# New Member TonyM.



## TonyM (May 18, 2008)

My name is Anthony J. Mireles
Calumet City, Illlinois, USA
I am the author of 
FATAL ARMY AIR FORCES AVIATION ACCIDENTS 
IN THE UNITED STATES, 1941-1945

CAF member--Great Lakes Wing
C-47 Crewmember

Looking forward to helping enthusiasts concerning WWII airplane crashes and WWII aircraft subjects. 

TonyM.

Home


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## FLYBOYJ (May 18, 2008)

Hi Tony and welcome - Interesting book!


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## wilbur1 (May 18, 2008)

Welcome to the site tony. your book sounds very interesting can you post some excerpts from it?


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (May 18, 2008)

Welcome to the forum.


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## evangilder (May 18, 2008)

Welcome Tony. Sounds like an interesting book.


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## Lucky13 (May 18, 2008)

Greetings young man....


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## wilbur1 (May 18, 2008)

now now lucky im sure hes got a girl already


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## Njaco (May 18, 2008)

Welcome from another Yank!


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## Wurger (May 18, 2008)

Hallo Tony,
Welcome here.Greetings from Poland.


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## TonyM (May 18, 2008)

Members,

Thank you kindly, I feel right welcome.

TonyM.


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## ScOoTeR1992 (May 18, 2008)

g'day from sunny australia home of the CAC boomerang and guys i have plenty of photos from my trip where would you all like me to post 'em


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## DOUGRD (May 18, 2008)

Welcome aboard Tony. Could you tell us what made you decide to write this book?


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## Heinz (May 19, 2008)

Welcome mate.


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## Wildcat (May 19, 2008)

G'day and welcome Tony


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## Wayne Little (May 19, 2008)

Gidday mate! Welcome to the site from another Aussie...


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## A4K (May 19, 2008)

G'day Tony! Good to have ya along!


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## seesul (May 19, 2008)

Welcome to the forum Tony!
Greeting from Czech Republic8)


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## buzzard (May 19, 2008)

Hi from another newcomer.

It's a great place here. Your book(s) sounds very impressive. Looking forward to picking your brain 

JL


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## Thorlifter (May 19, 2008)

Welcome to the site.


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## ccheese (May 19, 2008)

Welcome to the site, Tony. Sounds like an interesting book, and must
have consumed a ton of research. Enjoy the place...

Charles


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## TonyM (May 19, 2008)

DOUGRD said:


> Welcome aboard Tony. Could you tell us what made you decide to write this book?



Three things ganged up on me and forced me to write this book. 

First, when I was a young history student I read the book _MISSION WITH LEMAY _by Gen. Curtis E. LeMay and McKinlay Kantor. In the book LeMay states that late in the war that it was safer to fly a B-29 combat mission over a defended Japanese city than it was to fly in the B-29 training program back in the states. I never forgot this amazing quote. 

Second, while I was researching a college paper on WWII Hollywood I examined WWII era newspapers. While doing the research, I kept running across little news articles in the WWII newspapers describing airplane crashes that occurred in the US. I always wondered about these crashes. Who were the men? Why did the airplanes crash? Most of the newspaper articles were very sparse and provided very little details. 

Third, in the 1990s, I bought a new red Pontiac and I needed a garage to put it in (I was renting back then). My neighbor, Mrs. Helen Borberly, had a garage available for rent. So I rented the garage and put my new Pontiac in it. As time went on, I got to know Mrs. Borberly a lot better. She would frequently mention her brother Steve Sopp. I later learned that Steve had been killed in a stateside B-26 crash in Florida in 1942. The family never knew what really happened to Steve and his crew. I began to investigate. I went to Maxwell Field, Alabama, and looked at the Accident Report micro film that was there. I was able to get copies of the accident reports I was after, including the accident report concerning Mrs. Borberly's brother Steve. Mrs. Borberly and her family were finally able to get the answers they had waited on for 60 years. 

While I was at Maxwell Field I knew I wanted to do some kind of project concerning these crashes, but I did not know exactly what I wanted to do. After looking at reels and reels of film I was so overwhelmed that I almost came home early. By the third day, I figured out how to approach the problem and decided that I could write a book about the fatal crashes. It took five years and many thousands of dollars in microfilm purchases before the manuscript was finally completed. I have been helping vets families get answers to their WWII aircrash mysteries ever since. It has been very satisfying helping these families and they are very grateful getting the answers. These airmen died as surely as if they had been shot by a German or Japanese soldier on an overseas battlefield; their sacrifices and stories must be remembered. 

TonyM.


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## RabidAlien (May 20, 2008)

Hey, Tony! Welcome from another noob! 

Got a question for ya: while stationed at Pearl Harbor HI, a friend of mine and I went "hiking" up and over the Kahala Pass (I think that's the name of it....the pass through the mountains up H1). We started up a valley, and came across some old parts that he swore were the remnants of a B-17 or B-24 that had taken off from Hickam and, in the clouds, picked the wrong valley to fly through, hitting the side of the mountain. I know at one point we had to walk across the wing of the airplane. Unfortunately, at the time I was currently in the military (and not enjoying it much) and didn't pay much attention to what it was I was hiking past, but its always stuck in my mind. You wouldn't happen to have any info on any crashes in Hawaii, would you?


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## TonyM (May 20, 2008)

There's a lot of wrecks on the Hawaiian Islands. 
I have information on many wrecks in Hawaii during WWII.
What Island were you on? 

I am assuming you are on Oahu. Right?
Then it might be:
B-24J # 44-40332 crashed at Keaiwa Heiau, Oahu, on May 5, 1944. 


Can't tell by the info you gave in the post. H1?

TonyM.


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## RabidAlien (May 20, 2008)

Yeah, on Oahu. This was about twelve years ago that I did this hike, so my memory may be sketchy. H-1 is the first of three cross-island highways, goes from Honolulu over the mountains and down to Kaneohe Bay area. (H-2 goes over through Schofield Barracks and into the North Shore, and H-3 opened up in the late 90's sorta between the two) Wish I had more details and exact locations, but we were more boonie-stomping than hiking, not really following any trails. Young and dumb, what can I say? *g* 

I just googled the serial, that one is in Aiea...this one I'm thinkin of was about fifteen or twenty miles east. I'll see if I can't find a map of Oahu somewhere.


ETA: my bad, it wasn't H-1 (which goes the long way around the east end of the island). It was the Pali Highway. We had stopped at the Pali Highway overlook, walked about a quarter-mile down the old Pali Hwy (the original), then started up a small valley. Nice waterfall up there, too.


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## trackend (May 20, 2008)

welcome TM


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## TonyM (May 22, 2008)

RabidAlien said:


> Hey, Tony! Welcome from another noob!
> 
> Got a question for ya: while stationed at Pearl Harbor HI, a friend of mine and I went "hiking" up and over the Kahala Pass (I think that's the name of it....the pass through the mountains up H1). We started up a valley, and came across some old parts that he swore were the remnants of a B-17 or B-24 that had taken off from Hickam and, in the clouds, picked the wrong valley to fly through, hitting the side of the mountain. I know at one point we had to walk across the wing of the airplane. Unfortunately, at the time I was currently in the military (and not enjoying it much) and didn't pay much attention to what it was I was hiking past, but its always stuck in my mind. You wouldn't happen to have any info on any crashes in Hawaii, would you?




Alien,

I looked at the Aircraft Accident microfilm last night--the B-24 crash that is near the H1 is B-24J # 44-40332, which crashed on May 5, 1944 with the loss of ten crewmembers. The airplane took off at night from Hickam Field and flew a straight course and then flew right into the mountain. It was likely that clouds had partially obscurred the mountian. Investigators speculated that the pilot might have tried an evasive maneuver at the last moment but was unsuccessful. The airplane was assigned to the 5th AF and was departing for an active war zone after having flown to Hawaii from the states. Hope this helps. 

TonyM. 

By the way, I love that photo of the P-38 on your posts. Awesome.


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## evangilder (May 22, 2008)

Quite an interesting journey that lead you to the book. It's good that you are honoring the ones who fell while training. They are no less brave than the ones who fell in combat.


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## David Cohen (May 22, 2008)

Welcome


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## TonyM (May 22, 2008)

RabidAlien said:


> I just googled the serial, that one is in Aiea...this one I'm thinkin of was about fifteen or twenty miles east. I'll see if I can't find a map of Oahu somewhere.
> 
> 
> ETA: my bad, it wasn't H-1 (which goes the long way around the east end of the island). It was the Pali Highway. We had stopped at the Pali Highway overlook, walked about a quarter-mile down the old Pali Hwy (the original), then started up a small valley. Nice waterfall up there, too.



Okay,

I got the wrong one. I'll go back and try again. 

TonyM.


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## GaryMcL (May 23, 2008)

Good to see you here Tony.

I got all three volumes a couple of years ago mainly to research what happened to my Mom's uncle. The story I'd always heard was that he was on a training mission in a B-25 in Mississippi and went down. Popped up right away by using the name index. Turned out he was a crew chief on a C-47 that went down on a training drop in Ohio. Helped a lot getting the straight story for my Mom. Thanks for the effort.

Have you thought about doing the same type of thing on the Navy/Marine Corps side?

Gary


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## TonyM (May 23, 2008)

Gary,

Thanks for your support. And I would like to thank you and your family for their sacrifice. I am glad that I was able to help your family get the true story. What was the airman's name so I can go and read up on him? 

No plans for a USN/USMC crash book. I have thought about it, but the accident report records are not as detailed as the Army Air Forces records. 

I will be releasing an USAAF crash book for the Asia-Pacific Theater soon. 

TonyM.


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## Messy1 (May 23, 2008)

Welcome TonyM! Nice to meet you!


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## GaryMcL (May 24, 2008)

Tony -

Thanks.

He was Clarence C. Orr. The accident was on 14FEB45 (2-14-45B, pg 1040).

Also, I was thinking Ohio but it was Oblong, Illinois. Should have checked and not gone from memory on that.

One question - the accident summary indicates he was a Pfc. Wouldn't an engineer on a C-47 normally have been a sergeant? I haven't yet tried to dig up his service record but would this indicate that he got busted back to Pfc for something? Enlistment date per NARA was 09/42 and rank shows as Private. Born in '24 so he would probably have still been 20 at the time of the accident.

Gary


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## TonyM (May 25, 2008)

I'll go back and check the microfilm for you and check the rank. It will be listed more than once on the report. 

Generally, an engineer flying in combat over enemy territory would be a non-com. And most men were promoted when or before they went overseas. Some guys who had discipline problems on the ground were allowed to keep rank for combat missions: Sgt. Shorty Gordon, 305th BG, was promoted to Sgt. for every mission and busted back down to private for his time on the ground. But this is an extraordinary case. 

I'll go back and check the microfilm.

TonyM.


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## GaryMcL (May 25, 2008)

Thanks again, Tony.

It's no big deal it just kind of tweaked my curiosity when I saw it.

Gary


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