1LT Thad D. Reed

US Marine Corps Reserve

VMTB-232, Marine Aircraft Group-11, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing

Service # O-015373

Thad Deane Reed was born on 27 April 1920 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois to Inez Gilbert Vickery. No information could be found about his father or early upbringing. Reed attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota with the class of 1943. He participated on the school’s track team. The Chicago Tribune reported that Reed had three brothers who were in military service.

Reed enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on 6 May 1941. He attended basic school at Marine Barracks, Quantico, Virginia before becoming attached to the Naval Training Station, 9th Reserve District, Great Lakes, IL. Reed was selected to become an aviator and finished primary flight training by August 1942. He received his officer commission and wings of gold after completing advanced flight instruction at Pensacola, Florida in December 1942. Reed was qualified to pilot the TBF Avenger torpedo bomber.

Reed deployed to the Pacific Theater of Operations from Naval Air Station San Diego with Marine Torpedo Bombing Squadron 232 (VMTB-232) on 16 July 1943 aboard the USS President Polk (AP-103). The unit arrived on 2 August 1943 in Noumea, New Caledonia and eventually settled in Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides and, later, Munda. The squadron attacked Japanese shipping, airfields, and installations primarily near Bougainville Island to support the Allied landings in November 1943.

On 23 November 1943, Reed boarded C-47 Skytrain #41-18675 of the 403rd Troop Carrier Group for a flight from Noumea to Espiritu Santo. The plane’s nineteen passengers included fifteen of Reed’s squadron comrades.

Reed was killed in the line of duty on 23 November 1943 when his plane disappeared over Nakety Bay while enroute from Noumea to Espiritu Santo.

None of the aircraft’s six crew members or nineteen passengers were ever found. Debris from the aircraft was recovered in Nakety Bay. Reed was memorialized at Arlington National Cemetery. He was listed on the Tablets of the Missing, US National Memorial Cemetery, Honolulu, Hawaii (Punchbowl). Reed posthumously received the Purple Heart.

Sources

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/49340300/thad-deane-reed

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56120094/thad-deane-reed?_gl=1*1ni7lr0*_ga*MTQ4MjE2NjU1My4xNjc2NTYwNDU3*_ga_4QT8FMEX30*MTY3NjU2MDQ1Ni4xLjEuMTY3NjU2MDU2OC4zMi4wLjA.

https://www.usmcu.edu/Portals/218/A%20History%20Of%20Marine%20Fighter%20Attack%20Squadron%20232_1.pdf

Chicago Tribune (IL) 16 August 1942, 3 January 1943, 27 January 1944

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