Daniel Iverson, Jr.

Daniel Iverson was a highly-decorated Marine pilot with service dating back to before the war. He was one of the few  members of Major Lofton R. Henderson’s VMSB-241 to attack the Japanese fleet at Midway and live to tell the tale; although wounded in the battle, he brought his SBD back to base with more than 200 holes in the fuselage. Reassigned to VMSB-232, he went on to fight in the Guadalcanal campaign and played a major role in several strikes against targets in the Solomons. Japanese ships shelled Henderson Field on 13 September 1942; Iverson was badly wounded by shrapnel and evacuated back to the United States. His recovery took several months, and once cleared for duty Iverson was reassigned to the Naval Air Station at Vero Beach, Florida, as an instructor. He married Margaret Fisher in February 1943, and they welcomed a daughter, Dana Ann, later that year.

On 22 January 1944, Major Iverson was participating in – and likely leading – a training flight out of Vero Beach. The pilots were twenty miles out to sea when, at 0855, the aircraft flown by Ensign John Van Buren Nall rose too quickly and collided with the underside of Iverson’s plane. The ships fell to the sea and exploded before either pilot could bail out.

Neither Iverson nor Nall were recovered from the scene, and both were reported as dead immediately after the accident.