Donald Warren Haynes

Donald Haynes enlisted in the Marine Corps at Minneapolis on 29 September 1942. After boot camp at MCB San Diego and training as an aviation ordnance man, Haynes deployed overseas with the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing. In the summer of 1943, he was assigned to Marine Air Group (MAG) 12 at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal.

At some point during his service in the Solomon Islands, PFC Haynes began to display troubling symptoms of mental illness. He was diagnosed with “dementia praecox” and may have been suffering from worsening schizophrenia. Haynes was evacuated to a base hospital at New Caledonia and, in September 1943, was placed aboard the USS Wharton for transit back to the United States. His condition continued to deteriorate, and Haynes was confined to a locked cell guarded by a Navy corpsman.

Early in the morning on 25 September 1943, Haynes escaped from his cell, evaded the corpsman on guard, and appeared to deliberately throw himself over the rail. The call of “man overboard” reached the bridge at 0415 hours. The Wharton backtracked and searched for Haynes in the darkness, but could not find the Marine’s body.

“About 4:30 AM on Sunday, 25 September, I was setting on the ammunition chest of gun number 11. I saw a man come out of the pharmacy and hurry over to the starboard side of the ship just in front of the 20mm guns and climb over the landing nets and jump. He jumped before I could get to him. I immediately notified the corpsman on duty.”
– Cpl. Donald Parks, 169th Field Artillery Battalion, aboard the USS Wharton

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“At 0425 I was awakened by the night corpsman of the annex (PhM2c C. N. Harmon). He reported that Haynes had climbed over and out of the forward cage and had slipped past him as he (the corpsman) sat on guard at the desk. The patient escaped aft through the sick bay with the corpsman close in pursuit. Harmon stated that coming from the glare in the sick bay onto the darkened half deck, he lost patient and was told that he jumped over the starboard side.”
– Lt (j.g.) S. P. Norman, USS Wharton

Two other men – Marine Corporal Robert J. Powers and Army Sergeant Roy M. Ball – died under similar circumstances within 24 hours. A board of investigation ruled all three deaths as suicides.