Remembering World War II

Name: Grant Frederick Hayden Rank: Staff Sergeant Service Number: 11052009 Service: 4th Ferry Squadron, 2nd Ferrying Group, Transport Command, United States Army Air Forces Date of Birth: January 3, 1917 Place of Birth: Haverhill, Essex County, Massachusetts Date of Enlistment: May 13, 1942 Place of Enlistment: Boston, Massachusetts Age at Enlistment: 25 Address at Enlistment: Essex County, Massachusetts Height: 6 feet, 1 inch Complexion: Light Hair color: Brown Eye color: Blue Occupation: Shipping and receiving clerk Marital Status: Single Next of Kin: Lillian Belle Hayden (Mother) Religion: Presbyterian Date of Death: March 27, 1944 Age of Death: 27 Cemetery: Elmwood Cemetery, Bradford, Essex County, Massachusetts Grant Frederick Hayden was the son of George Frederick Hayden (1888-1923) and Lillian Belle (Cameron) Hayden (1895-1986), and the brother of Miriam Leota Hayden (1918-2001), Ethel Eileen (Hayden) Goodwin Kinsman (1919-2021), Charles Horace Hayden (1921-2014), and George Ellsworth Hayden (1922-2014). His father was born in Boylston. Guysborough County, Nova Scotia; his his mother, and brother Charles, in Two Mile Lake, South Lochaber, Antigonish County, Nova Scotia. Grant was born in Haverhill Mass., attended Haverhill High School, and spent time living in Nova Scotia with his grandparents in 1921, in Glenelg, Guysborough County. His grandfather was a farmer, and his father worked as a lumberman. In Massachusetts, Grant was employed seasonally in a tannery (the L H Hamel Leather Company) in 1940, and registered for the US Draft on October 16, 1940, in Haverhill. After enlisting the United States Army Air Force in May of 1942, he was assigned to the Air Corps Ferrying Command or ACFC (later Air Transport Command), which was responsible for delivering or supervising the delivery of Army Air Force and lend-lease aircraft to theaters of war scattered across the world. A Mid-Atlantic route was developed via the Azores to link the US with Europe and North Africa. While this route was not opened until late 1943, the US and Britain were at all times prepared to occupy the Azores, had the security and future use of this route been threatened by the Axis Powers. Records indicate Staff Sergeant Grant Frederick Hayden died in North Africa, the result of non-combat injuries sustained in the line of duty. He was serving on a Martin B-26F Marauder aircraft #42-96251 when it crashed on take off from Marrakech (Sta 10) in Morocco. Also killed were: Second Lieutenant Charles N. Bolin (Service No. unknown) from [unknown] Second Lieutenant William N. Escandel (Service No. O-536833) from Pennsylvania Second Lieutenant William F. Garrity, Jr., Pilot (Service No. O-795039) from the District of Columbia Private First Class Warren C. Grimes (Service No. 18193324) from Oklahoma Grant Hayden’s family chose to repatriate his remains rather than burial in an American Battle Monuments Commission cemetery overseas. He is interred at the Elmwood Cemetery in Bradford, Essex County, Massachusetts.

Grant Frederick Hayden

Sources: findagrave honorstates.org US National Gold Star Family Registry US National WWII Memorial Honoree Registry background photo: Elmwood Cemetery, Bradford, Essex County, Massachusetts