One of the Commonwealth War Dead, Flying Officer Keogh (#266551) was a member of the Royal Australian Air Force.

He initially joined the RAF in c1920 for a period. In 1927-28 he went to New Guinea as a Patrol Officer and rose to District Officer before he resigned to begin alluvial gold mining. In late 1941, as the Japanese invaded, he escaped to Australia in an open boat with 3 other persons, calling at Rabaul on the way. He enlisted in the RAAF on 13 July 1942 and was seconded to the Far East Liaison Officer (FELO), doing intelligence field work in Japanese-held territory in New Guinea. He was on an American B24 which crashed and exploded near Port Moresby, New Guinea, on 30 Aug 1943.

Gerard Keogh left a wife, Justina Marguerite Keogh, and two young children.

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Aboard B-24D Liberator #42-40984.

On August 31, 1943, at 03:52 hours, the bomber took off from 7-Mile Drone near Port Moresby, New Guinea on a top-secret mission to the north coast to the vicinity of Lae.

Approximately 18 minutes into the flight, the airplane crashed, from unknown reasons, in the pre-dawn morning into the face of a cliff and exploded upon impact, killing all twelve aboard. Because the Liberator was fully laden with bombs and fuel, the impact resulted in full devastation.

On September 3, 1943, an L-4 Cub was dispatched to the region to search for the missing bomber, but the airplane ran out of gas and crashed, killing pilot, 2nd Lt. Frederic G Heyer.

In the middle of September, 1943, the accident crash site was located and visited, but the remains of the crew could not be individually identified. Due to unexploded bombs, the searchers departed after only about an hour at the site. In June, 1945, members of the American Graves Registration Service went to the site and collected more remains of the crew.

During August, 1983, identification technicians from the US Army vistited the crash site.

An unexploded 500-pound bomb was found, and members of the PNG Defense Force exploded the bomb and additional remains were collected.

Killed were:

2LT William B Cox, O-523742, GA, Pilot

2LT Patrick J Byrnes Jr, O-674140, CT, Co-Pilot

FLT O Fred L Evans, T-060667, TX, Co-Pilot

2LT Fred H Verhein Jr, O-738949, WI, Bombardier

2LT Robert F Violet, O-659612, MA, Navigator

TSGT Jacob M Kesler, 35356999, IN, Flight Engineer

SSGT George A Kiferd, 13089529, PA, Gunner

SSGT Harold E. Kuhn, 12016263, NY, Asst. Radio Operator

SSGT Stanley Marczak, 16066245, MI, Asst. Engineer

TSGT Richard D Marsh, 32405881, NY, Radio Operator

PFC James A Franklin, 18064953, TX, Gunner

F/O Gerard M Keogh, RAAF266551, Royal Australian Air Force, Passenger