Joseph Dale Witherspoon
Born 15 October 1928
Aviation Electronics Technician First Airman Witherspoon was a crew member of a PB4Y-2S Privateer patrol bomber with Patrol Bomber Squadron 9 assigned to Naval Air Station, Kodiak, Alaska. On August 12, 1951, while on patrol, his aircraft crashed into a hill on Amak Island, Alaska killing 12 men on board.
Crewmembers killed:
Lt Roy Edwin Park, 31, Columbus, Ohio, pilot;
LtJg Robert Wilfred Conklin, 24, South Great Falls, Mont., co-pilot;
ENS Henry Howard Wood, 21, Denver, Colo., navigator;
Joseph Dale Witherspoon AN, 22, Fordtown, Tenn.;
William Stuart Wagner AN, 21, San Francisco, Calif.;
Bobby Enloe AN, 21, Houston, Texas;
Elnord Ellis Flinkfelt AN, 20, Pawtucket, R.I.;
Leonard Walter Sexton AD1, 30, San Jose, Calif.;
Edwin Francis Busby, Jr. AT3, 22, Lowell, Mass.;
Ronald Lee Hunt AM3, 21, Black Butte, Ore.;
Brooks Alton Williams AT1, 30, Chicago, Ill.;
Charles Wyalis Elkins AO3, 28, N.W. Linton, Ind.
Buried at Gray’s Station Cemetery, Jonesboro, TN.
- Rank: Aviation Electronics Technician First Airman
- Date of birth: 15 October 1928
- Date of death: 12 August 1951
- County: Sullivan
- Hometown: Fordtown
- Service Branch: Navy
- Conflict: Korean War
- Awards: National Defense Service Medal
- Burial/Memorial Location: Gray's Station Cemetery, Jonesboro, TN
- Location In Memorial: Pillar XXI, Bottom Panel
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