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| Lt. Victor Brooksby was a B-25 pilot with the 345th Bombardment Group. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17258239/victor-versailles-brooksby https://irandpcorp.com/products/345bg/ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/160792649167699955/ |
On this Flag Day we honor Victor Versailles Brooksby. He never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on June 14, 1919 in Fredonia, Arizona. His name suggests he was named after the Allied victory in World War I. His parents William and Emma were born in Australia and Utah, respectively. His father worked as a merchant. He died in 1937. Victor had two older brothers, three older sisters, three younger sisters and one younger brother. By 1940 Victor had completed one year of college and was working as a truck driver while living with his mother and his siblings.
He enlisted in the army on September 24, 1940. Originally he served as an airplane mechanic. He was posted in Alaska in February 1941. While there he volunteered for the Army Air Forces and was sent to California for training. He became a B-25 pilot and a bombardier instructor. He was sent to the South Pacific in the spring of 1943. He became a first lieutenant in the 498th Bombardment Squadron, 345th Bombardment Group which was equipped with B-25 Mitchells. It began operating out of New Guinea in June.
On July 14, 1943, Lt Brooksby was given the assignment to fly his plane over an Allied shipping lane from New Guinea to Australia. A destroyer spotted his plane a couple of hours after takeoff, but after that it disappeared, never returning to base. The lost plane has never been found and is probably at the bottom of the Coral Sea.
His cenotaph grave is at Fredonia Cemetery in Fredonia, Arizona.
| Most people get to these stories from a very popular social media site. That website cut traffic to my blog by 80% last October. Recently it has taken further steps to block my efforts to share these stories. No explanation was given. There may come a time that I will no longer be able to share them at all. Here is what you can do to help: 1. Scroll to the bottom of this page and either subscribe to the daily post or follow via email. 2. Share the URL on your social media. It should not have the same restrictions coming from you as it does from me. Who would have thought that a project meant to honor our WW2 Fallen would be treated like spam? |
Last year on this date I profiled Iwo Jima fallen John Purvis, 4th Marine Division. You can read about John 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
The ship was a B-25C-10 serial number 42-32293, Lost with 2Lt Victor V, Brooksby was
ReplyDeleteStaff Sergeant Adam V. Domijan, 11072291, of Connecticut
Technical Sergeant Paul B. Drinkard, 35380345, of West Virginia
1Lt Robert E. Gagen, O-664755, of Iowa
2Lt. Frank A. Gerner, Jr., O-793405, of New Hampshire
Corporal Ephraim R. Poole, 13047386, of Pennsylvania