Five members of Dunwoody family serve during WWII

The Head family once lived on both sides of Chamblee Dunwoody Road, just north of where it intersects with Vermack Road. Their homes were where Boxwood Place, Shadow Bend, Shadow Court and Pine Acres Court are located. All five children of Roy and Pamela Head served during World War II.

Lieutenant Richard Head was the oldest of the siblings, born in 1916. He did his training at Camp Hulen, Texas. His son, Larkin Head, shared that his father was a quartermaster. When the war ended, Lt. Head was on a troop ship off the coast of Okinawa.

Charles Morgan Head, known as Charlie, was born in 1917. According to his draft card, he had moved to Miami and was working for Woolworth’s. By 1943, he was a second lieutenant in the U. S. Army Air Forces, serving in North Africa in the 380th Bomber Squadron, 310th Bomber Group, which was part of the 57th Bomb Wing.

On July 25, 1943, Head went out on a B-25 as the navigator along with pilot 1st Lt. Earl Stutts and engineer Staff Sergeant Alfred Jensen. They were checking a major repair that had been performed on the left wing. (http://57thbombwing.com/310thHistory)

The eyewitness report of Major James Gavin describes the airplane taking two or three trips up and down the beach, turning east, then towards the Tabarka lighthouse. The airplane went into a dive and spun into the water. No parachutes were seen leaving the airplane. Search crews were sent out but did not find any survivors. Charlie and the other two men were reported as missing in action.

They are memorialized at the North Africa American Cemetery Tablets of the Missing in Tunisia. There is also a marker at Westview Cemetery placed by his family to memorialize Charlie Head. It reads, “In loving memory, Lt. Charles Morgan Head, U. S. Air Force 1917-1943.” (American Battle Monuments Commission, abmc.org)

Sergeant Roy Head Jr., born 1920, trained at Ford Gordon in Augusta, Georgia. He served overseas in the Third Army tank destroyer group under General Patton. He received a Bronze Star while serving in the 774th Tank Battalion. (Atlanta Constitution, Roy C. Head, Jr. obituary, Dec. 22, 2002)

Patricia Head, born in 1922, was the only daughter in the family. She went from working as a secretary for her father to enlisting in the Aviation Women’s Reserve of the Marine Corps. Head describes her motivation. “I’ve got four brothers in the service-in the air corps, anti-aircraft, and tank destroyer branches of the Army and in the Navy. I figured we ought to have at least one Marine in the family.”

She became a Sergeant, working in the officer procurement department and finishing college at the same time. In May of 1943, she received her degree from the University of Georgia Evening College in a ceremony at Peachtree Christian Church. She wore her Marine sergeant uniform under her black graduation robe. After graduation, she went to boot camp. (Atlanta Constitution, May 28, 1943, “Girl Marine Sergeant, Judge will graduate together here”)

William Head was born in 1925. He went into the Navy V-12 program and was stationed at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. The V-12 Navy College Training program sent recruits to colleges and universities across the U. S. with a goal of supplementing the number of commissioned officers in the Navy.