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| Ensign George Doll served as a PBY-5A co-pilot in Partol Bombing Squadron VP-11 in Hawaii. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73135607/george-lakemond-doll https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VPB-11 |
George Lakemond Doll never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on August 17, 1919 in Michigan (or possibly Pennsylvania). His parents George and Anna were both born in Pennsylvania. His paternal grandparents were from Germany. His father worked as a meat cutter. George was an only child. By 1940 he was attending Highland Park Junior College. While there he joined the US Naval Reserves.
He enlisted in the US Navy in August 1940. By November he was a aviation cadet. He received his wings in July 1941 an he became an ensign and co-pilot serving in Patrol Bombing Squadron VP-11 which was equipped with PBYs and was stationed at Pearl Harbor. Most of the planes in VP-11 where destroyed during the December 7, 1941 Japanese surprise attack. The planes were replaced in early April 1942, after which the flight crews checked out the new equipment to make sure the planes were ready for sector searches around Oahu.
On April 5, 1942 Ensign Doll was the co-pilot on PBY-5A serial number 2487 Catalina with a total crew of nine. After twelve and a half hours of patrolling Hawaiian waters, he was flying back to base in bad weather and darkness. The men in the cockpit mistook the Makapu'u lighthouse for the Barber's Point lighthouse and hit a hillside during a low altitude circling maneuver. All onboard were lost.
His grave is at Rice Cemetery in Elkhart, Indiana.
Last year on this date I profiled P-39 pilot Lyle Poitras. You can read about Lyle here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
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