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NAME Glen Irvin Anderson |
NICKNAME — |
SERVICE NUMBER O-12828 |
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| UNIT VMSB-143 Pilot |
HOME OF RECORD 1818 Harlan Street Falls City, NE |
NEXT OF KIN Father, Mr. Raymond E. Anderson |
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| DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1919 in Williamson, IA |
ENTERED SERVICE August 25, 1941 (enlisted) August 28, 1942 (commissioned) |
DATE OF LOSS March 14, 1943 |
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| REGION Solomon Islands |
CAMPAIGN / AREA Guadalcanal (en route) |
CASUALTY TYPE Missing Declared Dead March 15, 1944 |
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| CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOSS Second Lieutenant Glen I. Anderson was a Marine bomber pilot assigned to VMSB-143, an Avenger squadron that fought in the campaign for the Solomon Islands.On 13 March 1944, Anderson joined a group of TBFs for a ferry flight from Espiritu Santo to Guadalcanal. They were joined by a handful of Marine fighters and an Army transport plane which led the group. About an hour out of Espiritu Santo, the formation encountered a massive weather front. The thirteen Avengers flew into the storm – and only eight flew out. The remaining five, including Anderson’s TBF-1 06022, were never seen again. All nine pilots and aviators were declared dead on 15 March 1944. |
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| INDIVIDUAL DECORATIONS — |
LAST KNOWN RANK Second Lieutenant (posthumous Captain) |
STATUS OF REMAINS Missing in action |
MEMORIALS Honolulu Memorial |
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Biography:
Coming soon. Contact the webmaster for more information about this Marine.
When the C-47 [leading the formation] punched through the storm, only six TBFs remained on its wing. Two more reached Henderson Field later, but by the end of the day it was evident that five had been lost…. Perhaps several had suffered a chain-reaction collision in the midst of the violent storm. It was a small consolation to the Avenger squadron that instead of the normal crew of three, only gunners had ridden with the pilots aboard four of the missing planes, and one pilot flew solo. But the blow was still tremendous: nine souls were gone, including the executive officer. The cause of their disappearance remains a mystery, for no trace of them has been found.
– Bruce Gamble, The Black Sheep
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