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NAME Herbert Edward Knecht |
NICKNAME — |
SERVICE NUMBER 356626 |
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| UNIT VMD-154 Flight Engineer |
HOME OF RECORD Route 1, Unity, WI |
NEXT OF KIN Father, Mr. Edward J. Knecht |
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| DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1920 |
ENTERED SERVICE January 13, 1942 |
DATE OF LOSS February 7, 1943 |
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| REGION Vanuatu (New Hebrides) |
CAMPAIGN / AREA Espiritu Santo |
CASUALTY TYPE Killed In Action |
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| CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOSS Sergeant Herbert E. Knecht was an aviation engineer assigned to VMD-154, a Marine reconnaissance squadron based in the New Hebrides Islands. Just after 0400 hours on 7 February 1943, Knecht’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. |
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| INDIVIDUAL DECORATIONS Purple Heart |
LAST KNOWN RANK Sergeant |
STATUS OF REMAINS Not recovered |
MEMORIALS St. Paul Lutheran Cemetery, Colby, WI National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific |
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Biography:
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