William Dyche Mullinix was born at Pallmall, Tennessee, the son of William Isham Mullinex and and Ida Ellen Crouch. He attended Middle Tennessee State University at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He enlisted in the Air Corps on 1 April 1942 at Knoxville, Tennessee.
558th Bomber Squadron, 387th Bomber Group, Medium
On 25 February 1944, Marauder B-26B-16, Serial number 41-31660, nickname Jessie, departed from AAF Station 162 (RAF Rattlesden, England) on an Operational Bombing mission to an airfield at Venlo, the Netherlands. It crashed into the North Sea off the Dutch coast at Scheldemonding, the Netherlands.
Crew members
Pilot 1st Lt Robert H Jansing
Co-Pilot 1st Lt William D Mullinix
Bombardier 1st Lt John H. Hodges
Radio Operatior/Gunner T/Sgt Steave J. Siaulinckas
Engineer/Gunner S/Sgt Charles P. Becker
Tail Gunner Sgt Gordon P. Crawford
Eyewitness statement from Sgt Valentine G. Frisz:
I was flying in the waist gunner’s position of the ship that was wing to wing with Lt Lansing’s ship. Lt Jansing was on our right wing. The enemy fighters pulled up close behind us. On the first pass the fighters set fire to our wing man. The fire appeared to be on top of the wing in the main gas tank. The plane dropped out of the formation to the cloud bank several thousand feet below us. Two fighters dropped out and seemed to sit on the tail of Lt Lansing’s ship. The fire could be seen to spread. The ship stalled on its tail and the bomb bay doors were noticed to be opened but no one bailed out. The ship was losing altitude, and then the tail seemed to fall off. When I last saw the ship it was entering the cloud bank and seemed to be falling apart entirely aflame.
He is memorialized at Cambridge American Cemetery in England.
- Rank: First Lieutenant
- Date of birth: 10 January 1920
- Date of death: 25 February 1944
- County: Fentress
- Hometown: Helena
- Service Branch: Army/Army Air Forces
- Division/Assignment: 558th Bomber Squadron, 387th Bomber Group, Medium
- Theater: Europe
- Conflict: World War II
- Awards: Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters, Purple Heart
- Burial/Memorial Location: Cambridge American Cemetery, Cambridge, England
- Location In Memorial: Pillar IX, Top Panel
- Contact us to sponsor William D. Mullinix
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