The Controversy
The official story of how Ken McCullar and his crew met their fate goes
something like this: as they were preparing to take off for a Rabaul mission,
a kangaroo got in their path, throwing the Pilot off-kilter and sending the
plane out of his control. Any debate I'd heard in trying to get to the
bottom of 'what happened to Ken?' centered around whether it was a kangaroo
(not indigenous to the area) or a wallaby (indigenous) that paved the way
for this tragic crash.
At the 1999 Tucson reunion, I had the great pleasure of talking to a man
who made me think twice -- and made me look into what records I had concerning
that horrible day of 12 April 1943. This is what I found in stack of Xeroxed
Squadron reports from the 63rd [all typos are original to the records]:
4/12/43 The 63rd will on 12 April 1943 provide one B-17 with two
bomb bay tanks to act as weather and observation ship for strikes against
airdromes against Rabaul. Take off one hour before main strike force. The
64th and 65th with all available B-17's strike airdomes at Rabaul.
358 Capt. Staley with Lt. Col. Roberts, new Group C.O., as co-pilot
let Jackson at 0130. 209 with Maj. McCullar at the controls then took his
position at the end of the runway for the take-off. As he started down the
runway and before he had covered half of it his right wheel was observed
to be on fire, the flames trailing the length of the ship. Conflicting stories
are told about what happened afterwards. The left wheel drum must have started
cracking and noticing it he quickly climbed a couple of hundred feet which
made his engines stall going into a 60 degree left bank and sailing along
for a couple of seconds before diving nose straight down. A few seconds later
flames were seen to shoot in the air and two small explosions took place,
followed by a terrific one. The 43rd Bomb Group lost its best Pilot in this
accident. On January 15, 1943, Major McCullar then Captain assumed command
of the 64th Bomb Squadron. At the time of his undertaking this duty of great
responsibility; interest, results and morale within the organization were
low. As a result of this state of mind on the part of personnel, previous
to assumption of command by Major McCullar, combat records reflected little
credit to this organization, Major McCullar, in the brief period from January
15 to March 31, 1943, built his Squadron from a mediocre into a superior
unit. Through his leadership, his men developed pride in their organization,
desire always to obtain the best results and, consequently, ability to accomplish
any task assigned them. Their morale was lifted to the highest level. Major
McCullar's unit established a record for the number of aircraft from one
heavy Bomb Squadron over the target in one month, when, in March, this year,
his organization successfully completed one hundred and four separate sorites.
Two members of the 63rd were also lost:
S/Sgt. Michael J. Paz, 7021462, (Father) Michael J. Paz Sr., Bridgeport,
N. J.
S/Sgt. O'Grady, Pierre 6146594, (Mother) Mrs. Jennie O'Grady, [address omitted],
Ft. Kent, Maine
Sgt. Paz was first engineer on Major McCullar's crew when he was first
assigned to the 63rd. He was going as extra gunner on
this mission.
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