The same day that Jenevieve Judd gave birth to her son, John Elliott, in October 1944, she received a crushing telegram from the U.S. military informing her that her husband had gone missing while serving in World War II.
Mr. Elliott, now 79, said that his mother had told him that she had been so affected by the news of his father’s disappearance that it made labor more difficult, possibly causing Mr. Elliott to spend the first week of his life in an oxygen tank after being born purple.
Over the years, Ms. Judd told her son extremely little about her missing husband, who remained unaccounted for until May of this year.
John A. Tarbert of the Air Force was killed at 24 after his plane was attacked while flying over Germany 80 years ago this Friday.
“I’m a low-key kind of a guy, and the excitement is just beginning to kind of swell up inside me,” Mr. Elliott said in an interview on Monday.
Persons:
Jenevieve Judd, John Elliott, Elliott, Judd, John A, “, ” Mr
Organizations:
U.S, The Defense Department, Air Force
Locations:
Germany