Henry Sedric White

Sedric finally prevailed, and enlisted at the Naval Reserve Aviation Base in New Orleans on 26 September 1941. He passed elimination training at a local airport, and was sent off to Miami for flight school. After a few months of intensive training, White was a fully qualified pilot; as one of the top men in his class, he was offered a Marine Corps commission. On 13 May 1942, he became Second Lieutenant White, US Marine Corps Reserve. After a brief stop in Shreveport to visit family and buy a car, White proceeded on to California to join his first outfit – VMSB-233, a scout-bomber squadron preparing for overseas duty.

Lieutenant White saw action in the Solomon Islands as a member of the “Cactus Air Force” flying out of the Solomon Islands. “He was a capable pilot, but what a daredevil!” remembered a squadronmate. “Ooh! We gunners used to nearly fight to fly with him. When we’d make gunnery runs, he woulid always roll the plane over on its back and shake the empty shells out of the rear seat. That saved us a lot of trouble cleaning them out.” On one memorable flight in April 1943, White’s bomber was hit by anti-aircraft fire and forced down at sea. White made a “perfect” water landing; he and Staff Sergeant Warren Sanders got into a rubber boat and paddled to shore on Japanese-occupied Rendova Island. They evaded enemy patrols for several days, and were finally picked up by friendly natives who helped them return to their squadron.

After his tour of duty in the Solomons, Lieutenant White flew to Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides to spend some time off the front lines. In the early summer of 1943, he transferred to VMSB-141, another veteran scout-bomber squadron equipped with SBD Dauntless aircraft. Duty at “Santo” consisted mostly of training and administrative flights – routine for combat veterans like White.

On the evening of 21 July 1943, White joined Staff Sergeant Thomas L. Meek in the crew compartment of SBD-4 #06969. The nineteen-year-old Meek was also a former VMSB-233 flier – possibly one of the gunners who “nearly fought” to fly with the popular pilot – and the two probably knew each other well. White was likely in high spirits: his promotion to captain had just gone into effect that day, and he was sporting his brand new bars when he climbed into the cockpit.

The evening’s mission was a fairly routine night flying exercise, with no enemy activity anticipated. Captain White fired up the engine, and the bomber rolled down the strip and lumbered into the air over Turtle Bay. Disaster struck almost at once: an explosion echoed across the water, and flames were reported rising above Mavea (called “Mafia Island”). They may have been visible from the airstrip; the island was just 2,000 yards away. When White and Meek failed to return, the catastrophe took on greater import: a plane, at least, was lost; the squadron could only hope that the crew had survived.

The following morning, a search party sailed over to Mavea and discovered the burned-out wreckage of the Dauntless. Human remains were found nearby, and the men regretfully realized that White and Meek had both perished in the crash. The bodies were buried near the wreckage “at approximately 167° 13′ longitude and 15° 24′ latitude.”

“Mr. White and Meek took off, started to circle in order to join up on the lead plane, and crashed. It was at night, no one could see a thing, no one will ever know what really caused it to happen. I like to believe it was the plane itself….

“There was no identity to be made. Nothing, absolutely nothing was left of plane or men. Mafia must be the island upon which the crash occurred. I really didn’t know the name of it, but it’s a beautiful little green island overlooking the ocean. It was upon that tiny cliff that Captain White and Sgt. Meek came to rest.”

– unnamed serviceman, writing to Elizabeth (White) Bufkin, 1944.

Officially, the cause of the crash was ruled as a non-combat accident. It was supposed that White suffered an attack of vertigo due to the “dark, moonless night and partly overcast sky.”

In 1947, Army Graves Registration Service personnel visited Mavea Island in search of the crash site, but were unable to locate any remains associated with White or Meek. The two Marines were declared non-recoverable as of 1949.

The case was reopened in 2012, when a JPAC team arrived on site and conducted an archaeological dig. This time, human remains were recovered along with personal effects, including White’s collar insignia and Meek’s identification tags.

On 28 June 2013, the identification of Thomas Meek and Henry White was officially announced. Because the remains could not be completely segregated, they were buried together in Arlington National Cemetery.

CENOTAPHS
Honolulu Memorial

FINAL BURIAL
Arlington National Cemetery (group burial)