Looking to solve a WWII mystery

[mustangdriver]

Leroy Miller was a rear gunner on a carrier based aircraft, TBM or such. He was killed in a stateside crash on 6/12/1944 somewhere in Florida. Does anyone have any info on a crash taking place then?

[Pathfinder]

Hi Chris--

Mike Stowe's ACCIDENTREPORTS.com lists the following USN a/c lost on date specific. As you can see only one is a multi-seat a/c that being the SBD based at Whitehouse Field, Florida.

OTU stands for Operational Training Unit so very possibly was shooting landing on a carrier off shore.

440612 OTU#4 FG-1 13968 JACKSONVILLE NAS FL
440612 OTU#4 SBD-5 28667 WHITEHOUSE FIELD FL
440612 OTU#5 F4U-1 2317 JACKSONVILLE NAS FL
440612 VF-15 F6F-3 41643 PACIFIC
440612 VF-16 F6F-3 41105 USS LEXINGTON
440612 VF-16 F6F-3 66113 USS LEXINGTON
440612 VF-50 F6F-3 42187 USS BATAAN
440612 VF-80 F6F-5 58368 CHESEPEAKE BAY VA
440612 VMFN-543 F6F-3N 42690 BEAUFORD NC

Northrop / Douglas El Segundo
c/n 4014 SBD-5 28667

Admin/Biog History LeRoy A. Miller was the son of Artur J. Miller of rural Oshkosh and was born March 7, 1925. He attended school in Nekimi and Oshkosh. He enlisted in the United States Navy in August 1943 and was trained at Great Lakes, IL and in Memphis, TN, Jacksonville, FL and Miami, FL in the naval aviation service in gunnery and bombsight school. He was killed when his dive bomber collided with another on a training mission 60 miles northeast of Miami on June 17, 1944.
Classification Archives
Collection Winnebago County Historical Commission
Dates of Accumulation 1943
Abstract Letter from LeRoy A. Miller, United States Navy, to Helen Miller, in Oshkosh, WI.

L. Miller (A.S.)
Co. 130U.S.H.T.S.
Great Lakes, Ill. 9/11/43

Dear Helen,
I received your letter yesterday and I was glad to hear from you. I would have wrote last night but I got three shots yesterday and I didn't feel so good.
Now I am glad I didn't to Farrugut because it sure is a swell place down here. It has been quite cold the last few days down here. I have a caught a cold. I like the Navy just well.
Tell Grandma I am going to Aviation's Ordinance service school after I graduate from boot training.
It's to bad you have to go back to school so soon, I know just how you feel. Are you going to O.S.T.C. this fall?
I get around one to four letters a day, only one day since I've been here I didn't get any.
I haven't wrote to Marvin yet because I lost his address and I'll appreciate it if you will send it to me as soon as possible.
You told me to tell you what I'm doing. Well that's a big order. I'm drilling washing clothes. Taking physical and mental tests, getting shots, washing clothes and drilling, standing watch every day, writing about 4 or five letters a day, drilling, washing clothes, and playing football. There are some more but mostly I'm drilling and washing clothes.
No letters will get boring to me no matter how many questions you ask!
Tell Alex (hello) from me
Write soon
Love to you all
LeRoy
P.S. I believe I [am] picking up a Southern drawl down here there are so many guys from Georgia.
Event World War II
Category 8: Communication Artifact
Legal Status Oshkosh Public Museum
Object ID RG71.27
Object Name Letter
People Miller, LeRoy A.
Subjects World War II
Casualties
Accidents
United States Navy
Bombers
Airplanes
Aircraft accidents
Title Letter

I believe the citation for June 17, 1944 in the above abstract is a typo. The correct date is as you specified.

Whitehouse OLF was part of Cecil Field JAX

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... 9129,d.eXY

[mustangdriver]

Holy cow! You are awesome man!!

[Chris Brame]

I notice they list only one SBD as lost; did the other make it back to base (or the carrier)?

[Pathfinder]

Yes, that would seem to be the obvious question, but based on the locations off all losses that day, I think we now have to address the two Corsairs--one based at OTU4 and the other at OTU5.

Aviation Archaeology has data on the two Corsairs listed by a/c type. It does not have data on SBD losses.
Baugher does not list any of the a/c by BuNo.
AccidentReports.com gave us the above data and will have the report of loss available for purchase.

Miller is not listed on the WW2 Memorial site.
He is not listed in the Navy Casualty Books which carry "combat deaths" and "combat wounded".
He is not listed on the East Coast Memorial.

He is listed on a memorial marker in Winnebago County, WI but could not find a photo or location for it.

What "mystery" are we trying to solve here?

[mustangdriver]

My friend and co worker is a relative of Mr. Miller. The family, including Ellen who the letter is for, had no idea how he was lost other than "an accident in training". Ellen is still alive and always wondered what happened to him. Now she will have some answers.

[Mark Allen M]

Chris these were SBD's based at Beeville, Texas, Whitehouse Field FLA and NAS Miami FLA c 1944/46.









Just as a note: These photos are from an album belonging to Mike Fitzpatrick of his father's service during and after the war. (Donald F. Fitzpatrick) The photos above were taken while training over Beeville, Texas

[Pathfinder]

Chris--

Thanks for the compliment but there are NO ANSWERS yet.

We have a loss scenario posted by an individual who got the date of loss incorrect--so is suspect as to 100% verifiable data.

We need to acquire the actual accident report. I would suggest Mike Stowe. I do not know if Aviation Archaeology has them on microfische. I'm pretty sure Mike does.

You will need to cross reference accident reports to the other plane too to get complete data on the scenario.

As to the June 17 date vs the loss date of 12JUN, this could be the date that the news was posted in the local paper in Wisconsin--five days after the accident. But that is also speculation on my part.

[mustangdriver]

SOunds great and thanks. Mark, thanks also for those photos. Those are great. We will keep digging. We have the Naval Historic Center working on it as well as contact that local history center. I appreciate all of the help!

[Pathfinder]

Above I noted that his name is on a local memorial....It is here:

Oshkosh World War II Memorial
Near Ohio Street (State Route 44) , Oshkosh, (On the right when traveling south)

[Jim MacDonald]

I looked at the accident reports for all of June 44 for SBD, SB2C, SBW & SBF & couldn't find one with his loss. The gunner for BuNo 28667 was not Leroy Miller according to the accident report.

Mac

[Pathfinder]

This is why I say that you don't have a story to tell until you have facts to corroborate it.

You checked for SBD...but did you specify SBD-5?

So if you have the accident report for 28667 who IS the gunner on that plane?

What other aircraft is associated with it, if indeed it was a mid-air.

I would check the losses of the two Corsairs with the specific Mfgr coding to see if Miller is mentioned as being involved in their loss. (ie: His A/R is missing but his name is known from the A/R of the other plane.)

A/R dot com only lists names as found in A/Rs....

[Scooby]

This is why I say that you don't have a story to tell until you have facts to corroborate it.

You checked for SBD...but did you specify SBD-5?

So if you have the accident report for 28667 who IS the gunner on that plane?

What other aircraft is associated with it, if indeed it was a mid-air.

I would check the losses of the two Corsairs with the specific Mfgr coding to see if Miller is mentioned as being involved in their loss. (ie: His A/R is missing but his name is known from the A/R of the other plane.)

A/R dot com only lists names as found in A/Rs....

The original post only suggested it was a TBD, he specified a date and location.

The other post suggested it was an SBD as the only multi-seat aircraft out of that base which crashed on that date was an SBD.

Perhaps Leroy Miller died of his injuries on that date but crashed a few days earlier.

[Jim MacDonald]

Pathfinder,

I checked for all SBDs for all of Jun. The A/R for 28667 states that the engine began cutting out so a landing was attempted at Whitehouse Field. As Ens. Gordon Fendor circled to land, he stalled and the left wingtip struck the ground and the plane cartwheeled. There were not any fatalities. The gunner's name was S1c J.P. Weaver. I checked Lynn Ritger's TBD list and there wasn't any TBD losses on that date.

Mac

[mustangdriver]

I really appreciate everyone looking in to this. Not sure where the TBD info came from. In my first post I thought it might be an Avenger. Where did that paragraph about the collision come from? It sounds like we know what happened but need to close in the details. I'd love to find the pilots name as well.