On This Day 74 years ago: LT Thomas Benedict Downey’s untimely death

LT Thomas Downey served as a WWII 101st Screaming Eagle in Fox Company, 502nd PIR, and was PFC Dan McBride’s (assistant) platoon commander throughout the whole period of the war. He survived all the main WWII battles the 101st Airborne Division fought in, only to die in a tragical incident after the war. 

Featured image: LT Thomas Downey, a 101st Screaming Eagle WWII veteran who died in a tragic post-WWII jump accident (Source: Ancestry.com) 

The Downey Family 

Thomas Benedict Downey was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 22, 1918. He was from a family that had served its nation over the years. His grandfather after which he was named, the Irish immigrant Thomas F. Downey (1850 – 1929), had been a police officer in North Easton, Bristol County, Massachusetts, for more than thirty years and was the first appointed police chief the town had. LT Downey’s father, Frank Leo Downey, Sr. had served during both World War I and World War II. 

Thomas Downey’s youth and preliminary service 

Together with his older brother Frank, Thomas attended Oliver Ames High School in Easton, Massachusetts, where both were members of the student council. After his graduation, he studied at the Bristol Community College. He joined the National Guard the day after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, on December 8, 1941. He enlisted at Falmouth Camp Edwards, Massachusetts, on August 18, 1942. After volunteering for the paratroopers, LT Thomas Downey became a 101st Screaming Eagle, and was one of the early officers who joined Fox Company, 502nd PIR, in June 1943. LT Downey became the assistant platoon commander of 3rd Platoon. 

LT Downey’s combat service 

A couple of hours after Dan McBride was injured in Normandy on June 12, 1944, LT Downey was also wounded. He was hit by a “magic bullet” which went sideways thru both cheeks of his buttocks. That was of course picked up by the enlisted men who immediately started calling him “The only man in Normandy with five assholes”. 

After he had recovered, he returned to 3rd Platoon as their platoon commander and served throughout the rest of the war with these men. He would return to the States on the Queen Mary to arrive in New York on January 3, 1946. LT Thomas Downey was discharged from active duty at Fort Dix, Burlington, New Jersey, on February 11, 1947.  

LT Downey’s untimely death 

On Saturday, October 30, 1948, he made a demonstration jump at the Coonamessett Flying Club of Falmouth, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. A crowd of over 500 persons had gathered that afternoon to celebrate the occasion of Halloween with the “Halloween Air Show”. 

The climax of the show was the exhibition parachute jump by Thomas Downey, a 101st Screaming Eagle WWII veteran of more than 40 jumps, including two combat ones. When his plane had met the agreed altitude of 4000 feet, Downey stepped through the open door. A tensed crowd watched him being dropped from the biplane, and saw him diving through the air over the field. To their horror, they witnessed Thomas Downey plunging to his death. Army officials who inspected his body were puzzled by the fact neither of the ripcords on the two parachutes Downey wore had been pulled. A face injury which they said did not come from impact with the ground let to the belief that he, in jumping, had been knocked unconscious by part of the plane’s tail.  

Thomas B. Downey died at the age of 30 on that faithful day, exactly 74 years ago, to this day. He was buried at Immaculate Conception Cemetery, North Easton, Bristol County, Massachusetts. He left behind his broken parents, Frank and Rose Downey, and his older brother Frank Leo Downey, Jr.