823rd Bomb Squadron, 38th Bomb Group, 5th Air Force

Captain David T. Bechtol was a former Operations Officer of the 823rd Squadron. He had just been relieved as Operations Officer and was awaiting orders which would have returned him to the States. As almost all the pilots who were at Palawan, however, he volunteered to fly the "locals" until they got back -- as if, by flying over 50 combat missions against the Japanese, he hadn't already done his share.

On June 28th 1945, Captain Bechtol and Flight Officer Lawrence J. Russell, took off on a flight to test a new plane (known as a "test hop"). When they had only been out for a few minutes, Captain Bechtol reported by radio that some difficulty had developed in the plane and they were coming in to land. About a thousand feet short of the runway, one wing of the aircraft dipped in a rice paddy, and it crashed, leaving only a mass of half-submerged wreckage. Neither Captain Bechtol nor FO Russell survived.

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Interment: February 15, 1949

823rd Bomb Squadron, 38th Bomb Group, 5th Air Force

Captain David T. Bechtol was a former Operations Officer of the 823rd Squadron. He had just been relieved as Operations Officer and was awaiting orders which would have returned him to the States. As almost all the pilots who were at Palawan, however, he volunteered to fly the "locals" until they got back -- as if, by flying over 50 combat missions against the Japanese, he hadn't already done his share.

On June 28th 1945, Captain Bechtol and Flight Officer Lawrence J. Russell, took off on a flight to test a new plane (known as a "test hop"). When they had only been out for a few minutes, Captain Bechtol reported by radio that some difficulty had developed in the plane and they were coming in to land. About a thousand feet short of the runway, one wing of the aircraft dipped in a rice paddy, and it crashed, leaving only a mass of half-submerged wreckage. Neither Captain Bechtol nor FO Russell survived.

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Interment: February 15, 1949