Earl Hilton Reid Jr. was a United States Marine who went missing in action during a plane crash at the Marine Corps Air Station Ewa, Oahu Island, Hawaii on January 5, 1942. He is presumed dead due to the circumstances.
Early Life[]
Earl Reid Jr. was born on February 8, 1917 in Delaware, Oklahoma. On October 16, 1939, he joined the United States Marine Corps in Denver, Colorado. His service number is 276038. He was a Marine aviator for the Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 211 (VMFA-211). Reid was wounded during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He survived and was awarded the Purple Heart.
Case[]
On January 15, 1942, Sergeant Reid and Staff Sergeant Carl Vinson boarded a two-seater aircraft and departed the Marine Corps Air Station Ewa for an authorized familiarization flight. At 9:42 AM, the plane was seen falling from the sky and crashing at the sea approximately a hundred yards from Barber's Point of Oahu Island. Vinson's body was recovered in the wreckage, but Reid's body was not recovered.
Earl Hilton Reid Jr. is memorialized at the Courts of Missing of Honolulu Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii and remains among the 72,000 Americans who remain unaccounted for during World War II.