Article taken from The Sunday Times Signal, Zanesville, OH, May 6, 1945
Long Beach, Calif., May 5 - (AP)
Torn between joy and disbelief, Mrs. Helen Goad MacDowell, petite 23-year-old blonde who finds herself married to two servicemen, was frankly confused today at war department information that her first husband, officially declared dead last October, is alive in a Rangoon hospital.
"I will never believe it until I hear from him," she told reporters, and then, belying her expressed conviction, "I am very happy, but I don't want to hurt Mac."
She referred to her second mate, Ens. Robert A. MacDowell of Saugerties, NY, whom she married in Miami, Fla., last December, after she had become convinced that her first husband, Lt. Harold W. Goad, 27-year-old bomber pilot, had been killed in the crash of his plane in Burma in 1943.
The war department advised her yesterday that Lt. Goad was alive. Municipal Judge Martin de Vries said that under California law she is not subject to prosecution for bigamy, since she entered her second marriage innocently, but that it is not legal and must be annulled. Should she wish to legalize it, she would have to divorce her first husband and remarry, he said.
Ens. Robert A. MacDowell whom she married after she had been informed Lt. Harold W. Goad was dead, went to the Pacific theatre last April 17, she said.
She said she married Lt. Goad after they had been sweethearts in Portsmouth, O., for three years. He went overseas January 1, 1943, as the pilot of a B-24 bomber and was reported missing the next October when his plane crashed in flames near Rangoon, Burma.
Other members of his squadron wrote her that three parachutes left the bomber, one of them in flames, and the Japs machine gunned the other two.
"I received word from the war department reporting him missing and last October I was informed he was dead."
Still hoping she said she visited members of her husband's squadron who were home on leave and sought more information. It was at this time that she met Ens. MacDowell and they were married in Miami, Fla., last December.
"Maybe I should have kept on hoping but they convinced me he was dead and I felt I had to believe it," she said.
She said she planned to leave next Tuesday for the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin C. Zuhras, in Portsmouth.
Annulment May End Mixup In Goad-McDowell Case
Article taken from The Berkshire Evening Eagle, Pittsfield, MA, Wednesday, May 9, 1945
Long Beach, CA (AP)
Mrs. Helen Goad MacDowell is going to ask for an annulment of her marriage to Ens. Robert A. MacDowell, whom she married 18 months after the bomber plane of her husband, Lieut. Harold W. Goad, exploded Oct. 14, 1943 over Japanese held Burma.
Reported dead a year later, Lieut. Goad nevertheless is alive in a Calcutta Hospital. The 27-year-old pilot by this time has a cable from her reading: "Darling, am so glad to hear you are alive. Will see you soon. I love you with all my heart."
"This never would have happened," she told newsman, "if I knew Harold was alive. I doubt if he believes my cable. Maybe he thinks it's sympathy because he is in a hospital. It wasn't. I meant it with all my heart."
Ens. MacDowell now of Pacific duty, could not be reached, but his 23-year-old bride "hopes he'll understand." She is going to her former home in Portsmouth, Ohio, to await a telephone call from Lieut. Goad.
Blown through the roof of his plane, he and two other crewmen survived, were captured by the Japs and liberated when the British took Rangoon.
New Hopes Raised for Missing Men
Article taken from The Zanesville Signal, Zanesville, OH, May 14, 1945
Portsmouth, O., (AP)
Lt. Harold W. Goad's "return from the dead" in Rangoon, Burma, has aroused the hopes of dozens of mothers and wives of service men who similarly have been reported missing and "presumed dead."Harry B. Goad and his wife, Ivy, the rescued B-24 pilot's parents, said today that they have been kept busy the last week at their home here answering letters from relatives who cling to a hope their lost service men may return as Lt. Goad did.
From the length and breadth of the United States and even from Toronto, Canada, have come letters to the parents of the flier. Some are from relatives of missing men who knew Lt. Goad. Some are from wives and mothers who know their own loved ones are dead but who couldn't resist telling the parents how happy they are for them.
Lt. Goad's pretty wife, Helen, also received numerous letters at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin C. Zuhars, where she is waiting for her husband's return from an army hospital in Calcutta, India.
The flier was taken there to recuperate. He wa rescued at a hospital in Rangoon 10 days ago when British troops routed the invading Japanese. He and two crew members parachuted to safety after their flak-riddled bomber exploded 65 miles from Rangoon, Oct. 14, 1943, and were taken prisoner.
His wife last December married Robert A. MacDowell, navy ensign from Saugerties, NY, two months after the war department notified her Lt. Goad was "presumed dead." But she has announced she loves Harold best and will ask annulment of her marriage to MacDowell.
"We're answering every letter," Lt. Goad's step-mother said. "My heart goes out for the mothers who sons are missing and who still hold hope that they'll return."
"There isn't much we can tell them," the pilot's father said. "We don't know the circumstances, and therefore can't tell what might have happened to them. My hunch is that many of the boys who have been missing in Japanese teritory may be alive and unreported by the Japs. But those who have been presumed dead in Europe probably are dead."
The wife of a flier who husband went down in India shortly after Lt. Goad's crash wrote:
"I have never gotten many facts about the crash, and at the end of a year the war department declared Jim and crew dead. But still in my heart I feel he is alive, and since reading about your son, I have renewed hope."
A mother whose son was lost in Burma in March 1944, said:
"I have never felt my blessed boy was gone, and expect each hour to get word as you have."
The Goads are answering all the letters--except personal ones from friends of Lt. Goad.
"He can answer them when he gets home," his father smiled, "and he'll have a lot of letter writing to do!"
Flier, Once Reported Killed, Returns to Wife
Who Re-WedArticle taken from The Zanesville Signal, Zanesville, Ohio, June 4, 1945
Portsmouth, O., (AP) -
Lt. Harold W. Goad was back home today with his pretty blonde wife who had married a Navy ensign after the War Department reported the army flyer was dead.
"It's swell to be back," said the 27-year-old army flyer who survived 18 months of near starvation in a Japanese prison camp near Rangoon. "I'm going to loaf around a few days, then go away with my wife for a vacation."
The wife, Helen, 23, arrived here three weeks ago from Long Beach, Calif., where she married Ens. Robert A. MacDowell last December, four months after the War Department declared Lt. Goad dead. He had been reported missing a year before.
Goad arrived here yesterday for a reunion with his wife and his family.
Goad wants to stay in the army, "if they'll let me keep on flying." Otherwise he'll try for a civilian pilot job.
"Five of us got out of the plane alive," Goad said, as he told how a shell from a Jap canon firing fighter plane hit his B-24's gas tank over Burma Oct. 14, 1943. All are either home or enroute home.
Lt. Clarence King of Great Fall, Mont., the navigator, Lt. Russell, Gebert, (address unknown), the bombardier, and Sgt. Francis *(remainder of article missing)