Pilot 1st Lt Robert H Miller, O-659996 (Providence, RI)
Co-Pilot 2nd Lt Robert L Hale, O-795731 (Newtonville, MA)
Radio S/Sgt Joseph A Berube, 11024162 (Fall River, MA)
Top Turret S/Sgt Glendon Harris, 11013668 (North Monmouth, ME)
Shot Down  October 24, 1943 at 1111 hours
MACR  979

Aircraft History
Nicknamed "We Dood It", a play on the expression that the comedian Red Skelton made famous. "Skelton premiered his own radio show, The Raleigh Cigarette Program, including "mean widdle kid" Junior, whose favorite phrase ("I dood it!") became part of the American lexicon." Engines: R-2600-13 Serial Numbers 41-29311 and 41-29345

Mission History
Took off from Dobodura for a strike to Rabaul. Just before reaching its target at 11:11am, this bomber was attacked by four Zeros and was hit, possibly in a collision with a Zero. It started to burn and a portion of the right wing fell off before crashing on the waters edge in a grove of coconuts on Kabanga Point.

Wreckage
Post war, in 1946-1947 Australian War Graves teams located the crash site and recovered some remains, that were buried in New Guinea in September 1947 as unknowns. In 1949-50 they were reburied at the Manila American Cemetery.

Scattered wreckage remained until the 1970s, portions scrapped.

Brian Bennett recalls:
"I recall that i first saw the crash site at Kabanga "pronounced Kar-bunga" way back in late 1972. There was quite a lot of the aircraft then but as i mentioned later by the time it was scoped by CILHI for remains recovery there was damn all of it left as youths had been at at for some time (scraping it). It was a difficult site to work as there were bits of aircraft and remains all up and down the cliff. A very old Tolai elder said that at the time of the crash the aircraft had exploded and burnt and that japanese soldiers quartered nearby had picked up body parts scattered around the burning aircraft and had thrown them into the fire. There is a large Japanese coastal defense position nearby with two large coastal defense guns."

In Late 2000, a US Army CILHI team did an investigation at the crash site and located more remains. The unknowns in Manila were exhumed and the entire crew identified by May 2006.

Brian Bennett adds:
"I first saw [this site] in late 1972. There was quite a lot of wreckage to see then, but the site was picked at by locals over the years. At time of recovery exercise there was little left. The aircraft crashed half on cliff and half on upper slope. I did push the site for recovery and it was on the recovery list and the site was done properly in 2001. I don't have any site photos at all even though i was on the recovery."

Memorial Services
Robert Miller was buried in the VA Cemetery in Exeter, RI. Miller Obituary via Elsie, Bob Miller's sister.

Hale was laid to rest in late October 2006 in the family's hometown cemetery in Rowley, MA.

Joseph A Berube remains were identified with DNA from his brother, Normand. He was buried in his hometown of Natick on October 28, 2006.

The remains of Glendon Harris were identified and returned to his family in October 2006. His brother had given DNA for the identification in 2004, but passed away before the news of a positive identification was made.

References
Thanks to Edward Rogers, Bill Swain and Brian Bennett for additional information.

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