Harl Pease

He took an unfit bomber back into battle and never returned.

Harl Pease Jr. was born in Plymouth, New Hampshire, on 10 April 1917 and attended the University of New Hampshire before entering the Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet in 1939. He received his pilot’s wings in 1940 and joined the 19th Bombardment Group. His prewar flying included long-distance B-17 movements across the Pacific.

When Japan attacked the Philippines in December 1941, Pease was with the group at Clark Field. Surviving aircraft and crews withdrew south, first to the Netherlands East Indies and then Australia. He flew bombing and resupply missions during the retreat and subsequent operations around New Guinea. His service brought two Distinguished Flying Crosses.

On 6 August 1942 an engine failure forced his bomber back to Australia. Knowing that his group was preparing a major attack on Rabaul the next morning, he refused to remain behind. He selected an aircraft considered unsuitable for combat, worked with a volunteer crew to prepare it and flew to Port Moresby. They arrived in the early hours with little time to rest.

On 7 August, Pease kept the defective B-17 in formation through fighter opposition and completed the bombing attack. On the return flight the damaged aircraft fell behind the others and was attacked again. It disappeared after a fuel tank caught fire. Pease’s conduct during these two days earned the Medal of Honor, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented to his father in December.

He had not died immediately in the aircraft. Postwar testimony established that he and another crewman parachuted, were captured and were later executed by their Japanese captors at Rabaul. His remains were not recovered, and he is commemorated among the missing. Portsmouth Air Force Base was renamed for him in 1957, preserving the name now carried by Pease Air National Guard Base.