The New Yorker, May 26, 1986 P. 39
REPORTER AT LARGE about Robert E. Allred of the Army Air Forces who was the pilot of a B-24 plane that crashed on Mar. 22, 1944, on a cross-country flight from Jackson's Drome, Port Moresby to Nadzab in New Guinea. The plane was not found & and its 22 passengers were listed as missing by the War Dept. In 1946 the men were declared dead. Writer gives biographical facts about Allred. He was born in 1916, was married to Juanita St. John, and lived in Des Moines. He was studying law before he enlisted in the Army. Lengthy account of his training leading to his becoming a pilot in the Air Corps. Writer also tells about the war in the Pacific Theatre where he was sent. He was training Australian pilots just before his last flight. On Mar. 22, 1944 Allred had a free day. He asked the officer in charge of the Replacement Center in Port Moresby if he might take a B-24 up to Nadzab that morning & bring it back in the afternoon. Several men wanted to go there to check the mail & to draw A-2 flying jackets which were being issued Nadzab. One engine of the plane wasn't working properly so they could not take off until afternoon. There has been speculation as to what happened to cause the plane to hit the side of Mt. Thumb a few minutes after takeoff. It's thought that Allred did not fly the course outlined to him but took a short cut & poor visability obscured the mountain. In 1983 positive identification of the 22 men was made from their remains by the Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii. Tells about reactions of relations when informed. Juanita had remarried as had most of the other women whose husbands had been lost. She chose to have Allred buried in Hawaii at Punchbowl, the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
