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| Lt. Wilson Pinkstaff was the pilot of the B-25 Happy Legend in New Guinea. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/49298865/wilson-levi-pinkstaff https://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b-25/41-12907/1942/b25-nose-landing.html |
Wilson Levi Pinkstaff never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on July 16, 1919 in Illinois. His parents Elmer and Amanda were also both born in Illinois. His father worked as a farmer. Wilson had two older sisters and a younger sister. By 1940 Wilson had graduated from Eastern Illinois Teacher College and was still living with his parents and sisters.
He enlisted in the army on November 30, 1940. He volunteered for the Army Air Forces and became a first lieutenant and pilot in the 405th Bombardment Squadron, 38th Bombardment Group, 5th Air Force which was equipped with B-26 Marauders and later B-25 Mitchells.
The B-25s of the 405 BS arrived in Australia at the end of August 1942. The 405 BS bombed and strafed Japanese targets in New Guinea. It moved to Port Morsby in late November.
On December 5, 1942 Lt. Pinkstaff was flying the B-25c #41-12907, nicknamed Happy Legend, as part of a seven plane bombing attack of Japanese troops at Buna. Happy Legend became separated from the rest of the bombers before flying over the Owen Stanley Mountains and never returned to base. Two months later Australian troops discovered its crash site near Myola and the Kokoda Gap. Remains from the crash site were still being recovered as recently as 2008.
His grave is at Arlington National Cemetery.
Last year on this date I profiled Medal of Honor hero Laverne Parrish, 25th Infantry Division. You can read about Lav 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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