jews d

in
the

At Rest …

Finally

MISCHA SACHS

After 72 years,
Pet Nosan
finds closure
for the
loss of her
brother,
a war hero.

Pet Nosan with the military
flag used at the memorial
service for her brother Billie

ALAN MUSKOVITZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

DAVID TECHNER

I

A small stone marking Billie’s birth
and death lies between his parents’
graves at Machpelah Cemetery.

n service to our community,
the Ira Kaufman Chapel phi-
losophy is to follow Moses’
declaration that “death should
not be less than life.”
As funeral director, David
Techner has spent 43 years
devoted to upholding that
noble mission. Any family
touched by his counsel and
comforted by his kindness
knows he stays true to that
philosophy — even if it means
helping a loved one decades
after a loss.
Just ask Pet Nosan.
Nosan, 88, has spent nearly
a lifetime seeking closure to
the tragic loss of her beloved
late brother. She was just 16
when, on Nov. 10, 1944, Army
Air Corps radio gunner Corp.
Billie Pearl spent what would

found.
be the final seconds of his life
No body. No funeral. No clo-
sending distress signals as his
sure.
B-25 bomber was forced to
Billie would receive the Silver
ditch into the Pacific Ocean.
Star posthumously
The bomber had suc-
for gallantry in action
cumbed to enemy
against an enemy of the
anti-aircraft fire over
United States.
Wewak, New Guinea.
However, for reasons
Billie, 19, remained
still unclear to this
in his position at the
day, Billie Pearl did not
rear of the aircraft
receive the standard
through its final
military tribute for
descent to complete
Billie Pearl
a fallen soldier after
his Mayday distress
being killed in action
call. That heroic deci-
in 1944.
sion would cost him his life
In an extraordinary act of
but spare the lives of his fel-
brotherhood for their fallen
low crew members. All on
comrade, all surviving mem-
board, except Billie, survived
the impact; the survivors were
bers of Billie’s flight crew
eventually plucked from life
eventually made their way to
rafts by the Royal Australian Air the Pearl home on Webb Street
in Detroit. One by one, they
Force. Billie’s body was never

arrived over the summer of
1945 to pay their final respects
to Billie’s parents, Mary and
Barney Pearl.
Nosan recalls her father, a
hard-nosed criminal attorney,
“drilled them with questions” to
garner information about his
son’s final act of valor. To a man,
each of Billie’s crew members
said they owed his life to his son.
Nosan says her father “never
regained his balance” after
Billie’s death. He would spend
the rest of his life nurturing the
legacy of his hero son. We got
a “daily diet of Billie,” Nosan
recalls affectionally. But no
amount of information or eye-
witness accounts could fill the
void of Billie Pearl never return-
ing home. Nor could it make
up for the fact that Billie never

continued on page 20

18

February 2 • 2017

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