James Barnard Lacey, Jr.

First Lieutenant James Lacey was a Marine scout-bomber pilot and veteran of several missions in the northern Solomon Islands. His squadron, VMSB-236, was based out of Munda.

On 20 December 1943, a strike on Bonis airfield was ordered by commanding officers. VMSB-236 contributed fourteen crews to this mission, including Lacey and his radioman/gunner PFC Robert E. Jones. The American force arrived over Bonis shortly after 1100 hours and began their bombing runs. Pilots and gunners alike were pleased to encounter minimal anti-aircraft fire – but then somebody saw an SBD inverted and going down fast, just 500 feet above the ground. A few seconds later, the plane impacted near the western end of the airstrip and exploded.

All other VMSB-236 crews returned safely and reported the incident. Because there was so little defensive fire, pilots opined that the missing bomber had been knocked from the sky by the blast wave of a friendly bomb – possibly its own. SBD-4 #10477 was stricken from the Navy list; Lacey and Jones were declared missing in action. Given the circumstances of their loss, both men were changed to “killed in action” after a short period.