Louis Pellizzer was born at Thurber, Erath County, Texas on March 15, 1920. His family called him Louie. He was the youngest of eleven children of Antonio 'Tony' Pellizzer (29 Apr 1877 – 8 Jan 1940) and Catherine (Simeoni or Semioni) Pellizzer (25 Apr 1876 – 3 Jul 1963). His parents were from San Zenone degli Ezzelini, Province of Treviso, Italy, northwest of Venice; they married about 1902 and immigrated to America about 1903. In 1918 the family lived at Thurber, Texas, where his father was a coal miner for Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company, a supplier of fuel for railroads. Thurber was a large company town and most of the Thurber Italians were from northern Italy. The family moved to San Mateo, California in the early 1920s when the coal mining industry in Thurber collapsed.

In 1930 the family lived at 741 South Eldorado Street, San Mateo, San Mateo County, California. By 1932 the family home was at 945 South Eldorado Street in San Mateo. In California his father was employed as a concrete worker and stone mason. His father died in January 1940.

He completed one year of high school and worked as a garbage truck driver for the City of San Mateo. He registered for the draft at San Mateo on July 1, 1941. He was 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighed 160 pounds, and had brown eyes and brown hair. He was single, without dependents, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army at San Francisco, California on April 1, 1942.

He completed Army Air Forces flight engineer and aerial gunnery training, and was assigned as nose turret gunner on the heavy bomber crew of Lt James A. Logan. By December 1943 the Logan crew began B-24 crew training at Davis-Monthan Field in Tucson, Arizona. In January 1944 the Logan crew was assigned to the 836th Bomb Squadron, 487th Bomb Group, at Alamogordo Army Air Base, New Mexico. There they completed B-24 crew training, and deployed with the Group to England in March 1944. They flew B-24H 41-29520 from Alamogordo, New Mexico to Lavenham, England via the southern Atlantic ferry route—a journey of about 10,000 miles—and arrived in England by mid-April 1944. The 487th Bomb Group was based at Army Air Forces Station 137 near Lavenham, Suffolk, England, and was part of the 8th U.S. Army Air Force in Europe.

On July 2, 1944 the 487th Bomb Group dispatched two squadrons of B-24s to bomb the German V-weapon site at Belloy-sur-Somme, France, northwest of Amiens near the River Somme. Lt Logan's crew flew B-24H 42-52609 on this mission. On the return route, S/Sgt Pellizzer and five of his crewmates were killed in action when their aircraft was shot down by flak in the area of Bethune-St. Pol, France. After the aircraft was hit and on fire, Lt Logan pulled up to avoid colliding with another aircraft in the formation. This was B-24H 42-52766 'Sammy's Niece' with the crew of Lt Joseph P. Peyton aboard. Lt Logan's selfless act saved the Peyton crew; then his aircraft broke up and went down in flames. It crashed 3.5 kilometers west of Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise, and 2 kilometers east of Siracourt, in the vicinity of 50.373°N, 2.291°E. Three men survived and became prisoners of war.

The other five crew members who were killed were buried at Evreux, France. There is no original burial report available for Sgt Pellizzer. His remains were returned to the United States and interred in a group burial with sixteen other identified airmen and one Unknown Air Corps at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, Saint Louis, Missouri on January 9, 1952.

B-24H 42-52609 crew:
• Logan, James A – 2/Lt – Pilot – KIA
• Matika, Bruno – 2/Lt – Copilot – KIA
• Doran, Harry LeRoy – 2/Lt – Navigator – POW
• Greer, George Hubert – T/Sgt – Engineer – POW
• Johnson, William T – S/Sgt – Radio Operator – KIA
• Pellizzer, Louis – S/Sgt – Nose Turret Gunner – KIA
• Wilson, Max W – S/Sgt – Upper Turret Gunner – KIA
• Buck, Herman W – S/Sgt – Ball Turret Gunner – KIA
• Ross, John Finlay – S/Sgt – Tail Turret Gunner – POW

Source of information: Paul M. Webber, www.findagrave.com