William Lloyd Casper

William Casper served as a turret gunner in a TBF Avenger torpedo bomber during the campaign for the northern Solomon Islands. He began flying combat missions in August, and by mid-September was well familiar with his squadron and crew, as well as the sights and sounds of his home base at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal.

On 16 September 1943, VMTB-233 took off for the third of three strikes against Ballale Airfield in the Shortland Islands, just south of Bougainville. The previous strikes were extremely successful, and on both missions all planes returned safely.

The Americans did not get off clean on the final strike. A Navy TBF crashed and exploded on the runway, and Corporal Casper’s Avenger – TBF-1 #06452, with 1Lt. Edward A. Croker and PFC Henry W. Schroeder aboard – was not seen again after the bombing run. The three Marines were listed as missing in action, and finally declared dead on 10 January 1946.

After the war, it was learned that Lt. Croker managed to bail out of the Avenger and was captured by the Japanese. “He was the only man saved out of his plane,” related Reverend Joseph Lamarre, an Australian civilian imprisoned alongside Croker. The pilot died at the hands of his Japanese captors.