For US Naval Aviators, Non-Combat Deaths Outnumbered Those in Combat
Combat wasn’t the only danger that US Naval Aviators faced. Here is an excerpt from USS Franklin deck log 16 February 1945:
16-18 Steaming as before. 1622 F4U-1D Bu. No. 82533, pilot 2nd Lieut. Clare R. Beeler, (132162), USMCR, and F4U-1D Bu. No. 82559, pilot 2nd Lieut. Herbert D. Scramuzza, (031516), USMCR, collided in mid-air during diving practice on ship. Both pilots were lost at sea at Lat. 20-00 N., Long. 158-39 W.
On 16 February 1945, eighty-one years ago, two Marine Corps pilots lost their lives in a training accident. They were by no means the only ones. During World War II, there were more than twice as many aviators killed in training or other non-combat related accidents as there were those who died in combat.
There were many causes. Pilot error, fatigue, mechanical failures, and weather were among the factors that led to fatal crashes.
As USS Franklin prepared for her Operational Readiness Inspection over the next three weeks, there were numerous accidents.
For example, the day after Lieutenants Beeler and Scramuzza were killed, 2nd Lieutenant C. S. Detmering, USMCR, landed his Corsair in the ocean two miles away from the carrier. He was “picked up by a destroyer and in good health.”
Continuing this pattern, on 18 February, another Marine pilot crash landed his Corsair “on the southern part of the island of Hawaii; no injury to pilot.”
Incidents persisted: on 19 February, at 1104, “SB2c-4 Bu. No. 20681 crashed in water on port quarter while making approach, pilot Ensign G.M. Stanley, USNR, recovered by U.S.S. Harry El Hubbard (DD748); aircrewman, Cobb, J.W. ARM3c, missing.”
When we picture wartime sacrifice, we usually imagine men dying under enemy fire, but the record shows a different and harsher truth: for US naval aviators of the era, danger was constant, even when no enemy was in sight. According to Aviation Personnel Fatalities in World War II, an article on the US Navy History and Heritage Command website, in the US Navy, non-combat deaths among aviators were far more common than those in combat.
Did you arrive here via a search engine? I am the author of the forthcoming book Heroes By The Hundreds: The Story of the USS Franklin (CV-13). In addition to writing about the bravery of her crew, I will discuss the lessons we can learn in leadership and decision-making.
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