ARM2c Hyman Atun served as radioman and gunner aboard a TBM1C piloted by LTJG Francis Melville Waters with US Navy Torpedo Squadron 51 (VT-51) aboard USS San Jacinto (CVL-30).
According to squadron operational reporting, the plane experienced a problem while diving on a target on Peleliu Island, and crashed. Witnesses saw no parachutes, and the bodies of all three crewmen were not recovered at the time.
The other crewmen were Aviation Radioman 2nd Class Hyman Atun, and Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class Paul Bensman. In 2008, a JPAC recovery team conducted a recovery mission at this site.
The JPAC team did not recover remains, but they did recover sufficient information, including personal effects, to confirm that the aircraft at this crash site is, as we had previously concluded, the TBM flown by Francis Waters, with crew members Hyman Atun and Paul Bensman, which was shot down on 15 September 1944, the first day of the invasion of Peleliu. (See attached picture from crash site.)
According to squadron operational reporting, the plane experienced a problem while diving on a target on Peleliu Island, and crashed. Witnesses saw no parachutes, and the bodies of all three crewmen were not recovered at the time.
The other crewmen were Aviation Radioman 2nd Class Hyman Atun, and Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class Paul Bensman. In 2008, a JPAC recovery team conducted a recovery mission at this site.
The JPAC team did not recover remains, but they did recover sufficient information, including personal effects, to confirm that the aircraft at this crash site is, as we had previously concluded, the TBM flown by Francis Waters, with crew members Hyman Atun and Paul Bensman, which was shot down on 15 September 1944, the first day of the invasion of Peleliu. (See attached picture from crash site.)
ARM2c Hyman Atun served as radioman and gunner aboard a TBM1C piloted by LTJG Francis Melville Waters with US Navy Torpedo Squadron 51 (VT-51) aboard USS San Jacinto (CVL-30).
According to squadron operational reporting, the plane experienced a problem while diving on a target on Peleliu Island, and crashed. Witnesses saw no parachutes, and the bodies of all three crewmen were not recovered at the time.
The other crewmen were Aviation Radioman 2nd Class Hyman Atun, and Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class Paul Bensman. In 2008, a JPAC recovery team conducted a recovery mission at this site.
The JPAC team did not recover remains, but they did recover sufficient information, including personal effects, to confirm that the aircraft at this crash site is, as we had previously concluded, the TBM flown by Francis Waters, with crew members Hyman Atun and Paul Bensman, which was shot down on 15 September 1944, the first day of the invasion of Peleliu. (See attached picture from crash site.)
According to squadron operational reporting, the plane experienced a problem while diving on a target on Peleliu Island, and crashed. Witnesses saw no parachutes, and the bodies of all three crewmen were not recovered at the time.
The other crewmen were Aviation Radioman 2nd Class Hyman Atun, and Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class Paul Bensman. In 2008, a JPAC recovery team conducted a recovery mission at this site.
The JPAC team did not recover remains, but they did recover sufficient information, including personal effects, to confirm that the aircraft at this crash site is, as we had previously concluded, the TBM flown by Francis Waters, with crew members Hyman Atun and Paul Bensman, which was shot down on 15 September 1944, the first day of the invasion of Peleliu. (See attached picture from crash site.)
Gravesite Details
Entered the service from New York.
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