Clarence Elmer "Cy" Cyford, a highly decorated World War II B-26 gunner and retired security guard, died Mondayof Parkinson's disease at a son's Union Bridge home. The former Howard Park resident was 89.
Mr. Cyford, who was born in Baltimore and raised on Mortimer Avenue in Northwest Baltimore, was a graduate of Baltimore public schools.
Mr. Cyford was working at Montgomery Ward & Co. on Washington Boulevard when he enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1940.
"Dad knew the U.S. was going to war,and he wanted to be a part of it," said a son, Larry K. Cyford of Union Bridge.
Initially trained as an aircraft mechanic, Mr. Cyford took his first flight ever as a student engineer aboard a plane flying eight hours from Puerto Rico to Chicago.
"What a great feeling that was to be up there in the wild blue yonder. Knew that was the place for me and I would start working on how to become a regular flier," he wrote in an unpublished memoir.
Mr. Cyford was a spotter on anti-submarine planes that searched for German U-boats in the Caribbean before transferring to England, where he joined the 386th Bombardment Group - "The Crusaders" - serving with its 555th Bomb Squadron, which was known as the "Red Devil Squadron."
He flew aboard a Martin B-26 Marauder bomber that had been built at the Glenn L. Martin Co. plant in Middle River, serving as a mechanic and top-turret .50-caliber machine gunner.
Mr. Cyford, who later became a longtime acquaintance of Loretta Young, asked the Hollywood star to sign their B-26 during a morale tour in Michigan, and she obliged.
She signed the plane in large chalk letters that a crew member later traced in yellow paint before the plane flew back across the Atlantic to return to combat.
After a mission over Holland that included four groups of B-26s whose target was a German airfield, Mr. Cyford wrote, "The flak was being fired at the formation ahead of us. We went on taking evasive action and a few miles from the airfield, they put their sights on us and let go with everything they had."
Only one plane was lost.
"This mission was the one which I felt sure I was going to get it," he wrote.
Of the 18 planes from his squadron that returned to England that day, five made single-engine landings, two crash-landed and 10 were out of commission for a week from damage.
