Date of incident:
19 January 1935

Names of personnel killed in the incident:
CHGUN [Warrant] & NAP Charles T. Thrun, Coast Guard Aviator Number 3

Air Station the aircraft and/or crew were assigned to:
AIRSTA Cape May

Aircraft type and Coast Guard tail number (if applicable):
Grumman JF-2 Duck, V-162

Location of the incident:
Cape May, NJ

Description of the incident:
"Chief Gunner Charles T. Thrun, USCG, attached to the Cape May Air Station, was killed when his plane nose dived at Cape May. Aviation Motor Machinist's Mate Kermit Parker, the only other occupant of the plane, escaped with a shock. Mr. Thrun's body was removed from the plane by Lieutenant R[ichard] L. Burke, who dived down in the icy water for that purpose. The body had been immersed about one-half hour. Every effort was made to resuscitate Gunner Thrun but after 7 1/2 hours he was pronounced dead. Burial was held at Arlington with full military honors on January 24 [1935]. Secretary [Henry] Morgenthau and the Commandant [RADM Harry Hamlet] sent a message of sympathy to the widow." [As reported in Coast Guard Magazine, March, 1935, p. 4.]

The following poem preceded this article:

"So Thrun, old boy, your cruise is done,
No more you'll chart the blue.
You gambled Fate and Fate has won,
As Fate must always do.
You died while on the wing, old chap,
And though we cannot know,
We think that, after all, mayhap,
You would have wished it so."


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Date of incident:
15 June 1936

Names of personnel killed in the incident:
LT Charles Martin Perrott
AMM1 William Dovian Eubank
RMC Walter Oliver Morris

Air Station the aircraft and/or crew were assigned to:
AIRSTA St. Petersburg

Aircraft type and Coast Guard tail number (if applicable):
Grumman JF-2 Duck, V-168

Location of the incident:
Tampa Bay, FL

Description of the incident:
The crew took off in "squally weather to search for two missing fisherman" at 7:00a.m. on June15, 1936. Their amphibian crashed into Tampa Bay. The men were buried in Arlington National Cemetery. [As reported in Coast Guard Magazine, August, 1936, pp. 6-7].


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Date of incident:
28 September 1936

Names of personnel killed in the incident:
RMC & NAP R. S. Banker

Air Station the aircraft and/or crew were assigned to:
AIRSTA Biloxi

Aircraft type and Coast Guard tail number (if applicable):
Vought O2U4 Corsair; A8351 (Navy aircraft??)

Location of the incident:
Norfolk Engine School, VA

Description of the incident:
RMC R. S. Banker were assigned to CGAS Biloxi. He was a 1935 graduate of the Navy's Aviation Pilots Course in Pensacola. He was taking the machinist's mate course while attached to the Engine School and Repair Base in Norfolk, Virginia. While attached to the Engine School he died as a result of injuries he sustained in an airplane crash in the Norfolk area.


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Date of incident:
5 December 1936

Names of personnel killed in the incident:
LT Luke Christopher

Air Station the aircraft and/or crew were assigned to:
AIRSTA Cape May

Aircraft type and Coast Guard tail number (if applicable):
Douglas RD-4 Dolphin, V-111

Location of the incident:
Assateague, Virginia

Description of the incident:
"Lieutenant Christopher was on an errand of mercy when his death occurred. He had been ordered from the Cape May Air Station to pick up a sick man in Assateague Harbor from an Assateague surfboat. He picked up the patient to transport him to the Norfolk Hospital, but crashed on take-off; and died shortly after. The sick man [who survived the crash] was later transported to the hospital at Salisbury, Maryland." [As reported in Coast Guard Magazine, January, 1937, p. 8].

Click here to access a more detailed narrative of this rescue and tragic crash.


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Date of incident:
14 September 1938

Names of personnel killed in the incident:
LT William Schissler

Air Station the aircraft and/or crew were assigned to:
Attached to the Army Air Corps Technical School, Chanute Field, Illinois

Aircraft type and Coast Guard tail number (if applicable):
North American BC-1 (Army Air Corps aircraft #37-658)

Location of the incident:
Chanute Air Field, IL

Description of the incident:
LT Schissler was attached to the Army Air Corps Technical School in Chanute Field, Illinois. While flying on a two-hour training mission, LT Schissler became lost while attempting to locate the airfield. The day was overcast with broken clouds. As his fuel supply dwindled, he attempted an emergency landing in a nearby clover field. Apparently during his landing maneuvers, the right wing came off the aircraft and the BC-1 crashed, killing LT Schissler.


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Date of incident:
20 December 1938

Names of personnel killed in the incident:
LT Perry Smithson Lyons
ENS Clyde H. Teague, Jr.
AMM1 Rupert H. Germaine
CPL George C. Latham, AUSA (passenger)

Air Station the aircraft and/or crew were assigned to:
Coast Guard Air Patrol Detachment El Paso

Aircraft type and Coast Guard tail number (if applicable):
Waco J2W, V-157

Location of the incident:
Texas

Description of the incident:
The aircraft left El Paso about 4 p.m. on Monday, 19 December 1938, bound for Houston. It crashed in flames near the town of Boerne at 2 a.m. on Tuesday morning, 20 December 1938. The cause of the crash was never determined.


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Date of incident:
6 April 1939

Names of personnel killed in the incident:
LTJG Robert Leven Grantham

Air Station the aircraft and/or crew were assigned to:
Coast Guard Air Patrol Detachment El Paso

Aircraft type and Coast Guard tail number (if applicable):
Waco J2W, V-158

Location of the incident:
Texas

Description of the incident:
LTJG R. L. Grantham and three crewmen departed Coast Guard Air Patrol Detachment El Paso enroute to Galveston, Texas. Shortly after takeoff the airplane encountered a dust storm, high winds, and then icing. When the icing became too severe he ordered his crew to bail out. After the last crewman had exited the plane, he too jumped but his parachute caught on a wing and he was carried to his death.

His obituary in the May, 1939 Coast Guard Magazine [page 5] states: "The historic sod of Arlington National Cemetery last month closed over yet another Coast Guard hero. Lieutenant (j.g.) R. L. Grantham, USCG, flyer. Not for the first time in recent Coast Guard history has an officer given his life for enlisted men. Lieutenant Grantham's case left no doubt of his actions and heroism in sending his men to safety while he died at his post. Caught in a dust storm near Alpine, Texas, the plane was buffeted about by high winds, completely out of control. Lieutenant Grantham ordered his men to jump. They did, the three men landing safely. They were Clifford J. Hudder, James A. Dinan, and Robert S. Paddon. They realize full well that Lieutenant Grantham died that they might live. Ages ago it was written in letters to the sky, 'Greater love than this hath no man than that he give his life for his friend.' There is no finer way to die. To make sure his men were clear, Grantham stuck at the controls too long. When he tried to clear the plane it was too late to save his own life. Married only last May, Lieutenant Grantham's widow at least has the memory of a man whose name will go down in the annals of the Coast Guard and the United States as all officer, all gentleman, and ALL MAN!"


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Date of incident:
15 July 1939

Names of personnel killed in the incident:
LT William L. Clemmer
AMM2 (AP) John J. Radan

Air Station the aircraft and/or crew were assigned to:
AIRSTA Brooklyn

Aircraft type and Coast Guard tail number (if applicable):
Hall PH-2, V-164

Location of the incident:
At sea

Description of the incident:
This crew had just picked up a pneumonia stricken seaman, George Priest, off the motored sailing ship Atlantis in their Hall flying boat. As the seaplane began its takeoff run a giant wave slammed into aircraft, causing it to crash. LT Clemmer, PO Radan, and Priest died in the crash. The other five crewman of the aircraft managed to escape the sinking wreckage and survive.


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Date of incident:
18 July 1939

Names of personnel killed in the incident:
AMM1 (AP) Fred E. Schweining

Air Station the aircraft and/or crew were assigned to:
AIRSTA Charleston

Aircraft type and Coast Guard tail number (if applicable):
Grumman JF-2 Duck, V-147

Location of the incident:
Amelia River, Florida

Description of the incident:
"At 12:45 P.M. on July 18th, another tragedy occurred in the ranks of the Coast Guard when plane V-147, on patrol duty, with Pilot Fred E. Schweining, Thomas S. McKenzie, radio operator, and Frank Dryden, mechanic, taking off in the Amelia River, struck a beacon and crashed in full view of the Coast Guard patrol boat 186, stationed at Fernandina, Florida. Pilot Schweining was drowned, after every effort had been made to extricate him from the sunken wreckage, first by Dryden, who, while he was injured, submerged himself several times in an effort to extricate Schweining. . .The V-147, on patrol duty, searching for a barge belonging to the Tidewater Construction Company, of Beaufort, had landed at Fernandina for information and chow on the 186 and was to have resumed the search later" [As reported in the Coast Guard Magazine, September, 1939, p. 6].


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Date of incident:
18 August 1939

Names of personnel killed in the incident:
AMM3 J. A. Merrick

Air Station the aircraft and/or crew were assigned to:
NAS Pensacola

Aircraft type and Coast Guard tail number (if applicable):
Stearman N2S, USN 0617

Location of the incident:
Pensacola, FL

Description of the incident:
AMM3 Merrick, a student pilot, was killed in a mid-air collision at low altitude near Felton Field. He was attached to Squadron 2. He had been assigned to flight training from CGAS Biloxi.


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Date of incident:
20 June 1940

Names of personnel killed in the incident:
AMM3 Herbert Stanley Hale

Air Station the aircraft and/or crew were assigned to:
AIRSTA Salem

Aircraft type and Coast Guard tail number (if applicable):
Douglas RD-4 Dolphin, V-129

Location of the incident:
Salem, MA

Description of the incident:
"Coast Guardsman Herbert Stanley Hale, of the Salem Air Station. . .lost his life by drowning while working on a Coast Guard plane." [As reported in Coast Guard Magazine, August, 1940, p. 19.] His aircraft, piloted by LT George Olson and carrying a Coast Guard inspection party, landed in the waters off Nantucket. According to a news report, Hale was struck by the aircraft's propeller and was thrown into the water. No other details are available. His body was never recovered.


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Date of incident:
29 September 1940

Names of personnel killed in the incident:
LT True G. Miller
SN2 Travis B. Redman

Air Station the aircraft and/or crew were assigned to:
AIRSTA St. Petersburg

Aircraft type and Coast Guard tail number (if applicable):
Grumman JF-2 Duck, V-145

Location of the incident:
Tampa Bay, FL

Description of the incident:
"Lieut. Miller with T. B. Redman, seaman 2nd class, took off from the St. Petersburg Air Station Sunday, September 29, on a local night training flight and crashed some time later. When his amphibian plane did not return to the airport at the expected time, planes and patrol boats were dispatched to search Tampa Bay. Miller's body, badly mangled, was recovered October 1. The search continued for Redman." [As reported in Coast Guard Magazine, November, 1940, p. 51].


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Date of incident:
7 June 1941

Names of personnel killed in the incident:
LTJG D. W. Weller, student pilot

Air Station the aircraft and/or crew were assigned to:
NAS Pensacola

Aircraft type and Coast Guard tail number (if applicable):
Vought SU-3, USMC 9132

Location of the incident:
Pensacola

Description of the incident:
LTJG D. W. Weller, a student pilot, was killed when his aircraft collided with another student pilot while flying in a group formation over Banyon Grande in the Gulf of Mexico, just north of Chevalier Field.


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Date of incident:
5 August 1941

Names of personnel killed in the incident:
AMM1 Leonard L. Stonerock
RM1 John C. Gill
AMM1 Fleet D. Hancock

Air Station the aircraft and/or crew were assigned to:
AIRSTA San Francisco

Aircraft type and Coast Guard tail number (if applicable):
Douglas RD-4 Dolphin, V-126

Location of the incident:
Farallon Islands

Description of the incident:
AMM1 L.L. Stonerock was an Aviation Pilot and was the pilot of the RD-4. They were on a routine patrol off the California coast in foggy conditions. "Skimming close to the ocean, the amphibian plane, piloted by Stonerock, appare