MILLINGTON, Tenn. – A Missouri native who joined the U.S. Navy and was shot down over Palau during World War II, will be buried on Sept. 11, in Mission Memorial Park Cemetery, Seaside, Calif. near where his family now resides in Modesto, Calif.
According to information provided by the Navy Personnel Command Public Affairs in Millington, Tenn., ARM1c Wilbur Mitts was born in Seligman, Missouri April 27, 1920, but considered Seaside, Calif. to be his hometown.
He enlisted in the Navy in San Francisco, Calif, Aug. 8, 1941 four months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
He was an Aviation Radioman 1st Class (ARM1c) who operated radio transmission and receiving equipment of Naval aircraft, maintained radio batteries, enciphered and deciphered Navy code messages, adjusted direction finders.
H was made a Seaman Apprentice upon enlistment, then rose throught the ranks of Seaman 2nd Class (S2c), Aviation Radioman 3rd Class (AOM3c), Aviation Radioman 2nd Class (AOM2c), Aviation Radioman 1st Class (AOM1c) before he was lost Sept. 10, 1944.
He served in Torpedo Squadron (VT) 20, USS Enterprise (CV 6), Torpedo Squadron (VT) 27, USS Suwanee (CVE 27), Commander, Patrol Wing Atlantic Fleet, Norfolk, VA Aircraft Radioman Training Unit, Naval Air Station, Norfolk, VA Aviation Radio School, Naval Air Station Alameda, CA Naval Training Station San Diego, CA.
His awards and decorations include the Air Crew Insignia (with 3 stars), Purple Heart Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal, American Defense Service Medal (Fleet Clasp), Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (Bronze Star), European-African-Middle Eastern Area Campaign Medal (Clasp and Bronze Star), World War II Victory Medal, American Campaign Medal. (This list reflects only those awards and citations present in the service member’s Official Military Personnel File and listed in the Navy Department Awards Web Service site and may not be complete.)
Wilbur Mitts’ final mission began on Sep. 10, 1944, when he was part of a three member aircrew of an TBM-1 Avenger, from Torpedo Squadron (VT) 20, that took off from USS Enterprise (CV 6) on a pre-invasion strike against Japanese forces and installations in the Palau Islands as part of Operation Forager.
The plane was last seen spinning violently before crashing into the water a few hundred feet from Malakal Island.
All three members of the crew were lost in the incident, including Aviation Ordnanceman 1st Class Anthony Di Petta and Naval Aviator Lt. Jay Manown Jr.
On Sept. 11, 1945, Mitts was declared killed in action (KIA) and posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.
Following the war, the American Graves Registration Service, the agency responsible for seeking and recovering missing American servicemen, conducted extensive searches of combat areas and crash sites in and around Palau, concluding their efforts in 1947.
Investigators were unable to discover any evidence of the aircraft.
In 2003, the BentProp Project (now Project Recover) began looking into the loss of the plane as part of the mission to locate remains of American World War II service members unaccounted for during the Pacific campaign.
After four project and two Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency investigations, the remains of the plane were discovered just off Malakal Island.
His remains were recovered during recovery operations in 2019 and 2021.
Using forensic analysis, the remains were identified as those of ARM1c Wilbur Mitts on Feb. 23.
Fellow crewman Di Petta was identified on Jan. 3, and buried in Nutley, New Jersey on July 11.
Lieutenant Manown remains in MIA status, but his case is still active.
Mitts is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
While stationed in Norfolk in 1942, ARM1c Mitts served as escort for the remains of a fellow Sailor to Humbolt, Iowa.