications of surgery on April 2, 2008 at the age of 88. His obituary read “He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Gertrude L. Coats; two daughters and sons-in-law, Kelli and Jimmy Thompson, of Alvin, Texas, and Karen and Lakshman Velupillai, of Baton Rouge; two sons and daughters-in-law, Paul R. and Peggy Coats, of Patterson, and R. Morris and Lisa Coats, of Thibodaux; 10 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.”

His obituary went on to say that he was a Masonic Lodge member for 60 years, loved fishing and woodworking, wrote poetry, never knew a stranger and loved his God, his family and his country. His God and country also loved him and we are grateful that men like him lived when they did and saved our world. Day is done, God is nigh.

Note: Brother Harold Dalby also served in the US Army during WW II and passed on November 12, 1982.

(Sources: FindAGrave, 2015; 390th Memorial Museum.org, 2015; Ancestry.com, 2015; Champion Newspaper, 12/28/1944)