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By Marcel Widmer Copyright © 2004

Accompanying the map was the story, as told by first Lieutenant James W. Dougherty of US Marine Corp. Squadron 144, to his daughter Candace…

"My father's plane was hit by Japanese anti aircraft fire at about noon on July 23rd, 1943" writes Candace. "He thought his plane was hit on the port side in the engine as oil came out and hit the windscreen. He opened the greenhouse to get a better view of where he was. My father recalls, while taking his plane down in the middle of Rendova Lagoon, the Engine Oil started to burn. His aerial was hit which prevented him from talking to his leader and co-wingman, who were flying around him to see if he was OK. Finally they had to leave as they were becoming low on fuel. His Gunner, Sgt. Robert Bernard was in the seat behind him. The instruction to gunners, if their planes were hit was to toss the guns overboard to prevent them from coming out of their housings and possibly decapitating them. Robert was unable to get the guns out of the housings and Dad told him to put his feet up on the butts of the two guns to hold them in their housings. In the final stages of his crash landing, Lt. Dougherty dropped the long carrier hook located near the rear of the aircraft. He used it as a "feeler" to tell him how close he was to the water.

"In the pilot's seat where dad was sitting," Candace continues, " there were two guns with a gunsight between them. The SBD-4 was an older model plane with no shoulder straps, only a seat belt. When the plane hit the water, Dad hit his mouth on the sight and the plane started to go down. He was semi-conscious and crawled across the cockpit to get out on the left side of the plane. Robert had already got the small yellow life boat out of a separate compartment, accessible from the outside trough a trap door. They both got into the raft and pushed off from the vertical stabilizer. He and Robert were picked up by a Navy PT boat within five minutes of the crash".

Remains of the nearby PT boat base are still visible today on Lumbaria Island, where former US President John F. Kennedy was based during the war. Divers exploring the plane after 50 years found it incredibly intact and that the hook was indeed down. James W. Dougherty was a pilot during World War II in the South Pacific for a total of two years and was later to fly in the Korean War. He is still alive today, living with his wife and running a business with his son, making filters for movie cameras in Los Angeles.

James Dougherty, accompanied by his wife and daughter, visited Munda in July 1995. The staff of Solomon Divers took him diving, to have a look at his plane after 50 years.

He was filmed by Discovery Channel and interviewed while sitting in the cockpit. On his return to the United States, he also met up with Robert Bernard, who he hasn't seen since 1945…
The Solomon Islands continue to surrender up their remarkable history; I wonder which story will be uncovered next. >> <back>