1LT Douglas Bruce Kern

Comments: First Lieutenant Kern was the navigator of a B- 26B Invader bomber with the 13th Bomber Squadron, 3rd Bomber Group. On May 5, 1951, while attacking Wonsan, North Korea, the aircraft struck an obstacle damaging a propeller and later crashed into the sea. His remains were not recovered.

DPAA: Just after midnight on May 5, 1951, a B-26C Invader (tail number 44-34405A, nicknamed “The 5th Chadwick”) using callsign Skillful 17, departed Taegu (K-2) Air Base, South Korea with a crew of four aviators. The briefed mission was a night armed reconnaissance operation targeting the enemy main supply route 3 in North Korea. While on patrol, an air control station directed Skillful 17 to target a barracks near Wonsan, North Korea. After multiple bombing and strafing runs, the pilot spotted a row of lights, which appeared to be truck moving along a road. When his tracer rounds illuminated the area, the pilot realized it was a trap. A string of blinking lights had been placed on a steep hill to look like a convoy moving down a level road, causing an aircraft, attempting to strafe the mock convoy, to fly into the ground. The pilot immediately pulled up; however, the aircraft still grazed the ground, damaging its left engine. The damaged Invader recovered and headed toward the sea, slowly losing altitude. Once over Yonghung Bay, the pilot was able to make a successful "Mayday" call before crashing a few miles off the coast of the Hodo Peninsula. The following morning, search personnel rescued Skillful 17's observer pilot. He reported that the pilot and navigator replied to his calls after escaping from the plane, but because of the darkness and his weakened condition, the observer pilot was unable to assist them. After a brief period, he did not hear them again. All efforts to locate the remaining aviators were unsuccessful.

Son of Colonel D. Theodore Kern and Matilda M. Kern.