impacts on top of Lovelace's Wildcat, killing the XO. "After extricating Lovelace's body from the wreckage, both wrecked planes were unceremoniously shoved over the side, and landing operations continued." Lovelace, who had been scheduled for rotation back to the mainland and command of his own squadron, had opted to stay with VF-3 for this action specifically to pass along his experience to the body of untested new aviators of which Ensign Evans was one. 31 May "Bogota, Colombia, June 1. (AP) – Three United States air corps flyers and a Colombia air force officer were killed when their reconnaissance plane crashed yesterday in a gorge about 10 miles south of here. The American dead are: Major John P. Steward and Staff Sergeants Carlyle Lewis and Thomas H. Noble. The Colombia officer was Major Felix Quinones, The flyers were making the last flight on a photographic mission for the Colombian government from their Orinoco river base. The cause of the crash was not determined and an investigation is being made." 1 June Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina, BuNo 04439, of VP-43, returning to NAS Alameda after a night patrol, strikes mountains east of Half Moon Bay, California, between 2200 and 0000 hrs., killing seven of eight crew. Sole survivor, Ensign C. H. Apitz, 22, of Henderson, Minnesota, badly burned, cut, bruised, and in shock, walks eight to ten miles, reaching Half Moon Bay at 0400 hrs. Taken to Mills Memorial Hospital in San Mateo, Apitz could not say how he got clear but recalled watching the bomber burn. Amongst the dead was Seaman Kenneth Wayne Simmons, mother, Mrs. W. O. Simmons, Rt. 1, Pasco, Washington. 3 June Williams Field, Arizona, suffers its first fatal accident in the six months it has been open as an advanced training base when Curtiss-Wright AT-9-CS Fledgling, 41-5867, of the 333d School Squadron, crashes five miles NE of the base, apparently flown into the ground, killing John Clifford Eustice, 23, of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Irving C. Frank, 24, of Brooklyn, New York. 3 June The Akutan Zero – During a Japanese raid on Dutch Harbor, eastern Aleutians, Alaska, the Mitsubishi A6M Model 21, 4593, 'D1-108', flown by Flying Petty Officer 1st Class Tadayoshi Koga (10 September 1922 – 3 June 1942) takes hit to oil line in a brush with a U.S. Navy PBY Catalina. Pilot realizes he cannot make return flight to carrier Ryujo so