WW2 Fallen - B-17 pilot Harold Barnett

Harold S Barnett and wife Bernice
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=25020409

Harold S. Barnett could have been 100 years old today. 

He was born on January 19, 1917 in Missouri to Missouri born parents. According to census records he had an older brother. Harold's father was a farmer in 1920. By 1930 he was a farm laborer, divorced but still living with his sons. By the 1940's census Harold was living with his uncle and had completed 2 years of college

Harold enlisted in the Army Air Corp on November 22, 1940. He was a 6' 1" single man but at sometime before his death he married Bernice Marie Boone.

At the time of his death, Harold was a 1st Lieutenant and pilot of B-17s serving in the Pacific. The plane he was flying when he died was called "Pluto".

http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b-17/41-24543/1943/pluto-noseart.html#axzz4VyQYxGST

The website pacificwrecks.com has done an excellent job documenting the mission where Lt. Barnett was killed:

On June 30, 1943 at 1:30 am this B-17 took off from Dobodura as part of a strike force from the 43rd Bomb Group including fourteen B-17s and four B-24s on a overnight bombing mission against Vunakanau Airfield. Takeoffs and bombing runs were made independently by each individual aircraft. ... Over the target, this B-17 was spotted and intercepted by a J1N1 Irving piloted by Shigetoshi Kudo, who opened fire with his oblique 20mm cannons and observed the bomber's crash into the mountains southeast of Cape Lambert. Read full account here.

http://www.homeofheroes.com/wings/part2/03_walker.html

His remains were returned after the war and buried at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. His wife never remarried and died fifty-one years later in 2004 at the age of 91.

Thank you Harold for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Harold.

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