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Staff Sgt. Moses F. Tate

Seneca, Kansas

05/22/1920 - 08/01/1943

U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Moses F. Tate, 23, of Seneca, Kansas was killed in action on 1 Aug 1943 while in combat over Barcanesti, Romania during World War II. On July 12, 2022, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Staff Sergeant Moses Frank Tate, missing from World War II.

Moses was born on May 22, 1920, the oldest child of Charles Albert and Mary Alice Hailey Tate, in Seneca, Kansas. Moses attended the Seneca Public School.

Staff Sergeant Tate entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Kansas on June 24, 1940. His military specialty was Gunner. Moses served in the 415th Bombardment Squadron, 98th Bombardment Group. On August 1, 1943, Operation TIDAL WAVE, a bombing raid against the oil refineries around Ploiești, Romania, was launched. One hundred and seventy-seven B-24 Liberators took off from Benghazi, Libya, for the raid. SSG Tate was the tail gunner on one Liberator (serial number 42-40520) that was one of fifty-one planes that failed to return. His remains were not identified following the war. Operation TIDAL WAVE, while successfully damaging the Ploiești oil refineries, cost the lives of hundreds of USAAF airmen, many of whom were interred by Romanian citizens into the Bolovan Cemetery in Ploiești. During postwar operations there, the American Graves Registration Command exhumed unknown remains that were eventually reinterred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery. In 2017, DPAA began exhuming those unknowns for comparison with the unaccounted-for airmen lost during Operation TIDAL WAVE. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established an association between one set of these unknown remains and SSG Tate. Staff Sergeant Tate was memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery in Impruneta, Italy. His parents got word that he was missing in action. For his parents it was a very devastating news to here.

Moses was decorated with the following medals; Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, Purple Heart, World War ii Victory Medal, Army Presidential Unit Citation, American Campaign Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal and the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Charles on April 29, 1963 and Mary on December 10, 1979; siblings, Alice Tate in 1922, Marvin Tate in 1989, Helen Helvey in 2001, Robert Tate in 1993, Raymond Tate in 2007, Jackson Tate in 2005, Thelma Prudhomme in 2022, Valentine Tate in 1984, Albert Tate in 1987, Richard Tate in 2001 and Lola Tate in 2021.

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2 Comments

  1. Marcia marie Buttner on November 10, 2022 at 4:21 pm

    he happens to be my brother in laws brother. that is quite an interesting story. such a sad story though

  2. Carol Tlachac on November 15, 2022 at 2:07 pm

    Thank you to you & your family for your service & sacrifice.

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