‘A happy moment’: Celebratory feel to World War II pilot’s Beaufort burial

U.S. Army Air Force Capt. Albert Schlegel rode to his final resting place draped in an American flag.

The silver hearse passed under a large flag hanging over the roadway and motored by dozens of smaller flags waved by people who never knew the ace World War II aviator whose remains were identified last year after more than 70 years.

The ceremony was as much a homecoming parade as it was a funeral on a warm Thursday morning at Beaufort National Cemetery.

“This is a moment of closure,” Schlegel’s nephew, Callawassie Island resident Perry Nuhn, told a large crowd gathered with the casket. “This is a happy moment.”

Schlegel was from Garfield Heights, Ohio, and was shot down at age 25 during a mission over France. His family thought for decades he had died in an explosion and that his body was never recovered.

But forensic investigators connected a set of remains in an American cemetery in France with Schlegel’s story. Nuhn learned of his uncle’s fate last year — Schlegel had apparently been interrogated by Germans and executed after his P-51D went down.

Schlegel was remembered for his “personal courage and selflessness” during a prayer Thursday.

“A marble headstone will be his lasting tribute,” Beaufort National Cemetery director Sonny Peppers said.

The aviator was buried with full military honors. A bugler sounded taps, and an honor guard delivered a three-volley salute.

A World War II uniform was borrowed from the Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force and Nuhn affixed both sets of Schlegel’s wings, both American and from the Royal Canadian Air Force, which Schlegel joined first after crossing the border into Canada.

Nuhn received Schlegel’s Purple Heart during a ceremony at the museum Wednesday. The medal was awarded for the first time, since Schlegel’s remains had not previously been identified. The fighter pilot claimed 16 victories and also earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal multiple times.

Members of the Military Order of the Purple Heart attended the ceremony, along with Marines from Parris Island and Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, elementary school children and college students on spring break from Missouri.

Attendees from Disabled American Veterans placed forget-me-not flowers on the casket and a man in a motorized wheelchair placed his hand briefly on the wood before moving on.

“This doesn’t happen everywhere, I can promise you that,” Peppers said of the turnout.

Schlegel’s dog tags were affixed to the casket. His medals and the uniform will be returned to the museum in Pooler, Ga., where Nuhn is a guide.

Nuhn, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, delivered the final words on his “Uncle Sonny,” whose nickname as a pilot was “Smiley.”

Flying doesn’t come easily to all pilots, he noted.

“Others feel one with the airplane they are flying,” Nuhn said. “He must have been one of those.”

This story was originally published March 30, 2017 at 1:23 PM with the headline "‘A happy moment’: Celebratory feel to World War II pilot’s Beaufort burial."