Orian George Owens was born on January 22, 1915, in Mechanicsville, Cedar County, Iowa. He graduated from Lisbon High School in 1935 and moved to West Liberty, Iowa. He joined the U.S. Army in 1942 and was trained as a First Engineer and top turret gunner on a B-17 bomber. Assigned to the 469th Air Force Bomber Squadron, Owens flew with the "Rationed Passion" B-17.

On January 11, 1944, during a mission over Germany, his plane was damaged and eventually crashed in Holland. Owens, injured upon landing, was hidden and assisted by the Dutch Resistance and later moved through Belgium. On April 22, 1944, after being betrayed and captured by German soldiers, Owens and seven other airmen were executed in a wooded area near Chimay. Their bodies were buried in a mass grave and later moved to Margraten military cemetery in the Netherlands.

After the war, Belgian authorities prosecuted those responsible for the massacre. In 1948, Owens' remains were returned to the U.S., where he was buried at Lisbon Cemetery, Lisbon, Linn County, Iowa, USA. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, Air Medal, and Oak Leaf Cluster.

Source of information: 42n.blogspot.com