Richmond, Rhode Island – March 16, 1944
Updated June 28, 2017
At approximately 7:40 p.m. on the night of March 16, 1944, Ensign Herbert Leslie Woods, 22, took off from Charlestown Auxiliary Naval Air station In Charlestown, Rhode Island, for a night training flight. The weather that evening was cloudy, with a 500 to 600 foot cloud ceiling, and poor visibility of less than a mile.
Ensign Woods was piloting an F6F-3 Hellcat, (Bu. No. 41008).
Ensign Woods was last seen entering the clouds by those in the control tower. At 7:46 p.m., an emergency IFF signal was received by the tower. The signal lasted approximately three minutes before it stopped. Afterwards Ensign Woods could not be contacted.
The following morning the wreckage of Ensign Woods’s Hellcat was found next to a stream in a wooded area of the village of Kenyon, which is located within the town of Richmond, Rhode Island. The plane hat crashed at high speed and Woods had been killed instantly.
At the time of his death, Ensign Woods was assigned to Night Fighter Squadron 79, VF(n)-79.
Ensign Woods was from Springfield, Illinois. He’s buried in Camp Butler National Cemetery in Section 3, Site 809. One can see a photo of his grave at the Camp Butler National Cemetery, site search, www.Findagrave.com, Memorial #2562708
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/2562708/herbert-leslie-woods
Sources:
U.S. Navy Crash Report #44-12450
North Kingstown, Rhode Island, death records
Larry Webster – Aviation Archaeologist and Historian, Charlestown, R.I.
www.Findagrave.com