March Field, Riverside, California.
Flight Engineer and one of eight Army men killed when B-18 Bolo #36-306 struck a mountainside, in the Sierra Nevada, fifteen miles south of Bishop, California, December 12, 1941.
The bomber was transporting Major General Herbert Dargue and other high ranking Army officers to Hawaii to investigate why the United States was unprepared for the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The last known position of the airplane was reported at 19:55 hours as two miles south of Palmdale, California. When they failed to arrive at Hamilton Field, the men were declared missing.
Despite an extensive search by both civilian and military personnel, the aircraft remained missing through the winter of 1941-1942. George Burns, the father of co-pilot Lt. Burns, discovered the wreckage of the missing Army bomber from his own airplane when enough snow had melted to reveal the location. The Douglas twin-engine bomber had struck a mountainside at the 11,000-foot level during a snowstorm near Thumb Lake a.k.a. Kidd Lake and wreckage was strewn over a 25-acre area and became buried under more than five feet of snow. Recovery of the bodies was completed by the end of July, 1942.
Killed were:
Capt. James G Leavitt, pilot
Col. Charles W Bundy
Maj. Gen. Herbert A Dargue
Col. George W Ricker
Lt. Col. Hugh F McCaffery
1st Lt. Homer C. Burns
S/Sgt. Stephen W Hoffman
PFC Samuel J Van Hamm, Jr
Flight Engineer and one of eight Army men killed when B-18 Bolo #36-306 struck a mountainside, in the Sierra Nevada, fifteen miles south of Bishop, California, December 12, 1941.
The bomber was transporting Major General Herbert Dargue and other high ranking Army officers to Hawaii to investigate why the United States was unprepared for the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The last known position of the airplane was reported at 19:55 hours as two miles south of Palmdale, California. When they failed to arrive at Hamilton Field, the men were declared missing.
Despite an extensive search by both civilian and military personnel, the aircraft remained missing through the winter of 1941-1942. George Burns, the father of co-pilot Lt. Burns, discovered the wreckage of the missing Army bomber from his own airplane when enough snow had melted to reveal the location. The Douglas twin-engine bomber had struck a mountainside at the 11,000-foot level during a snowstorm near Thumb Lake a.k.a. Kidd Lake and wreckage was strewn over a 25-acre area and became buried under more than five feet of snow. Recovery of the bodies was completed by the end of July, 1942.
Killed were:
Capt. James G Leavitt, pilot
Col. Charles W Bundy
Maj. Gen. Herbert A Dargue
Col. George W Ricker
Lt. Col. Hugh F McCaffery
1st Lt. Homer C. Burns
S/Sgt. Stephen W Hoffman
PFC Samuel J Van Hamm, Jr
March Field, Riverside, California.
Flight Engineer and one of eight Army men killed when B-18 Bolo #36-306 struck a mountainside, in the Sierra Nevada, fifteen miles south of Bishop, California, December 12, 1941.
The bomber was transporting Major General Herbert Dargue and other high ranking Army officers to Hawaii to investigate why the United States was unprepared for the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The last known position of the airplane was reported at 19:55 hours as two miles south of Palmdale, California. When they failed to arrive at Hamilton Field, the men were declared missing.
Despite an extensive search by both civilian and military personnel, the aircraft remained missing through the winter of 1941-1942. George Burns, the father of co-pilot Lt. Burns, discovered the wreckage of the missing Army bomber from his own airplane when enough snow had melted to reveal the location. The Douglas twin-engine bomber had struck a mountainside at the 11,000-foot level during a snowstorm near Thumb Lake a.k.a. Kidd Lake and wreckage was strewn over a 25-acre area and became buried under more than five feet of snow. Recovery of the bodies was completed by the end of July, 1942.
Killed were:
Capt. James G Leavitt, pilot
Col. Charles W Bundy
Maj. Gen. Herbert A Dargue
Col. George W Ricker
Lt. Col. Hugh F McCaffery
1st Lt. Homer C. Burns
S/Sgt. Stephen W Hoffman
PFC Samuel J Van Hamm, Jr
Flight Engineer and one of eight Army men killed when B-18 Bolo #36-306 struck a mountainside, in the Sierra Nevada, fifteen miles south of Bishop, California, December 12, 1941.
The bomber was transporting Major General Herbert Dargue and other high ranking Army officers to Hawaii to investigate why the United States was unprepared for the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The last known position of the airplane was reported at 19:55 hours as two miles south of Palmdale, California. When they failed to arrive at Hamilton Field, the men were declared missing.
Despite an extensive search by both civilian and military personnel, the aircraft remained missing through the winter of 1941-1942. George Burns, the father of co-pilot Lt. Burns, discovered the wreckage of the missing Army bomber from his own airplane when enough snow had melted to reveal the location. The Douglas twin-engine bomber had struck a mountainside at the 11,000-foot level during a snowstorm near Thumb Lake a.k.a. Kidd Lake and wreckage was strewn over a 25-acre area and became buried under more than five feet of snow. Recovery of the bodies was completed by the end of July, 1942.
Killed were:
Capt. James G Leavitt, pilot
Col. Charles W Bundy
Maj. Gen. Herbert A Dargue
Col. George W Ricker
Lt. Col. Hugh F McCaffery
1st Lt. Homer C. Burns
S/Sgt. Stephen W Hoffman
PFC Samuel J Van Hamm, Jr
Inscription
SSGT, US ARMY AIR FORCES WORLD WAR II
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