Lieutenant Richard Furman DABBS^{[1, 2]}

1920 - 1942  (22 years)

• Name	Richard Furman DABBS  [3, 4]
  Prefix	Lieutenant
  Birth	14 Jun 1920  [3]
  Gender	Male
  HIST	The Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps recently advised E. W. Dabbs of the Salem Black River community that under the law a status of presumptive death had been declared in the case of his son, Second Lt. Richard Furman Dabbs, USMC, who has been missing since Sept. 15, 1942. Lt. Dabbs was flying on a patrol over the Caribbean when he failed to return to his base, and no trace has ever been found of him or his plane. He was a graduate of Mayesville High School and of The Citadel in the class of 1941. Family's patriotism never wavered, despite death Posted: Thursday, May 27, 2010 6:00 am | Updated: 11:39 pm, Wed May 26, 2010. By GINA VASSELLI gvasselli@theitem.com Furman Dabbs was looking for a missing pilot when his plane disappeared off the coast of South America in 1942. But that didn't make Tommy Dabbs, or any other member of his family, hesitate about serving his country. Tommy Dabbs followed in the footsteps of his older brothers, Eugene, Furman and Billy, and volunteered to serve his country for 18 months starting in March 1946. Even Dabbs' father, who fought in World War I, tried to re-enlist so he could fight in the Second World War. Dabbs, 82, said his father had warned a German family he knew that Hitler would start a war, but the family didn't believe him. "He pretty well predicted it," Dabbs said. He said the country pulled together because of the war. "I don't know that we could ever be as united as we were in World War II," he said. Dabbs served after the war ended, but he has strong opinions about why the United States won the war. "We probably weren't as good of soldiers," he said. But "we outproduced the rest of them." He said his brother Eugene saw that firsthand while he was in Italy with the Army. Eugene Dabbs and other members of his unit saw a German jeep in a valley, so they fired a shell at it. The shell hit in front of the jeep and the jeep turned around and started going back the way it came. The group fired another shell and this time hit the jeep. Two people ran from the wreckage to a nearby building, but the group fired another two shells at the building and the two people came out to surrender. "One was a full colonel in the German army," Tommy Dabbs said. "And he got up there and cussed them out. He said, 'Two people, and y'all waste four shells. Y'all ought to be court martialed.'" Dabbs said it was the ability of the U.S. forces to continue to "lob shells over" that won the war. Dabbs said his brothers, especially Eugene, were exposed to a lot of danger while they served, but he never worried about them. He said it could be because people really didn't know what was going in the war. "We didn't have the communication people have now," Dabbs said. "Someone gets hurt in Afghanistan, and 20 minutes later you know about it." But even the soldiers themselves weren't as worried about getting killed. "The people who were over there knew that they could get hurt," but "people who were in combat - they might feel like it was going to be somebody else and not them." But even when someone did get hurt or disappear, like Dabbs' brother Furman, the family didn't stop supporting the war. Furman Dabbs was flying near the coast of South America looking for a missing pilot when he went through bad weather. "Nobody knows what happened. ... But there wasn't any tension in the family," Tommy Dabbs said. There was simply "tremendous patriotism," he said. Reach Gina Vasselli at (803) 774-1214. Posted in News, Local news on Thursday, May 27, 2010  [2, 4]
  MILI	U. S. Marine Air Corps, killed in service World War II, Lieutenant, missing in action over the Carribean in 1942 A.F. of U.S.M.C.R.  [3, 5]
  _UID	9B393DA6F4674054A1F5981A06FD825CCF58
  Death	15 Sep 1942	missing in action over the Carribean, World War II   [3, 5]
  Person ID	I150442	Singleton and Related Families
  Last Modified	18 May 2022

  
  

  Father	Eugene Whitfield DABBS, Jr.,   b. 30 Jul 1894   d. 28 Dec 1943 (Age 49 years)
  Mother	Estelle “Stella” /GLASSCOCK GLASCOCK,   b. 16 Sep 1895   d. 14 Aug 1985 (Age 89 years)
  Marriage	22 Nov 1916  [3]
  _UID	04A053151E8045F4818EE7F94A5C21E67FFE
  _UID	04A053151E8045F4818EE7F94A5C21E67FFE
  Family ID	F102371	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Sources

  [S25473] Thomas M. Dabbs. [S29897] Yesteryear - 75 years ago. [S8] page 234. [S14177] ‘I don’t know that we could ever be as united as we were in World War II’. [S5094] page 19.