James H. Sharkey, age 25, from Bradley County Arkansas.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, July 5, 1942
Death details: On July 5, 1942, a C-53B Skytrooper (serial number 41-20048) took off from Elmendorf Army Air Force Base, Alaska, on a transport mission to Seattle, Washington, carrying four crew members and twelve passengers. Approximately twenty-five miles northeast of Fort Randall, Cold Bay, Alaska, the aircraft crashed into a mountain on Kodiak Island in the Seward Peninsula off of northwest Alaska. All sixteen men on board died in the crash, but only the remains of six were recovered. The other ten occupants remain unaccounted for. Sergeant James H. Sharkey, who entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Arkansas, was a member of the 42nd Troop Carrier Squadron. He was a crew member aboard this Skytrooper when it crashed on July 5, 1943, during its transport mission to Seattle. His remains were not recovered following the crash, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Sergeant Sharkey is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency