clearing a loaded station bus and crashed flaming, to a stop a hundred feet away. Neither Carl nor his rear-seatman made any move to escape the burning wreck and the busload of startled sailors ran to pull them out." The gasoline-fed fire then ignited the 500-pound bomb carried by the dive bomber, killing both crew, five would-be rescuers, and injuring 17 more, some critically. Joe Baugher lists the Dauntless as assigned to VB-3. 18 June Lt. jg. Ralph M. Rich is killed when, during a routine gunnery dive over NAS Kaneohe Bay, a wing tears off of Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat BuNo 5184, of VF-3, at 5,000 feet. Rich had shot down a Japanese torpedo plane at the Battle of Midway. He was awarded the Navy Cross posthumously for his "capable and aggressive leadership" in the Midway battle, which enabled his attack group to "maintain continuous flight over enemy naval units, thereby assuring our dive bombers an unmolested approach." Two U.S. Navy ships have been named for him. 19 June Cadet Leon C. Harer, 21, Tacoma, Washington, departs Randolph Field, San Antonio, Texas, at 0020 hrs. in North American BT-9A, 36-120, c/n 19-77, of the 47th School Squadron, on a night navigation flight to Seguin, Luling, Lockhart, and San Marcos, and is missing when its fuel limits are reached. A pre-dawn search is launched, involving 18 aircraft along the cadet's projected course, and expanded at dawn to 150 miles in all directions. The cadet is the son of Lt. Col. L. G. Harer, Infantry. Wreckage is found two to four miles E of Seguin on 20 June. 28 June Lockheed A-29-LO Hudson, 41-23260, c/n 414-6025, allocated to the RAF as BW398 but not taken up; reallocated to the Chinese Air Force on 30 March 1942; on this date departs Patterson Field, Ohio, for delivery to Orlando Army Air Field, Florida, but crashes in a hayfield at Lebanon, Ohio, ~25 miles S of Dayton, killing all four crew. Capt. John Van Cleve, of the Patterson Field public relations office, said the victims were from Lowry Field, Colorado, and had been here for temporary training. The dead were identified as: 2d Lt. William K. Van Zandt, pilot; 2d Lt. Ralph A. Oehmman Jr., copilot; T/Sgt. S. R. Elder, and S/Sgt. Corder. 30 June The Sikorsky XPBS-1, BuNo 9995, hits a submerged log upon landing at NAS Alameda. Among its passengers was CINCPAC Admiral