Edwin Rufus Everett was born on June 30, 1924, in Homestead, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Homer D. Everett and Alice Miller Everett. A graduate of Central High School, Class of 1941, he worked as a welder at the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Company and attended night engineering classes at Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh before enlisting in the Army Air Forces on December 15, 1942. He trained as a radio man at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and earned his gunner’s wings at Yuma, Arizona, on March 13, 1944. Assigned overseas that July, he flew his first combat mission over Budapest, Hungary, on July 27, 1944, and participated in fourteen bombing missions with the 15th Air Force in Italy. He served in the 20th Bombardment Squadron, 2nd Bomber Group, Heavy, as a Staff Sergeant and Radio Operator of B-17 #42-31473 nicknamed 'My Baby' during World War II.

On August 29, 1944, during Mission 263, the Air Battle over the White Carpathians, the 15th U.S. Air Force launched a bombing raid from Italy against the Moravská Ostrava industrial complex in occupied Czechoslovakia. The formation met fierce resistance from German fighters and flak, and the 20th Bomb Squadron, 2nd Bomb Group, lost all eight of its B-17s. Among them was B-17G “My Baby” (42-31473), a veteran bomber originally from the 99th Bomb Group. On its 95th mission, the aircraft was shot down by enemy fighters and crashed near Nová Bošáca, Slovakia. Of the ten crew members, five were killed in action, the co-pilot succumbed to his wounds four days later, and four others survived but were taken prisoner.

SSgt Everett was killed in Action and is now buried in the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial, Saint-Avold, Departement de la Moselle, Lorraine, France.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, b17flyingfortress.de, www.leteckabitvakarpaty.cz