Born in Oradell July 5, 1921, he moved to Ridgewood with his family to live at 36 Fairmount Rd. He went to Ridgewood High School but graduated from the Peddie School in 1940, after which he went on to Union College for two years, where he played on the lacrosse team. He entered the service in January 1942, receiving his commission at Marianna, Fla. 51 weeks later.

Captain Easterly was lost April 11, 1944. Leading a formation and piloting a P-51B Mustang "Brenda II", he dropped down to 200 feet to strafe an airdrome. On his second pass, he was hit by ground fire, suddenly slowed up and his left wing went into some trees. His plane started burning, blew up and crashed one-half mile south of Wilkendorf and one-half mile west of Gartenstadt, a small community a few miles east of Berlin. It was just prior to his death that he was promoted to Captain, although it is doubtful that he had received the news.

One day earlier he had written a letter to his parents saying “If you are thinking of my coming home after I complete my time, you might just as well forget about that because I have already put in for another tour of operational missions… There is still a lot of dirt to sweep out and a lot of rats to exterminate, although a lot of them will probably be pretty mouselike before we’re through.”

He was awarded his second DFC posthumously. Initially buried by civilians in Wilkendorf, his remains were identified and re-interred in the Ardennes American Cemetery, Neupre, Belgium in 1947. At death he was 22 years old.

On April 11, 1944, I was flying number 3 position in Blow Ball Yellow Flight. Lt Easterly, Blow Ball Yellow Leader, took our Flight down to strafe an airdrome northeast of Leipzig, Germany; probably Mensdorf. We followed another flight of P-51's across the airdrome. We were making our second pass at approximately 1245, and as we crossed the field I noticed Lt Easterly's ship slow up considerably. I throttled back immediately to keep from over-running him. We were at an altitude of approximately 200 feet when his airplane slid off on the left wing and went into some trees at about a seventy degree angle. His airplane blew up immediately and started burning. In my opinion Lt Easterly was hit by ground fire but I did not notice any while we were making our strafe on the airdrome. Statement from Darwin D. McCasland, 2nd Lt, Air Corps.
Source of information: Astrid van Erp, Chris Stout, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.fold3.com, www.findagrave.com