Vernon D. Mueller was born on 8 November 1919 in Mascoutah, Illinois. He lived with his father George, his mother Freya (nee Bocquet), and his sister Marjorie (Mrs. Wilfred Kleypas). Vernon graduated from Mascoutah Community High School in 1937. He attended Bradley Tech at Peoria before taking up a career as a skilled technician in the automotive industry in 1939.
Vernon enlisted at Scott Air Force Base Illinois on 3 October 1940, volunteering for aircrew, and successfully qualified as a pilot.
He obtained a commission on 3 November 1943 at Albany, Georgia, before joining his crew at Alamogordo, New Mexico as co-pilot to Lt Ray Sachtleben, then moved on to final combat training at Davis Monthan airfield Tucson, Arizona. After training, he sailed to the UK in the Queen Elizabeth as commanding officer of the 856th squadron crewmen onboard the ship, giving the co-pilot's seat in aircraft B24J (44-40146) 'Sugar-n-Spice' to Lt Kehoe, the 856th squadron's operations officer for the trans-Atlantic flight to North Pickenham.
In April 1944, Vernon arrived at North Pickenham, where he and the rest of his crew were engaged with familiarization flights before their initial combat mission in 'Sugar-n-Spice' on 11 May 1944. There were two further missions in this aircraft; the six following missions were in a variety of other 'ships.' The final and fatal mission on 4 June 1944 was in B24H (#42-95160). This un-named replacement aircraft was on its fourth mission, having arrived on the squadron five days earlier.
A co-pilot on the airplane, B-24H #42-95160 took off from England on a bombing mission over Avord, France. For an unknown reason, the plane stalled and spun out of control, and crashed at Garvestone, Norfolk, England.
2Lt Mueller, along with all his crew was buried at the US Cemetery at Madingley on 5 June 1944. His remains were later repatriated and were buried in the Valhalla Gardens of Memory and Mausoleum, Belleville, St. Clair County, Illinois, USA.
Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.garveston12.org.uk