Aubrey L, Jr (Veteran WWII, KIA) ATKINS
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Additional ATKINS Surnames in SALEM Cemetery
ATKINS, MaryATKINS, Aub LATKINS, Reginald (Buster)ATKINS, VoncilleATKINS, CageATKINS, MarthaATKINS, Lascomb MauriceATKINS, Infant DaughterATKINS, Ernest CourtneyATKINS, Thomas CrillonATKINS, MaudeATKINS, Thomas LatimerATKINS, Hilary BATKINS, Rebecca LATKINS, A HATKINS, Emery LATKINS, BessieATKINS, Emery L (Close Up)ATKINS, Bessie (Close Up)ATKINS, George EATKINS, MyrtieATKINS, Joan Additional ATKINS Surnames in CLAIBORNE County
ATKINS, Romane ChadwickATKINS, Agnes CATKINS, ArbillaATKINS, Alymer B, Jr (Veteran)ATKINS, Aylmer BATKINS, WilfredATKINS, Bruna LATKINS, Joe Randall (Veteran)ATKINS, Lilian MeredithATKINS, Mansell OliverATKINS, Randall EarlATKINS, VidaATKINS, Vida (Close Up)ATKINS, OrieATKINS, Millard W, IIATKINS, Thressa HATKINS, Julius K (Veteran WWII)ATKINS, Grover TATKINS, Grady S (Veteran WWI)ATKINS, Judia PATKINS, AlbertATKINS, Mary BellATKINS, Willie SATKINS, W MATKINS, Harriette EATKINS, Winfield BerniceATKINS, Georgia MatATKINS, Millard WinfieldATKINS, Eva LulaATKINS, George Washington (Veteran CSA)ATKINS, RebeccaATKINS, T JATKINS, T J (Close Up)ATKINS, J TATKINS, Alvin AlvaATKINS, MaudATKINS, William BATKINS, Martha AATKINS, A LATKINS, A L (Close Up)ATKINS, Mary EATKINS, Mary E (Close Up)
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Submitted: 6/2/16 • Approved: 4/10/23 • Last Updated: 4/13/23 • R128188-G0-S3
SERGEANT US Air Force
405 Bombardment Squadron 38 Bomber Group, Medium
World War II
May 17, 1921 - December 5, 1942
Killed in Owen Stanley Mountains, New Guinea
Service # 14053731
Aubrey L. Atkins, Jr. was the fourth of eight children born to Aub and Mary McCleish Atkins.
Sergeant Atkins, 22, and six other Airmen were killed on December 5, 1942, when a B-25 bomber nicknamed "The Happy Legend" crashed in the mountains of New Guinea. Their remains languished amid the remote rain forests of the Owen Stanley Range, the rugged backbone of the country's southeastern tip. In 2008, more than 66 years later, Sergeant Atkins' remains, recovered after years of painstaking efforts by archaeologists, were identified by military forensic experts in late 2008 through DNA comparisons with a blood sample donated in 2007 by one of his sisters. On Saturday, May 16, 2009, Sergeant Atkins was buried with full military honors alongside his parents and other family members at Salem Cemetery.
Sergeant Atkins was trained in communications and assigned to the crew of a B-25 Mitchell bomber in the southwestern Pacific. Flying out of Jackson Airfield at Port Moresby, New Guinea, the aircraft was lost on a bombing run aimed at Japanese forces near the coastal town of Buna, ahead of approaching Allied ground troops. "The Happy Legend" and her crew perished when the plane crashed after disappearing into a cloud bank as it approached Kokoda Pass near the ridge of the mountain range. Military authorities believed the plan was shot down by the Japanese.
When the bomber crashed into the mountainside, it was loaded with fuel and several 500-pound bombs. The fuel ignited and most of the bombs exploded on impact, leaving wreckage strewn within a crater that searchers later would estimate to be 13 feet deep and more than 50 feet wide. Australian soldiers discovered the wreckage two months later, finding the remains of co-pilot Wilson Pinkstaff and Atkins' identification tags. Because enemy troops remained in the vicinity, the Allied soldiers had to abandon the site.
Beginning in the 1960s, numerous attempts were made to retrieve wreckage and the airmen's remains from the crash site. By then, though, the crater had filled with water and was found to contain several live bombs and ammunition that had not detonated in the crash, so efforts were stymied for many years. During the latter years of their efforts the crater was drained and successfully excavated leading to the recovery of some remains. While some of the remains could not be identified, Sergeant Atkins' remains were positively identified using his sister's donated DNA.
(The information in the preceding paragraphs was extracted from the program used during Sergeant Atkins' reinterment service. The program was printed and distributed by Kilpatrick's Rose-Neath Funeral Homes)
Contributed on 6/2/16 by bridges1026
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Record #: 128188