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Benjamin C. Y. Fuller

NAME
Benjamin Cunningham Yancey Fuller
NICKNAME
Yancey
SERVICE NUMBER
O-6429
UNIT
VMD-154
Pilot
HOME OF RECORD
704 A Avenue, Coronado, CA
originally Tallahassee, FL
NEXT OF KIN
Wife, Mrs. Marie M. Fuller
DATE OF BIRTH
~1913
ENTERED SERVICE
1938 – 1940 (US Army)
February 15, 1940
DATE OF LOSS
February 7, 1943
REGION
Vanuatu (New Hebrides)
CAMPAIGN / AREA
Espiritu Santo
CASUALTY TYPE
Killed In Action
CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOSS
Captain Benjamin Fuller was a pilot assigned to VMD-154, a Marine reconnaissance squadron based in the New Hebrides Islands.

At just after 0400 hours on 7 February 1943, Fuller’s plane – PB4Y-1 BuNo 31958 – took off from Espiritu Santo for the first leg of a planned photographic mission to Truk. The aircraft barely cleared the coastline before it plunged into the sea 600 yards offshore of the airstrip, sinking into 94 fathoms of water.

The entire crew was killed in the incident. None of their remains could be recovered.

INDIVIDUAL DECORATIONS
Purple Heart
LAST KNOWN RANK
Captain
STATUS OF REMAINS
Not recovered
MEMORIALS
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific

Biography:
Coming soon. Contact the webmaster for more information about this Marine.

NOTE: First Lieutenant Harold Welch Ervin, USAAF, was a passenger on Fuller’s aircraft.
He was also killed, and has not been accounted for.


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1 thought on “Benjamin C. Y. Fuller”

  1. Frederick D. Yancey, III

    Captain Yancey Fuller was a 1st cousin of my father, Fred Yancey Jr., also of Umatilla, FL. His dress Marine photo was proudly displayed in my grandfather’s home in Umatilla, FL. My grandfather’s younger sister, Lucy, was his mother. When I visited the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC, I was amazed to see that the manikin in the WWII uniform, had “Fuller” as the name badge on his uniform. The WWII exhibit commemorated WWII Pacific warfare and the manikin in the pilot’s seat was in an an aircraft of WWII.

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