Lynn W. Bird was born in 1910 in Illinois. He was the son of Woodford Austin Bird and Clarissa Walker Bird. He had enlisted in the Army Air Forces on October 12, 1942, and received his initial training at Camp Grant before being assigned to the Air Corps and sent to Miami Beach, Florida, for further instruction. After completing his training, he was transferred to Chicago and later to Texas, where he earned his gunner's wings on January 3, 1944. He served in the 787th Bombardment Squadron, 466th Bombardment Group, Heavy, as a Sergeant and Radio Operator of B-24H #41-29354 during World War II.

On February 14, 1944, B-24H Liberator #41-29354 was lost at sea while ferrying a new aircraft from the United States to Dakar, Senegal, as part of the 466th Bombardment Group's deployment to the European Theater of Operations. Approximately 100 miles off the U.S. coast, the crew transmitted a distress message reporting serious engine trouble and indicating that they were abandoning the aircraft and taking to life rafts. Some accounts suggest that the aircraft may have run out of fuel, although the exact cause of the incident remains uncertain. Despite the distress call, neither the aircraft nor its crew was ever recovered. All crew members were subsequently declared Killed in Action.

Sgt Bird was declared Missing in Action, and his name is memorialized in the Tablets of the Missing in the North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial, Carthage, Délégation de Carthage, Tunis, Tunisia. He also has a cenotaph in the Hampshire Center Cemetery, Hampshire, Illinois.

Sources of information: www.findagrave.com, americanarchive.iwm.org.uk, weremember.abmc.gov