Jesse Murray Leach, Jr.

Lieutenant Jesse Leach served as a fighter pilot with VMF-222 (the Flying Deuces) starting in the summer of 1943, and participated in multiple combat tours over the northern Solomon Islands and New Guinea.

At 0915 on 24 February 1944, two four-plane divisions of “Flying Deuces” took off from Bougainville’s Piva Airfield to escort a squadron of B-24s striking at Vunakanau. Bad weather and engine trouble marred the mission; one fighter aborted with a bad fuel pump, and the bombers had to divert to a secondary target. Lieutenant Leach in FG-1A #13212 dropped behind the formation and disappeared from sight. He reported engine trouble over the radio, then announced his engine had quit and he was making a water landing. The rest of his division returned safely, and search flights were dispatched within the hour.

Pilots flying over Duke of York Island spotted a small figure in a rubber boat tossing in St. George’s Channel. Leach had survived the water landing and was waving frantically at the Corsairs overhead. The flight leader immediately radioed the location and a request for a “Dumbo” air-sea rescue. Leach’s safety seemed assured – but then the Dumbo pilot refused the mission. “He would have to make a night landing upon returning,” snapped the VMF-222 war diary, “and he had a rule which would not allow after dark landings, so he returned to base.” The fighters circled Leach’s location until dark, but could do nothing more for him and returned to base.

Patrols went out early the next morning, but could find no trace of Leach or his rubber boat. VMF-222 pilots flew up and down the channel all day and scoured the shores of New Ireland without success. Leach was reported missing, and ultimately declared dead as on 18 January 1946.