Saturday Data: A WWII Vet Comes Home.

Capt. Peyton Mathis, Jr., USA

     My Father served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in WWII...that was the predecessor of the U.S. Air Force. So I followed with interest the story of a pilot who will finally be buried in Montgomery today, some 70 years after he died!
     Alabama News Network  reported the story, but one part of the seven decade saga was left out.                
     Apparently the location of his body was well known  at the time of his death, but was never recorded and was lost to history...till a farmer re-discovered the wreckage and his remains. They were positively identified last year, and today at 2:00pm, they'll be buried here in his hometown of Montgomery, Alabama.
     Read this story from the book  "Vampire Squadron:The saga of the 44th Fighter Squadron" by William Starke.
 
"Major Peyton Mathis, flying a P-38 took off from Kukum Field,Guadalcanal at 0720 hr, 5 June 1944 leading his squadron

Lockheed P38

on a proposed bombing mission of Poporang Island. Three minutes after leaving the rendezvous point at Visu Visu,New Georgia,General Earl Barnes cancelled the mission due to bad weather. At this point, Major Mathis started down in a gradual spiral to the left ,feathering his right propeller at 2.000 feet ...He jettisoned his bombs between Kolombongara and New Georgia and began the return trip on one engine.
    The pilots of the squadron remained with him until they reached  Savo island,where he told them to leave him and land. Kukum tower requested that the field be held open for an emergency landing,but Major Mathis called that it was not an emergency but a single engine landing...After the other planes were on the ground Major Mathis flew over Kukum Field and made a landing approach to the left over the water. While in the turn for the approach to the strip, the plane changed from the turn to a straight line of flight and disappeared behind the hills southwest of the field.
    Lt. Gene Sommerich flying an A-24 saw the P-38 flip on his back and crash in a ravine south of Kukum field at approximately 1035 hrs. Search parties located the wreckage in the afternoon but were unable to remove the body as the plane was upside down and the cockpit submerged in about seven feet of water."

Hopefully, his body was removed at some further date.

     Alas, it was not, and perhaps because of the fog of war, the location of his body was not recorded.

     I also found this undated clipping about a letter Mathis wrote to the family of another airman who had died:

 Welcome home, and RIP, Peyton Mathis, Jr.