 | NAME Robert Champney Hanckel, Jr. | NICKNAME — | SERVICE NUMBER O-14678 | |
| UNIT VMF-221 Pilot | HOME OF RECORD 50 Kent Street Scituate, MA | NEXT OF KIN Mother, Mrs. Elizabeth N. Hanckel | ||
| DATE OF BIRTH August 17, 1920 at Princeton, MA | ENTERED SERVICE November 20, 1942 (commissioned) at Jacksonville, FL | DATE OF LOSS June 9, 1943 | ||
| REGION Vanuatu (New Hebrides) | CAMPAIGN / AREA Espiritu Santo | CASUALTY TYPE Non-battle death | ||
CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOSS On 9 June 1943, Lt. Hanckel was piloting F4F-3P #1876 on a routine flight over Turtle Bay. A group of planes from VMSB-132 was engaged in dive-bombing practice nearby.* Hanckel’s Wildcat crossed paths with an SBD flown by 1Lt. Andrew Jackson, and the two aircraft collided in mid-air. Three Marines – Hanckel, Jackson, and SSgt. Thomas J. Quinn – were killed; none of the bodies were recovered. | ||||
| INDIVIDUAL DECORATIONS — | LAST KNOWN RANK Second Lieutenant posthumous First Lieutenant | STATUS OF REMAINS Not recovered | MEMORIALS Honolulu Memorial | |
* Lt. Hanckel’s plane was a photo-reconnaissance variant of the standard Wildcat fighter; he may have been photographing the results of the dive-bombing exercise.
Biography:
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