Marvin F. Barner was born on 11 December 1925 in Wayne, Nebraska.  He was the son of Milford and Sophie Barner.  He had three sisters and two brothers.  The family lived in Winside, Nebraska.  He graduated from Winside High School in 1943, and joined the USAAF in February of 1944.  Marvin served as the Waist Guner of a B-17 piloted by Arthur G. Larsen. On 31 March 1945, the Larsen crew was on a mission to bomb the Parunkohle Benzin AG oil refineries near the German city of Zeitz.  Anti-aircraft fire hit the B-17 over its target, completely tearing off the #3 engine.  Larsen raidoed to the squadron that his #4 engine was going out and that he was going to try to make the Russian lines.  However, the plane filled with smoke and went into a deep glide.  The tail gunner, SSGT John E. Kaiser was able to bail out and became a Prisoner of War.  Officially, the other crew members are presumed to have been killed when the bomber crashed near Oberlungwitz.  However, civilians reported that 4 to 7 parachutes were seen jumping from the plane, and that SS troops with dogs searched the area for survivors.  There was a rumor among the local citizens that the Nazis captured and summarily executed at least some of the remaining crewmembers.  However, since the area where the B-17 crashed was deep inside of the territory that was to become communist East Germany, the US Army was never able to conduct an investigation of these allegations.  With one exception, the remains of the crew were never recovered.  The Pilot, Arthur G. Larsen, the Copilot, Thomas E. O’Neil, the Navigator, Dale F. Watterson, the Flight Engineer, Raymond R. Bazata, the Radio Operator, Joseph Popson, and the Ball Turret Gunner, Willard P. Bostrom, are all also commemorated on the Tablets of the Missing at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery.  Charles M. Dineen, who was serving as the Togglier (acting bombardier), is buried at the Lorraine American Cemetery.

Information is drawn from MACR 13714, the Wayne Herald of 11 October 1945, and the 100th Bomb Group Foundation (https://100thbg.com/index.php?option=com_bombgrp&view=personnel&id=223&I...)