USAAF
5th AF
43rd BG
64th BS
Pilot 1st
Lt. Richard Heuss
Co-Pilot 2nd LT.Robert
Miller
Navigator 2nd Lt. Robert
Strechenbach
Bombardier 2nd Lt. Ed
French, O-734883
Engineer T/SGT Charles
Bode, 13072686
Ast Engineer S/SGT Ivan
O. Kirkpatrick, 39234213
Radio SSGT Roy Suribian, 11051816
Ast Radio S/SGT William
K. Musgrave, 36368255
Gunner SSGTJames T.
Moran, 32432306
Gunner S/SGT James B. "Dinty" Moore, 11088506
Radar/Gunner S/SGT Lucian
I. Oliver, Jr., 14070201
Crashed November 21, 1943
MACR 1771
Mission History
Departed Port Moresby on a night radar
search of the Wewak area, and dissapeared. A followup search failed
ot locate the missing aircraft.
On a sadly ironic note, SSgt Lucian I. Oliver had survived a crash on B-24D 42-40885, (the previous B-24 in production line) near Gona, only to die on this aircraft.
Discovery & Recovery
Discovered in the mountains near Engati in Morobe Province.
Brian
Bennett (JPAC / PNG) adds:
"I have been to this site a number of times and it is a very difficult
location. The aircraft impacted in the top end of a very steep ravine
and i mean steep down the sides and steep from top to bottom. little
aircraft wreckage can be seen as the aircraft has or appears to have
been buried in a landslide. There could be 100's to several 1000's
of cubic yards of rock on this one. I am not certain what the status
is but i am positive that there are engineering problems
for recovery as well as quite serious safety issues."
Relatives
Stephen
Ward (nephew of Moran):
"My uncle was Staff Sgt. James T. Moran."
References
Bruce Hoy Wreck Files (PNG Museum), 43rd BG History.
B-24
MIA
