Catherine Lynch couldn't imagine what in the world was going on.
At noon, as she walked home from Catasauqua High for lunch that
fateful day in 1944, the street outside 426 Walnut was packed
with cars.  So many people were on the front porch that she went
in the back door. The house was abuzz with activity. All her
mother's friends were there. So were the Catasauqua police chief
and the parish priest, Father Munley of St. Lawrence the Martyr
Catholic Church.  A family friend, who was washing dishes, told
Catherine she should go talk to her mother in the living room.
"They told us we lost your brother," Alice Lynch said to her
stunned teen-aged daughter, "but we don't believe it."
Catherine Lynch Pirog, now 76 and retired in Florida, said her
parents went to their graves believing that their high-flying
son, 26-year-old World War II fighter ace Tommy Lynch, would
someday return.  Photos: Crisis in Venezuela continues  "When
Tommy was shot down, my father sat by the radio for hours and
hours listening for an