 |
NAME Ernest Lee Bailey |
NICKNAME — |
SERVICE NUMBER 424511 |
|
| UNIT VMD-154 Photographer |
HOME OF RECORD Hume, VA |
NEXT OF KIN Wife, Mrs. Edna K. Bailey |
||
| DATE OF BIRTH July 7, 1915 at Maxene, AL |
ENTERED SERVICE July 6, 1942 at Washington, DC |
DATE OF LOSS February 7, 1943 |
||
| REGION Vanuatu (New Hebrides) |
CAMPAIGN / AREA Espiritu Santo |
CASUALTY TYPE Killed In Action |
||
| CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOSS Staff Sergeant Ernest L. Bailey was a photographer assigned to VMD-154, a Marine reconnaissance squadron based in the New Hebrides Islands. At just after 0400 hours on 7 February 1943, Bailey’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 Staff Sergeant |
STATUS OF REMAINS Not recovered |
MEMORIALS National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific |
|
Biography:
Contact the webmaster for more information about this Marine.
Articles & Records:
