Atlantic Ocean – April 25, 1945
U.S. Navy Grumman Avenger
U.S. Navy Photo
On the night of April 25, 1945, a navy TBM-3E Avenger, (Bu. No. 68997), with three men aboard, was taking part in a night gunnery strafing exercise six miles south of Nantucket Island when it failed to come out of a dive and crashed in the water. All aboard perished.
Pilot: Ensign Roy Bacon, Jr. – Missing.
ARM3/c Forest Edward Schultz, 18. He enlisted on his 17th birthday, January 13, 1944. He’s buried in Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Cemetery, in Kittery, Maine. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/71686404/forest-edward-schultz
ARM3/c Eugene A. Sands, 19, of Illinois – Missing
The men were assigned to Night Torpedo Squadron 52, VT(n)-52, at Martha’s Vineyard Auxiliary Naval Air Station.
Sources:
U. S. Navy Accident Report dated April 25, 1945
The Waterbury Democrat, (Ct.), “Torpedo Bomber Mishap Kills 3”, April 25, 1945, pg. 1
