Eugene H. Shabatura
Era: World War II
Military Branch: Army
Eugene H. Shabatura was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He graduated from the University of Minnesota and worked as a recreation director at Boy's Town in Nebraska during 1942 and 1943.
Eugene was inducted into the Army Air Corps in 1943. He was a Sergeant and a gunner on B-24 bombers with the 93rd Bomb Group in the Eighth Air Force, based in England.
On September 18, 1944, his plane, "The Baggy Maggy," was hit by ground fire and crash landed in Holland. He and other members of the crew were captured by German soldiers. He was held as a prisoner of war in several POW camps until the end of the war.
He returned to Boy's Town after the war and worked there until 1947, when he took a job with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. In 1951 he moved to Duluth, Minnesota and took a job as a physical therapist with the Duluth School District until he retired in 1980.
In 1994 he returned to Holland for ceremonies organized by Dutch residents to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the United States air effort. He died about three months after that trip.
