vigil617
US Veteran
Warren "Hindy" Hindenlang, LT, U.S. Naval Aviator, Foxboro, MA
Co-pilot of the Navy version of the B-24, the PB4Y Privateer.
Shot down by hostile fire over the island of Chichi Jima in July 1944 during a bombing run on the radio installation on the island. Lone survivor of the crash into the water near shore.
Taken prisoner and held on the island under a brutal and sadistic regime of rogue Japanese officers as documented in the book "Flyboys" by James Bradley, which told the stories of seven identified and one "unidentified" U.S. servicemen who were killed and, in a few cases, had portions of their internal organs cannibalized by their captors on Chichi Jima.
Ordered to his knees on an island beach in August 1944, then bayoneted and beheaded, as confirmed after the war by firsthand accounts. LT Hindenlang was remembered as having never shown any fear or called out in any way.
This is the same island near which only a few months earlier, Navy pilot George H.W. Bush had crashed his dive bomber but had been rescued by a U.S. submarine crew even as Japanese on the island were gathering to send a boat to capture him. If they had been successful, it is likely that LT Bush, too, would have been killed as a prisoner on Chichi Jima.
Until his identity was confirmed following publication of the hardcover edition of the book, LT Hindenlang was the "unidentified airman," who had been assumed to have been an Army Air Force pilot due to a misidentification of his plane as a B-24 Liberator.
Hindy is not a family member, but I had the opportunity a few years ago, upon publication of "Flyboys," to talk with a man whose family were friends of Hindy's and thought so much of him that they named their son for him. This gentleman lives in western North Carolina, and I had the privilege to learn about Hindy from him and then to write a feature article about this brave young American pilot.
You are not forgotten, Hindy. All gave some; you and others gave all.
Co-pilot of the Navy version of the B-24, the PB4Y Privateer.
Shot down by hostile fire over the island of Chichi Jima in July 1944 during a bombing run on the radio installation on the island. Lone survivor of the crash into the water near shore.
Taken prisoner and held on the island under a brutal and sadistic regime of rogue Japanese officers as documented in the book "Flyboys" by James Bradley, which told the stories of seven identified and one "unidentified" U.S. servicemen who were killed and, in a few cases, had portions of their internal organs cannibalized by their captors on Chichi Jima.
Ordered to his knees on an island beach in August 1944, then bayoneted and beheaded, as confirmed after the war by firsthand accounts. LT Hindenlang was remembered as having never shown any fear or called out in any way.
This is the same island near which only a few months earlier, Navy pilot George H.W. Bush had crashed his dive bomber but had been rescued by a U.S. submarine crew even as Japanese on the island were gathering to send a boat to capture him. If they had been successful, it is likely that LT Bush, too, would have been killed as a prisoner on Chichi Jima.
Until his identity was confirmed following publication of the hardcover edition of the book, LT Hindenlang was the "unidentified airman," who had been assumed to have been an Army Air Force pilot due to a misidentification of his plane as a B-24 Liberator.
Hindy is not a family member, but I had the opportunity a few years ago, upon publication of "Flyboys," to talk with a man whose family were friends of Hindy's and thought so much of him that they named their son for him. This gentleman lives in western North Carolina, and I had the privilege to learn about Hindy from him and then to write a feature article about this brave young American pilot.
You are not forgotten, Hindy. All gave some; you and others gave all.
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