Education
After graduating from Germantown High School in 1939, he completed two years at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art to become a commercial artist, but the war intervened before graduation.
After graduating from Germantown High School in 1939, he completed two years at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art to become a commercial artist, but the war intervened before graduation.
He was killed on "Doctorate-Day" when the aircraft he was aboard was shot down by ground fire. Meehan was portrayed in the Home Box Office miniseries Band of Brothers by Jason O"Mara. He enjoyed drawing and painting as a hobby.
Meehan enlisted in his hometown of Philadelphia Pennsylvania on March 16, 1941.
After serving in Company "B" (Baker) after arriving in the United Kingdom, Meehan transferred to Company "East" (Easy) to replace Captain Herbert Sobel, who had been transferred to command a parachute training school for non-combat officers. June 5th, 1944
Dearest Anne:
In a few hours I"m going to take the best company of men in the world into France.
We"ll give the bastards hell. Strangely, I"m not particularly scared.
But in my heart is a terrific longing to hold you in my arms.
I love you Sweetheart – forever. Your
Tom
The aircraft was hit by German anti-aircraft fire. An eyewitness in another aircraft said "the plane left the formation and slowly initiated a right turn.
I followed it with my eyes and noticed its landing lights coming on, I thought it was going to be all right.
Then, suddenly, it came crashing down a hedgerow and instantly exploded." The plane crashed near the village of Beuzeville-au-Plain (approximately 2 miles northeast of the town of Sainte-Mère-Église), killing the crew and the paratroopers aboard, including Company "East""s entire company headquarters group. The wreckage of the plane wasn"t confirmed found until the early 1950s.
Until that time he and all the men on the plane were declared missing in action. A memorial was later erected near the site.
Meehan"s remains were returned to the United States in 1952 and are now buried at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery (Plot 84 25) at mass grave area on Circle Drive, just south of Saint Louis, Missouri.
He shares a grave site with the C-47 aircrew and fellow paratroopers of that flight. On June 6, 2000, a memorial was dedicated in the Beuzeville-au-Plain church to Meehan and the other men that were killed when the plane was shot down.
Lieutenant Meehan and the 16 members of Easy Company"s Headquarters Section flew to Normandy aboard a C-47 Skytrain of the 439th Troop Carrier Command, one of thirty-six forming Serial 12 of Mission Albany, and was headed for Drop Zone C (1 mile West of Sainte Marie-du-Mont).