COLUMBIA ù Service with military honors for Lt. Col. Horace Ellis Crouch, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), 87, will be held Thursday at 3 p.m. at North Trenholm Baptist Church with burial in Greenlawn Memorial Park. Serving as honorary pallbearers will be: surviving members of the Doolittle Raiders; the Memorial Committee of Richland Post #6; the 40 & 8; Voiture 1025; members of the Ray Quattlebaum Sunday School Class of North Trenholm Baptist Church; and members of the Golden K Kiwanis Club. Visitation will be Wednesday 6-8 p.m. at the church. Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel, is assisting the family. Memorials may be made to the Celebrate Freedom Foundation, 455 St. Andrews Road, Columbia, S.C. 29210. Col. Crouch, husband of the late Mary Epting Crouch, died Wednesday, December 21, 2005. Born in Columbia, he was the son of the late Marvin T. Crouch, Sr. and Bernice Bouknight Crouch. He was a 1936 graduate of Columbia High School and a 1940 graduate of the Citadel. He received a postgraduate degree from Clemson University in 1973. He entered the Army Air Corps in August 1940. After Pearl Harbor he was a navigator and bombardier in the 10th crew to follow Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle in B25Æs off the flight deck of the ôHornetö (CV8) in April 1942. He served 14 months in China during WW II and was on the first air raid on the mainland of Japan and was a volunteer in the airlift invasion of Japan which was not needed. During 1948-49 he was Deputy State Director of Selective Service (the Draft) in South Carolina prior to the Korean War. He applied for tactical duty and was Wing Training Officer of the 307th SAC Bomb Wing on Okinawa. He retired from the Air Force in April 1962 and entered the field of education as a classroom teacher of math and drafting at Dentsville High School, Brookland-Cayce High School and 15 years at Columbia High School. He retired from teaching in June 1982. For his WWII service, he received the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal and the Chinese Medal of the Army, Navy Air Force, Grade A., Class 1. For service in the Korean War, he received an Oak Leaf Cluster of the Air Medal. In 1992, Col. Crouch was awarded the South Carolina Order of the Palmetto. He was a member and past Commander (1981) of the American Legion, Richland Post #6, the 40 & 8, and Voiture 1025. He was a life member of Richland Lodge 39 of the Masonic Order and a member and past Worthy Patron (1981) of the Columbia Chapter 59 Order of the Eastern Star. He was also a member and past president of the Golden K Kiwanis club. Col. Crouch was a member of North Trenholm Baptist Church. Surviving are daughter, Macia C. Sellers; son and daughter-in-law, Martin E. Crouch and Lynn Kelly-Crouch; grandchildren, S. Scott Sellers, Brandi Sellers Hammond, Chase Crouch and Hayden Crouch; and great-grandchildren, Elizabeth, Philip, Jackie, Sebastian and Duncan, all of the Columbia area.
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