Ensign/Pilot, US Navy Reserve. Aircraft: Douglas (SBD) Dauntless Dive Bomber VB-3 attached to USS Saratoga CV-3, Bombing Squadron Three. Task Force 61 was en route to the Battle of Guadalcanal (7 Aug 1942). SBD - BUNO #4580 with pilot Ensign James A Rutledge & Robert Rotsel were launched for combat air patrol. On 4 Aug 1942 at 1750, USS Saratoga received message reporting a forced water landing at Lat. 16.49 S, Long. 163.01 E with both men sited in rubber boat. USS McDonough (destroyer) was directed to pick them up - but there is no record in the Mc Donough's logs that the message was received or that a search was conducted. On 5 Aug 1942 at 1010, USS Wasp launched 10 planes to search for personnel lost the day before - distance 200 miles. At 1440, search groups landed with negative results. After the war, all nearby islands were searched as well as prisoners of war lists, and neither the pilot- James Allen Rutledge nor Robert Oliver Rotsel was found.
Killed in Action/lost at sea - Memorialized at Honolulu Memorial, Hawaii. [Memorial lists date of death as 5 Aug 1943; however, the plane crash occurred on 4 Aug 1942]