Monday, January 5, 2015

Alabama fighter pilot lost 70 years ago in WWII crash finally coming home

Via Jeffery

P-38J Lightning
http://www.stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.322263.1420338882!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_400/image.jpg

An Alabama World War II pilot who was missing for decades after his plane went down on Guadalcanal Island will finally be laid to rest this week with full military honors.

Maj. Peyton Mathis, Jr., commander of the 44th Fighter Squadron, will be buried in his hometown of Montgomery, Ala. Saturday, January 3rd. He was 28 years old on June 5, 1944 when the P-38J Lightning he was piloting went down over Guadalcanal Island after returning from a mission.

Rescue and recovery attempts at the time of the crash were unsuccessful due to the heavy jungle. It wasn’t until 2013, when local islanders informed Department of Defense crews of a nearby crash site, that the downed P-38 was found, Maj. Mathis still strapped into the cockpit.

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2 comments:

  1. RoswellJanuary 5, 2015 at 3:09 PM

    Amazing story, and will be laid to rest in his home town! (Yeah, makes me happy to read a story like this)!

    ReplyDelete

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