Aircraft History
Assigned to the 312th Bombardment Group on February 19, 1944 with tail letter F. This aircraft was shared by two pilots: Frank C. Hogan and Stanley M. Keeton. The right side had the "Baby Doll II" with a woman in a dress holding a hat behind her. The left side had a milk bottle and the nickname "Sweet Milk" and Hillsburo, TX, the nickname and hometown of Stanley Keeton.

Mission History
Took off from Gusap Airfield on a bombing and strafing mission over Dagua Airfield. During the attack, this A-20 was hit by anti-aircraft fire, suddenly nosed over, crashed and burned immediately.

Hank Eales,  386th BS and flight leader recalls:
"On that day May 15, 1944 I was nursing a sprained wrist and on the doctor's advice I was not to fly. Stan had been wanting to lead my 'A' flight and so he was assigned to take my place. I wondered for many years why him and not me, normally I would have been leading that flight that day. Call it fate I guess. From reports that I had at the time, from his wing men, his plane was hit on his strafing and skip bombing run. I was told that he tried to get out and it was reported that it appeared that he had pulled the rip cord of his chute, it looked like the chute was trailing the plane down and into the trees. However, it could have been trailing smoke. Now, if this was the case, there couldn't be any escape and at that speed, no survivors. All this time we all thought that he and his gunner couldn't possibly survive the crash. This story that you have forwarded puts a new direction to the crash. With the terrain around the and the trees at the end of the runway I don't see how it was possible, but funny things happen with no explanation. It was tough putting his effects together for shipment home."

Recovery of Remains
Postwar, the remains of the crew were recovered at the end of the war from the crash site.

More remains were found and recovered in 1972 by the Australian Assistant District Commissioner in East Sepik Province. It is unclear if these additional remains were added to those originally found.

Memorials
Both crew were declared dead the day of the mission and both are buried at Manila American Cemetery. Keeton at Plot D Row 1 Grave 195. Turek at Plot B Row 2 Grave 138.

Wreckage
The wreck consists of the tail of the aircraft, broken off, the "club" marking of the 386th Bombardment Squadron is still visible on both sides of the tail, and the USAAF serial number.

Nearby is a wing center section, engines and remains of the cockpit and nose of another aircraft that crashed less than a week later: B-25D "Tin Liz" 41-30074.

Justin Taylan visited this wreck in 2003:
"The wreckage is still there in a Sago Swamp. According to the locals, the crew survived the crash, and were executed by the Japanese, and the aircraft was burned. A local man had a ring he found near the wreckage that belonged to one of the crew, and wants to return it to the relatives in the United States."

Relatives
Andy Keeton (nephew of Keeton)

References
Thanks Andrew Keeton and Hank Eales for additional information.
Rampage of the Roarin' 20's pages 348, 354
Flightpath "Pilot of the Ring" by Claringbould vol. 16 no. 4 May-June 2005
Rampage of the Roarin' 20s pages 24 (photo) 119-120 (photo), 130 (photo), 352

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Last Updated
October 1, 2009

A-20

MIA
Resolved

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