MAG-25, HqSq 25
R4D-5 BuNo. 12406
On June 8, 1943 at 00:55 hours a transport aircraft carrying personnel to Sydney Australia for R&R crashed leaving Tontouta Airfield, New Caledonia. Approximately three minutes after take off the plane was seen to go into a low turn and disappear from sight. During the initial climb one of the engines failed. The pilot tried to return to the airfield but the aircraft stalled and crashed in St. Vincent’s Bay a few miles from the airfield. At about 08:00 the wreckage of the plane was located in the water of St. Vincent’s Bay about 100 yards from shore. Gross weight of plane and load was 29,993 lbs. Operational orders in SCAT allowed 30,500 lbs. A total of 24 men were killed.

1st LT Neal Golphen Williams, USMC, Pilot
1st LT Robert Wesley Kirkpatrick, USMCR, Co-pilot
SGT John Henry Clarke Jr., USMC, Radio Operator
CPL Lewis Ray Baughman, USMCR, Navigator
PFC Keith William Horney, USMCR, Flight Mechanic
LTCOL Paul Moret, USMC, HqSq 1st MAW
PHM2c Robert Leon Barr, USNR, Corpsman

LCDR Weldon Lee Hamilton, USN, CAG-11
LT John Clifford Livezey, USN, Pilot VT-11
LT Virgil Edmund Flynn, USNR, Pilot VT-11
LT(jg) Paul Edward Babel, USNR, Pilot VT-11
LT(jg) Donald Randall Burke, USNR, Pilot VT-11
LT(jg) William Robert Weiss, USNR, Pilot VT-11
LT(jg) Sidney William Quick, USN, Pilot VT-11
ARM2c Robert Haywood Barnes, USNR, Radioman VT-11
ARM2c Ordien Fenmore Herr, USNR, Radioman VT-11
AMM2c Bernard Gordon Robinson, USN, Gunner VT-11
AOM1c Jack Foster Young, USN, Gunner VT-11
ARM3c Carl Lee Cobb, USN, Radioman VT-11
ARM2c Alley Burton Conrad, USN, Radioman VT-11
ARM2c William Thomas Owens, USNR, Radioman VT-11
ARM3c Ellwin Albert Teal, USNR, Radioman VT-11
PHM2c Charles Sterling Ball, USNR, Corpsman VT-11

Col Joseph Emile Hamilton Stevenot, US Army