Joyce Madison Sanders

First Lieutenant Joyce Sanders – nicknamed “Target” for his accuracy in dive-bombing practice – was assigned to VMSB-241 in 1943. He deployed overseas to take part in the campaign for the northern Solomons; on 10 February 1944 – his first mission – Sanders planted a bomb on a parked Japanese aircraft at Vanukanau Airfield near Rabaul.

Two days later, Sanders and Corporal James P. Griffin flew SBD-5 #35954 on their second mission to the Rabaul area. After bombing Lakunai airfield, Sanders spotted a Japanese gunboat firing on the retiring American aircraft. “Sending his plane directly at the ship, which was bristling with guns, he strafed it from masthead height,” noted a contemporary report. This “utter disregard for his own safety” had a tragic end; the gunboat turned its fire on Sanders’ Dauntless and sent the bomber careening into St. George’s Channel, just east of Credner Island.

Sanders and Griffin were posted as missing after the mission; both men were declared dead on 13 January 1945. Sanders received a posthumous Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions on 10 and 12 February.