Walter S. Hutchings was born on January 5, 1918 in Alderson, West Virginia. He resided in Illinois prior to the war. Walter served as a First Lieutenant in the 325th Field Artillery Battalion, 84th Infantry Division, U.S. Army during World War II. On May 23, 1945, he was a passenger on Flight C-46D (4-77507) which was taking 41 American soldiers that were ill, injured, or repatriated prisoners of war to hospitals in the Paris, France area and was then eventually going to take them all back to the United States. This flight occurred after Germany's surrender on May 7, 1945. However this C-46, for unknown reasons, developed a fire in one of it's two engines and crashed near the village of Taillefontaine, near Paris. All men aboard were killed in the crash. 1LT Hutchings died at the age of 27 and is now buried in the Fairmount-Willow Hills Memorial Park, Willow Springs, Cook County, Illinois, USA.