Bail out in Avon Park, May 18, 1944

[Marlatt]

My father, Charles J. Marlatt, was a crew member of a B-17, which crashed on a base in Avon Park, Florida on May 18, 1944. The entire crew was forced to bail out in order to save their lives. I don't know any of their names, but I would like to know who these men were. One of the crew died when his chute failed to open. Can anyone tell me anything about this. My father has a gold pin with ruby eyes called a Caterpillar Pin. I assume that all of the others in that crew would have one of those pins, as well. One was given the pin and membership in the Caterpillar Club, by the Irvin Parachute Company. The criteria for being awarded this membership and pin was having been forced to bail out of a crashing plane in order to save one's life. A Caterpillar Club Membership card would have been issued along with the Caterpillar Pin.

[shooshoobaby]

Have you requested the accident report from AAF archives?
mike

[Marlatt]

Yes, I have and have had no luck. I was able to get a replacement Caterpillar membership card from the Irvin Company, though. They do it free of charge. I think that one can also purchase a replacement pin, but my mother found my father's gold pin with ruby eyes among my father's things. He had it in a box in his drawer along with British coins, Italian coins, and things like his cufflinks. She had never seen it and didn't know what it was at first. We had to look into that.
I could get nowhere with the National Archives in my effort to obtain my father's statement. I was told that WWII records burned in a fire in St. Louis in 1973. But thanks.

[John Beaman]

Marlatt:

I may be mistaken, but I don't believe accident reports were kept in St. Louis which were almost all personnel records. The 1973 fire did destroy lots of records but many were not, some were even duplicated in another place, although this was mostly post WW II. Since you are a direct next of kin, try to get it through the Freedom Of Information Act. You have to file a form. You can do this through your Congressman's district office. These usually have a case worker who handles military affairs.
The accident report may be at the records center at Maxwell AFB. Rabe Anton, who visits these pages, can perhaps advise on where the report might be.

[Alex Smart]

Hello Marlatt,
There was a B-29 in the US on that date , sure it was a B-17 and not the B-29 ?
Alex

[Alex Smart]

Hi,
been a while but have you seen the reply that i had on the armyairforce.com website.
Name of man who fell and details of place in Florida .
look in the ZoI page for the thread.
Alex

[Marlatt]

What is the ZoI page? I am not very familiar with how this site works.

[Leendert]

I haven't seen the post on armyairforces.com myself, but Alex may refer to the crash of B-17F 42-5800 on 18 May 1944, 11 mi. E. of Parish, FL.

The crew were: CRANDALL, LEWIS W.; HERENDEEN, PHILIP G.; DEVRIES, JOSHUA A.; WALKER, WILLIAM F.; HASSETT, ROBERT H.; CONLEY, DONALD W.; TOKAR, FRANK E.; MARLATT, CHARLES J.

Of these 2nd Lt Devries was killed. Unit was 325 RTU.

ZOI means Zone of the Interior, or Continental USA.

Regards,

Leendert