2Lt. Vernal John Bird was 26 years old when he was killed during a combat mission to Wewak, New Guinea on 12 March 1944. He was the pilot of a A-20 Havoc bomber. Vernal was born in Lindon, Utah on 29 Oct 1918 to his parents, Walter Freeman Bird and his wife, Christina. Christina was born in Sweden, as were her parents. Walter was born in Utah, and both of his parents were born in England. Vernal worked in construction after graduating from high school and enlisted on 25 April 1941, weighing 141 pounds and standing 5’6” tall.

A headstone in his honor was erected in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial Manila, Capital District, National Capital Region, Philippines. Vernal's remains were recovered in 2001 and identified in 2013. His body is now interred in the Evergreen Cemetery, Springville, Utah.

Vern was with the 3rd Bomber Group, Light, 13th Bomber Squadron. The 13th was assigned to Port Moresby, New Guinea using B-25s. They attacked enemy ships transporting reinforcements and supplies resulting in the 13th sinking a large (6,000-8,000-ton) cargo ship and a destroyer during March 1943. But, on 12 April 1943, the 13th was on the receiving end when over one-hundred Japanese planes attacked Allied airfields in the area of Port Moresby, New Guinea. The squadron had seven B-25s at this time, and all of them were damaged or destroyed, which temporarily put the squadron out of action.
During May, the 13th moved to Dobodura, New Guinea, and in July was reequipped with B-25 "strafers.” (These were B-25s with six 50 cal guns in the nose to go with four 50 cal guns in the wings). The Grim Reapers (the nickname of the 13th Squadron) once more struck out against Japanese shipping, airfields, and supply dumps in New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago---the group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea. In February, when the 13th was moved to Nadzab, New Guinea, A-20s were received and the new planes were soon being used for low-level attacks against Tadji Airdrome near Aitape and Kavien on New Ireland Island in Papua. Vernal’s plane went down in one of these raids.

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This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Vernal J Bird