C-87A-CF Liberator Express

BG James R Andersen

Courtesy
36th Wing Historian, Andersen AFB, Guam

Tablets of the Missing, Honolulu ABMC Memorial

Brig Gen James R Andersen, missing 'The Boston Globe', Boston, Massachusetts Sunday 4 March 1945.

Source/Credit
https://www.newspapers.com/image/433919427

Br. General James R Andersen, Missing Air Crew Report No. 12769, C-87A Liberator Express, s/n 41-24174, p. 2

Missing after departing Kwajalein Army Air Field. Intended destination Hickam Field, Hawaii.

15 April 1950 dedication ceremony of Andersen Air Force Base (North Field), Guam, Mariana Islands 'Guam Daily News', Agana Heights, Guam Wednesday 19 April 1950.

Source/Credit
https://www.newspapers.com/image/608654855

James Andersen, Racine High School, Racine, Wisconsin

Courtesy
Racine High School Yearbook 'Kipikawi 1922'

James Roy Andersen (b. 10 May 1904 - d. 26 Feb 1945).
In 1922, he graduated from Racine High School in Wisconsin.
Four years later, he graduated with the Class of 1926 from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant (O-016407) in the Infantry Corps.

On 1 June 1927, he married Esther Katherine Hau.

In 1935 he transferred to the Ordnance Department, where he did considerable work with the Army Air Corps in airplane and armament maintenance.
In 1936 he earned his wings, completing Primary, Basic, and Advanced flying training at Army Air Corps Flying Schools in Texas.

In 1937, he was assigned to the 72nd Bombardment Squadron, 5th Composite Group, (under the command of then Lieutenant Colonel Millard Fillmore Harmon, Jr.), at Luke Field on NAS Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

In 1939 he returned to West Point, and in early 1940 completed the Air Corps Tactical School course at Maxwell Field near Montgomery, Alabama.
March 1942-June 1943, he was assigned to Stewart Field as Director of Training at the Basic-Advanced Flying School for U.S.M.A. Cadets.
July 1943-Aug 1944, assigned to Plans Division on the War Department General Staff.

In Sept 1944, he was assigned as Chief of Staff to Lt. Gen. Harmon at Headquarters of Army Air Forces in Pacific Ocean Areas (AAFPOA) in Hawaii.
In January 1945, he and the AAFPOA air echelon relocated to Depot Field adjacent to Tumon Bay, Guam in order to better coordinate the strategic bombing of Japan with B-29 aircraft operating from the five B-29 air fields in the Mariana Islands.

On Monday morning 26 February 1945, he flew as a passenger (along with Lt. Gen. Harmon) on Consolidated C-87A-CF Liberator Express (serial # 41-24174), a transport version of the B-24D Liberator bomber. The first leg of the mission from Guam to Kwajalein Island was completed successfully, and the usual stop for service and meals was made. The next leg of the journey was a direct flight from Kwajalein to Hawaii, and take-off was made shortly after dark on the 26th. The aircrew's last position report was somewhat garbled but there was no indication of any difficulty on-board. However, the aircrew was not heard from again, as the aircraft disappeared somewhere between Kwajalein Island and Johnston Island while en route to Hawaii.

He was originally listed on the missing air crew report as MIA on 26 Feb 1945.
His status was changed to KIA one year later on 27 Feb 1946.

North Field (used by the 314th Bombardment Wing), at the northeast end of Guam in the Mariana Islands, was renamed Andersen Air Force Base in his honor.
He is also memorialized at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in the Honolulu "Courts of the Missing" and at the Arlington National Cemetery.