Page 12 - Gold Star Sons of Georgetown Prep

1ST LIEUTENANT HENRY BECHMAN “HANK” COAKLEY ’37
CONTINUED
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GEORGETOWN PREPARATORY SCHOOL
Armed Services St. Christopher Medal worn by Hank Coakley while in the service
Bracelet of Mrs. Elizabeth Kennedy Coakley
PHOTOS COURTESY, ELIZABETH KENNEDY COAKLEY DOLCE
On the afternoon of August 6, however, with his pregnant wife close to giving birth to their first child and staying with his parents back in Cleveland, Hank decided to take up a P-38 fighter plane. The plane lifted smoothly off the runway, but within little more than one minute, it plunged to earth killing the 24-year-old pilot. A subsequent Air Force investigation attributed the crash to catastrophic engine failure.
were the two medals that he wore around his neck every day: a Miraculous Medal of Our Lady (also known also as the Medal of Our Lady of Grace) and the Armed Services St. Christopher Medal. The prayer card distributed at Hank’s funeral read:
“When material wings failed him, angelic wings bore
A shocked General Adler called Hank’s
death “a grievous loss“ to the Air Force and
to him personally. Hank’s death illustrated
another grim statistic of WWII having to
do with losses of airmen. Over half of the
25,854 air personnel killed in accidents
perished within the continental United
States. Flying was risky in the 1940s. The
rushed production of planes with new,
often under-tested technologies led to accidents due to malfunctioning parts. Pilot error exacerbated by fatigue, faulty maintenance, the vagaries of weather and environment, and the unrelenting nature of wartime operations all contributed to the high toll.
On August 13, a week after her husband’s death, a grief- stricken Elizabeth Coakley gave birth to Elizabeth Kennedy Coakley.** Hank was buried in Calvary Cemetery located
in Cleveland. Recovered from the crash site of Hank’s plane
**Mrs. Elizabeth Coakley never remarried. Her daughter, Elizabeth Kennedy Coakley Dolce, later passed on to each of her four sons the middle name of “Coakley.” In 1944, Mrs. Elizabeth Coakley, through the family-founded Henry Beckman Coakley Foundation, made a gift to Georgetown University of a medal in her husband’s memory. The Henry Beckman Coakley Medal is still presented annually
“to the member of the Senior Class who, in the opinion of the faculty, manifested, above all others, the qualities of loving service, honor and courage in all phases of his or her college life.” Elizabeth Coakley remained devoted to the memory
of her husband, which she passed on to her daughter, and maintained close ties with her husband’s large family in Cleveland. She incorporated Hank’s flier’s wings as part of a bracelet that she wore every day for the rest of her long and distinguished life dedicated to community service. H
“When material wings failed him, angelic wings bore him up.”
him up.”