Thomas LeRoy Meek

Thomas Meek – commonly called by his middle name, “Leroy” – was born in Howard County, Missouri on 18 May 1924. He grew up in Kansas City with his parents, Ray and Alameda Meek, and younger siblings Vaughan and Jackie.

Meek attended Manual Vocational High School in Kansas City, where he studied automobile mechanics and was active in the ROTC. In 1941, while still in his junior year, Meek decided to put his interests to professional use by enlisting in the Marine Corps.

Thomas enlisted at Kansas City, Missouri on 23 May 1941 – just days after his seventeenth birthday. He showed an aptitude for mechanics (thanks, most likely, to his high school studies) and after boot camp was assigned to Aircraft Engineering Squadron 24 in San Diego. Meek went on to attend radio school and aerial gunnery training, and by April 1942 was serving with a scout-bombing squadron as a radioman/gunner.

Meek trained in California with VMSB-232, and in the Territory of Hawaii with VMSB-233. He was a talented Marine, and by January 1943 held the rank of Staff Sergeant. Meek also gained a great deal of combat experience as he flew missions out of Henderson Field, Guadalcanal with the “Cactus Air Force.”

After his tour of duty in the Solomons, Ssgt. Meek 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 Meek.

On the evening of 21 July 1943 , Meek joined Captain Henry S. White in the crew compartment of SBD-4 #06969. Like Meek, White was a Guadalcanal veteran with previous service in VMSB-233; the two Marines probably knew each other well. Meek might have congratulated White on his promotion to captain, which went into effect that very day.

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.”

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)