Aircraft History
Built by Consolidated. Assigned to the United States Navy (USN) to squadron VP-91. No known nickname, nose art or squadron number.

Mission History
On November 19, 1943 took off from Tulagi Seaplane Base (Gavutu) on a patrol mission. Caught in a down draft, this Catalina hit the sea off southern Malaita. During the crash, five were killed and two injured.

Recovery of Remains
After the crash, the remains of Donovan were recovered. Donovan's remains were initially buried at American Cemetery Guadalcanal.

Four sets of remains were recovered from the south of Malaita as unknowns: X-176 (shoe size 7.5D), X-177 (with officer's shoe), X-178, X-179. These are highly likely to be four (or all five) missing members of this crew.

Memorials
The crew members killed were officially declared dead on November 19, 1943. Postwar, he was interred at at Golden Gate National Cemetery at section D site 494 (date of death listed as November 17, 1943 [sic]).

The missing members of the crew are memorialized on the tablets of the missing at Manila American Cemetery.

For reasons unknown, the unknowns: X-176 (shoe size 7.5D), X-177 (with officer's shoe), X-178, X-179 were transported to Hawaii and were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl).

Ted Darcy adds:
"Group burial is the best we are going to do. All five may be in the four graves."

References
Thanks to Ted Darcy / WFIRG for additional information
FindAGrave - Richard Healy Donovan, Jr. (grave photo)

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Last Updated
June 29, 2019