MAJ Thomas C Wilkinson (1920-1945) - Find a Grave Memorial

Thomas C. Wilkinson, b. circa 1920 in Oklahoma – d. 1 June 1945 (KIA).

Attended San Angelo College, Texas for two years. Enlisted (ASN: 18047570) as an Aviation Cadet in the Army Air Corps on 23 November 1940 at Fort Sam Houston near San Antonio, Texas.

Completed Primary and Basic flight training. Graduated from Advanced twin-engine flight training and was commissioned (ASN: O-1699513) a Second Lieutenant in the USAAF.

Initially posted at Conversion Training Squadron, RCAF Picton, Ontario, Canada. He served as a Staff Pilot Officer (C5512) with No. 4 Bombing & Gunnery School at RCAF Station Fingal in Ontario; and was transferred back to the USAAF in May 1942.

Subsequently, he underwent four-engine transition training and B-29 aircraft operational combat crew training at Smoky Hill Army Air Field near Salina, Kansas.

In November 1944, he out-processed through Herington Field and deployed from Mather Field, California (with re-fueling stops at Hawaii and Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands) to the central pacific theatre of operations and was assigned to 20th Air Force, XXI Bomber Command, 73rd Bomb Wing, 499th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy), 877th Bomber Squadron Stationed at Isely Field on Saipan in the Mariana Islands.

O1699513Thomas C Wilkinson Maj TX 1-6-1945 B-29 # 44-70083

On 1 June 1945, he flew in the left seat as the Airplane Command Pilot aboard a Boeing B-29 Super Fortress nicknamed the “Flying Fool” (serial #44-70083) tail code V-Square-8.

It was one of 458 aircraft launched in a multi-wing formation to bombard the urban area of Osaka, Japan. After a flight of approximately six hours and some 1,200 nautical miles, his aircraft reached their check-point above Mount Fuji on the main island of Honshu, and began their bomb-run southwest towards Osaka.

While over the target area at an altitude of 20,000 feet, the nose of his aircraft was hit with flak by anti-aircraft guns from a Japanese war ship in Osaka Bay and crashed, with no parachutes seen opening. He was initially listed as MIA, and declared Killed-In-Action one year later.

His last remains were interred at a cemetery on Awaji Island, Japan.