Submitted photo
David Messerlie, a Greenfield native that now lives in Florida, attended ceremonies in England earlier this month honoring his uncle, Ewing Shields, a World War II casualty. Messerlie and his wife Carol attended a Veterans Day ceremony at the American Cemetery in Cambridge and then drove about two hours to Great Haseley, England to a ceremony to honor the 10 men who were killed 80 years ago in a plane crash. Ewing Shields, also of Greenfield, was among those killed in the plane that took off in a storm. Messerlie read a poem, “My Permanent Memory” by Dewitt Rockwell, a flight engineer that was called off of the flight so he survived. The poem was written to all the mothers of the lost: Messerlie found the poem in a desk he inherited from his family.
