Burial At Sea? (1 Viewer)

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Never seen that kind of thing either. The Avenger doesn't look like it was damaged enough or anything to push it off the deck without good reason (besides the burial of course)
Edit: after looking at other posts of the video, this seems to have been mostly a 1 off. The gunner was killed by flak (hence the shattered ball turret) and they just buried him in the plane :salute:
 
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Given the interior layout of the Avenger and the level of damage to the turret? I wouldn't be surprised if the decision by the CO was as much to spare the sanity of the Plane Captain and others the horror of cleaning the interior of the airplane.
 
As noted above, the clip of the burial has been in some WW2 documentaries. One thing I noticed that struck me as being odd is the absence of a firing squad. Usually the ship's Marine detachment provide an honor detail and render the rifle salute.
 
The man who was buried at sea was Loyce Deen. He was fatally wounded by a 40mm anti-aircraft shell that passed through his turret from below. Due to the extent of the damage to the aircraft and the state of his remains, it was decided to leave him in the plane and cast it off the bow. At the time, a Japanese raid was incoming, so the service was done hastily, without a 21-gun salute, but with the chaplain saying a few words and the bugler playing taps while his comrades gathered on the bow. Here is a short, one page article I did about it a few years ago with some still photos and a video of the event. Page 183
 
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The man who was buried at sea was Loyce Dean. He was fatally wounded by a 40mm anti-aircraft shell that passed through his turret from below. Due to the extent of the damage to the aircraft and the state of his remains, it was decided to leave him in the plane and cast it off the bow. At the time, a Japanese raid was incoming, so the service was done hastily, without a 21-gun salute, but with the chaplain saying a few words and the bugler playing taps while his comrades gathered on the bow. Here is a short, one page article I did about it a few years ago with some still photos and a video of the event. Page 183
Frankly,if he was hit by by a 40MM the "state of his remains" probably precluded moving them.
 
The video has some graphic content. You can see the hospital corpsman take his fingerprints and remove his dog tag. I would guess the shell passed through his turret before exploding, or did not explode at all.
 
The video has some graphic content. You can see the hospital corpsman take his fingerprints and remove his dog tag.

I understand. Regrettably, I was in a squadron where we had to deal with the remains of our shipmates.
 
My condolences and respect to you sir.

It's all good. Almost all of the seven pilots/aircrewmen came from my workcenter. I feel sorry for the guy that was supposed to go and got swapped out with someone else at the last minute. He's lived with that for a long time now. It'll be 28 years in June, and they pop up in my mind on occasion.
 
Well, the poor guy got one of a beautiful and expensive "coffin" that is unlikely to be equaled by normal people. It's one that the Egyptian Pharaohs would have envied. Some of them got simulated boats. He got a real airplane.

My high school physics teacher was a USN Aviator before WWII. He said he positioned himself on the flight deck, screwdriver in hand, and when an airplane pranged on landing he jumped in the cockpit and removed the Seven Day Clock while the crew was pushing it over the side.
 
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Well, the poor guy got one of a beautiful and expensive "coffin" that is unlikely to be equaled by normal people. It's one that the Egyptian Pharaohs would have envied. Some of them got simulated boats. He got a real airplane.

My high school physics teacher was a USN Aviator before WWII. He said he positioned himself on the flight deck, screwdriver in hand, and when an airplane pranged on landing he jumped in the cockpit and removed the Seven Day Clock while the crew was pushing it over the side.

It you watch the full video in the link I posted, you can see the clock being removed by a man standing on the starboard wing as they push the aircraft toward the bow of the carrier.
 
The TBF probably had "strike" damage anyway. Air Group 15 guys said there was more damage than apparent.
Given the apparent damage to the wing, tail and canopy......
 

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