Port (Left) Side - Color Image - Character from "Popeye Comics" (Creator - Elzie Segar) - Bisbee, Arizona WWII Memorial

Contributor - Jim Augustus

Shown with 1Lt Sam Skousen (Pilot).

Info Contributor - Jack Gross

In early December 1943, The GOON lost two engines returning from a night raid on the Kowloon docks (Hong Kong). To keep the aircraft aloft, the crew tossed out everything they could, and then bailed out over French Indochina. Sam Skousen (Pilot) was then able to fly the B-24 to safety. Arthur Benko (Top Turret Gunner) and Malcolm Sanders (Bombardier) were MIA, either drowned, or captured by the Japanese and executed. The rest of the crew returned safely to base.

Arthur Benko (Top Turret Gunner) shot down 16 (confirmed) Japanese fighters to his credit - the most of any bomber gunner in the USAAF. There was a post-war effort that he be awarded the Medal of Honor, as done with fighter pilots with similar enemy kill counts. However, in 2009, he was posthumously awarded the Silver Star.

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Copyright © 1997 B-24 Best Web. Published on Veterans Day 11/11/97. Last modified: December 12, 2011