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NAME Howard Harvey Hicks |
NICKNAME — |
SERVICE NUMBER 266771 |
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| UNIT VMSB-132 Pilot |
HOME OF RECORD Limon, CO |
NEXT OF KIN Wife, Mrs. Marion C. Hicks |
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| DATE OF BIRTH April 2, 1918 at Genoa, CO |
ENTERED SERVICE July 26, 1938 at Denver, CO |
DATE OF LOSS June 2, 1943 |
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| REGION Vanuatu (New Hebrides) |
CAMPAIGN / AREA Espiritu Santo |
CASUALTY TYPE Missing, not in action Declared dead June 3, 1944 |
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CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOSS On 2 June 1943, one of the squadron’s planes became lost on a training flight and made a forced landing on a coral reef. Twenty aircraft – including MTSgt. Hicks and Sgt. J. L. Lasseigne in SBD-4 #10697 – were dispatched to search for the downed crew. The missing crew was rescued, and the searchers ordered back to base, but two SBDs did not receive the call on time. They continued searching until perilously low on fuel, then attempted to find their airstrip in darkness and bad weather. Neither aircraft returned. The following morning, Sergeant Lasseigne was found on the beach near Point Cumberland, Espiritu Santo. He reported a forced landing at sea, and that he had not seen MTSgt. Hicks since escaping the sinking plane. Hicks was reported as missing, then declared dead on 3 June 1944. |
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| INDIVIDUAL DECORATIONS Air Medal |
LAST KNOWN RANK Master Technical Sergeant |
STATUS OF REMAINS Not recovered. |
MEMORIALS Evergreen Cemetery, Hugo, CO Honolulu Memorial |
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Biography:
Contact the webmaster for more information about this Marine.
The other lost SBD, flown by Marine Gunner Kenneth L. Gordon with Sgt. H. M. Falton in the rear seat, crashed into a mountain near Point Cumberland. Falton suffered a broken leg in the crash but managed to pull himself from the wreckage and crawl several miles to a village, where he was rescued several days later. MG Gordon’s remains were recovered in 1956 and interred in Honolulu.
