Delmar Decker, born to Paul and Ruth Decker and descended from a prominent Montgomery family, joined the Army on January 18, 1941, becoming the first man from Montgomery to enlist during World War II. After training and promotions, he transferred to the Army Air Corps and completed navigator training in 1943. Assigned to the 8th Air Force, 95th Bomb Group, 336th Squadron, he served as navigator aboard the B-17 Flying Fortress San Antonio Rose. On February 21, 1944, near the end of his seventh mission during a bombing run over Brunswick, the aircraft was shot down by Nazi fighters over Zegveld in the Netherlands near Utrecht. Decker was killed in the crash along with several other crewmen, while four more were taken captive. He was first buried near the crash site before his body was returned to Montgomery, where he was laid to rest beside his brother, Lieutenant Aaron Decker, who was killed leading his troops in North Africa and was the first Montgomery man killed in World War II; both are interred in Fairview Cemetery. Delmar and Aaron were survived by their brothers Roland and Paul, both veterans of World War II, and their sister Marion McCormick. The people of Zegveld continued to remember the crew of the San Antonio Rose, and after Dutch historian Jeroen van der Kamp contacted Marion in 2013 while researching a book about the crew, a memorial was erected near the crash site by 2015, which Marion, her children, and their spouses visited for its dedication before the family placed a copy in Montgomery Memorial Park.