Black, Vincent E.

Description

Vincent E. Black

Vincent Earl Black was born on May 11, 1922, in Davenport City, Iowa, to Gertrude Josephine Zirkel, age 25, and William Travers Black, age 25. He had five brothers Travis, Charles, James, John and Thomas and three sisters Marion, Carol and Barbara. The family moved to Rye in 1928 and lived at 396 Midland Avenue and were members of the Church of the Resurrection.

Vincent was a Rye High School Graduate, Class of 1940. In High school he was a member of the Stage Coach, the Hitching Post and Drivers Club. He was also a great runner and member of the Varsity track. He enlisted and served in the U.S. Army during World War II.

Vincent Earl Black enlisted in the Army on July 8, 1940, in New York City, New York, during World War II. He was 18 years old.

Staff Sergeant Vincent Black, was an instructor in the Army Air Corps,
who was stationed at
Pearl Harbor when the
Japanese attacked.

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, just before 8:00 a.m., on Sunday, December 7, 1941. The United States was a neutral country at the time; the attack led to its formal entry into World War II the next day.

Vincent’s younger brother Thomas Maynard Black was killed in action at Iwo Jima on March 3, 1945. In March 1948 Staff Sergeant Vincent Black, who had served six years in the Army Air Corps, witnessed the arrival of the ship returning his brother remains. He wrote to his parents of the reverent ceremony when the bodies were removed.

After the war, Vincent attended Heald’ s Engineering School in San Francisco where he lived with his wife and his family.

Vincent Black had two sons and one daughter with Valerie Alice Soule. He died on October 24, 2008, in Grass Valley, California, at the age of 86.