USMC
VMF-214
Pilot Lt. Robert Alexander (KIA)
Crashed September 30, 1943
Mission History
Took off from Munda at 0540. At 0740,
four F4U from VMF-214 'The Black Sheep' took off on a patrol. One,
flown by John Bolt turned back to base due to oxygen failure. The remaining
planes, flown by Robert Alexander, Burney Tucker and Stan Bailey proceeded
to Kolombangara.
The Corsairs spotted three ships, and swooped down to investigate. Tucker recognized them as friendly. A PT Boat fired a recognition flare, and Alexander accidentally opened fire, hitting the stern of PT-126. Shot down by their return fire, his aircraft crashed on northern Kolombangara Island, near Ropa Point hitting the jungle and exploding into a fireball.
Recovery of Remains by Squadron Mates
On Dec. 5 1943
VMF-214 pilots: Boyington, Walton, Doc Reames, and others took a PT boat
to Kolombangara, to search for
Bob Alexander's remains. They found the crashed F4U:
Frank Walton wrote to his wife:
"The
plane [was] in a million pieces, and the boy, too, his bones huddled
up in a pitifully
small
pile. We scooped out a shallow grave, laid his remains in there,
painted his name on one blade of the propeller, and set it up as
a headstone."
F4U
