Pilot  2nd Lt. Owen Giertsen, O-746088
Crashed  November 2, 1943
MACR 1259

Aircraft History
Nickname "Red" (?)

Mission History
Took off from Dobodura at 11:15am to escort B-25s and B-17s skip bombing at Simpson Harbor. Anti-aircraft fire hit below his left engine, stopping it and wounding Giertsen in the face with shrapnel. Joining a formation of B-25s for support, he was attacked by Zeros and fired at at least one, before ditching off Wide Bay, several miles out to sea. Pushed towards land, he made land fall, and followed a path towards Rabaul. On November 6, 1943 Gordon Manuel, also shot down months earlier found him, and joined him on a trek to join three Australian coastwatchers led by Major Roberts on November 9th. On February 5, 1944 the USS Gato surfaced in Open Bay to rescue the group of downed pilots.

Gordon Manuel writes in 70,000 to One:
"When the war came, Owen was working for the Bell Labratories in New Jersey. He had a job making precison tools. He could have been deferred because h was in a really essentail industry, but somehow he wrangled his way into the Air Forces. He had been on twenty patrols in the Pacific theatre, but he got it the first time over Rabaul."

References
Hostages To Freedom mentions Giertsen escape 233 - 235.
70,000 to One mentions Giertsen 114 - 122

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P-38