Claude Wayland Tucker

Claude Wayland Tucker. Image Source: East Carolina Yearbooks, Tecoan, 1941. UA50-01. University Archives, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.

Claude Wayland Tucker was born on July 6, 1919, in Greenville, N.C., the fourth son of Edward Franklin Tucker (1875-1947) and Sarah Elliott Tucker (1881-1965). He graduated from Greenville High School in 1939 and attended ECTC. Tucker played football and basketball as a high school student and then in 1940, while a student at ECTC, was on the college football team the year John Christenbury became the new coach.

Tucker joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in December 1940. Two years later, he graduated from the Army Flying School at Spence Field, Moultrie, Georgia, as staff sergeant pilot. In November of 1942, he was commissioned a second lieutenant at Nashville, Tennessee, then promoted to first lieutenant in 1943, and to captain in July 1945.

Stationed in Asia, Tucker served in the Army Air Transport Command’s India-China Division based in the Assam Valley, India. At the time he was killed near Cherrapunji, India, July 28, 1945, Tucker had been flying C-109 cargo aircraft for seven months from India over the Himalayan Mountains (the “Hump”) to the Nationalist GMD forces in China in their fight against Japanese domination. Tucker’s death occurred in what turned out to be, following Japan’s surrender in August of 1945, the last month of full operations for the India-China Division.

Tucker was among the 2,000 Americans who died, between 1941 and 1945, fighting in defense of China against Japan’s invading forces. He is remembered on the Monument to the Aviation Martyrs in the War of Resistance Against Japan, in Nanjing, and is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Greenville, N.C. Surviving were his wife, Mrs. Gay Dupree Tucker and a daughter, Judy. Tucker’s three older brothers – Edwin Theodore Tucker (1909-1991), William Eric Tucker (1912-2009), and Kenneth Elliott Tucker (1916-1991) – also served their country during WWII.

Sources:

• “Army Promotes Two Tar Heels: Morganton Officer Made Captain and Greenville Lieutenant Advanced.” News and Observer. August 20, 1943. P. 19.
• “Capt. C. Wayland Tucker.” News and Observer. December 18, 1948. P. 2.
• “Capt. Tucker Killed In Plane Crash.” Rocky Mount Telegram. September 28, 1945. P. 11.
• “Dies in Crash.” News and Observer. October 17, 1945. P. 8.
• “Tucker, Claude Wayland.” American War Memorials Overseas, Inc. https://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/people_details.php?PeopleID=23239
• “War Dead Rites. News and Observer. December 17, 1945. P. 17.
• “Wayland Tucker Dies In Crash.” Teco Echo. November 2, 1945. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38107
• Whitfield, James. “Greenville Teachers Have New Grid Coach: John Christenbury of Statesville to Pilot East Carolina Teachers.” News and Observer. September 10, 1940. P. 12.
• “Wins Wings.” News and Observer. August 15, 1942. P. 9.

Related Materials

Claude Wayland Tucker. Image Source: East Carolina Yearbooks, Tecoan, 1940. UA50-01. University Archives, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.

Claude Wayland Tucker’s Draft Registration Card. Image Source: U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947. Ancestry.com.

Claude Wayland Tucker. Image Source: News and Observer. August 15, 1942. P. 9.

Image Source: U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963.

Claude Wayland Tucker. Image Source: News and Observer.October 17, 1945. P. 9.

Citation Information