Ensign Lee C. Hiller
Lee was the middle child born in Charlevoix, Michigan on October 28, 1921 to Ernest and Christine (Peterson) Hiller making him my grandfather Don Hiller’s half brother. Lee’s older brother Ernest James was born in 1919 and his younger sister Annabelle in 1924. He attended high school in Charlevoix graduating in 1939. Lee then entered Michigan State College until June 1942, when he enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve.
Lee trained at Iowa State University and later at airfields in Washington and Texas and was commissioned an ensign in October then directly proceded to Naval Air Station, Opa-locka air base in Miami as an instructor. Naval Air Station consisted of three separate fields: Opa-Locka as known as Mainside, Miami Municipal and Master Field. He was classified as A-V(N) which is an United States Naval Reserve aviation flight officer, detailed to active duty in the aeronautic organization of the Navy immediately following their completion of training and designation as naval aviator.(1)
Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Naval Air Station (NAS) in Opa-locka started to ready itself in fighter, dive-bombing, torpedo bombing training as well as searching off-shore for German submarines. One of the aircraft used for dive bombing training was the Scout Bomber Douglass (SBD) Dauntless, often called “Slow But Deadly”. The Dauntless first entered service in mid-1939 and by May 1943 the SBD-5 was released. A typical dive-dombing attack sequence would be to cruise at 18,000 feet and after finding the target the Dauntless would drop to 8,000 feet accelerating as they descended.(2) The aircraft would then go into a vertical dive at a 70 degree lasting about 30-40 seconds, while under enemy fire, and when reaching 1,500-2,000 feet the pilot would release the 1,000 pound bomb.(2) After the bomb drop, the pilot would then need to execute a 4G pullout while under anti-aircraft fire!(2)
Ensign Hiller was a SBD-5 Dauntless pilot and on November 20, 1943 while on a practice flight was killed in a crash approximately 10 miles west of NAS. Years ago I received a copy of an except taken from an administrative report detailing the crash and I have provided a verbatim transcription below.
Excerpt Taken From Administrative Report
1. Ensign Lee Christian Hiller, A-V(N), USNR, pilot, permanently attached to NAS , Miami, Florida as an assistant instructor in O.T.U., VSB-5 was killed in a crash of an SBD-5 airplane, BuNo. 28986. The accident occurred at a point approximately ten miles west of this station at 11:45 EWT 20 November 1943.
2. Ensign Hiller had had a total of 323.8 hours of which 5.4 hours had been in a SBD-5 aircraft. A study of his flight jacket indicates that he was an average to slightly above average pilot. On the day of the crash Ensign hiller was normal to all outward appearances and, insofar as can be determined, physically and temperamentally qualified for the control of the aircraft. Ensign Hiller did not go to bed until 0200 on the night preceding the crash but he had not indulged in any intoxicating beverages the evening or night before the accident. It is not believed that the fact that he had had less than average rest before the flight should have seriously affected his ability to fly.
3. Weather conditions at the time of the accident were average to good for dive bombing, with cloud patches at 7,000 feet to 2,500 feet. The wind was about fourteen miles per hour from the northeast.
4. Ensign Lee Christian Hiller took off in SBD-5 airplane, Buno 28986 from Master Field in company with four other SBD-5’s for a regularly scheduled practice dive bombing flight using Target Number Four. The pilot made four dives from about 10,000 feet twice recovering at an altitude of less than 1,000. One of the recoveries was dangerously low and the pilot was warned of this by the observing pilot. The fifth dive was started at 10,000 feet and was made at an angle of approximately 060 degrees. He released his bomb and then continued in his dive with no visible effort to recover. The plan struck the ground and exploded.
5. Based on the evidence available the following facts are deemed established:
(a) SBD-5 airplane, BuNo. 28986, crashed at a point approximately ten miles west of U.S. NAS, Miami, Florida, at about 1145, 20 November 1943. Plane was completely demolished the pieces were recovered.
(b) The airplane was engaged in a duly authorized flight immediately prior to the crash.
(c) There was no damage to private property.
(d) Ensign Lee Christian Hiller, A-V(N), USNR, was killed as a result of the crash.
(e) The crash was due to the failure of Ensign Lee Christian Hiller to recover from a dive.
6. It is the opinion of the Commanding Officer of the U.S. NAS Miami, Fla., that:
(a) The crash of the airplane and the death of the pilot cannot be attributed to the intent, fault, negligence or inefficiency of any persons in the naval service or connected therewith.
(b) Pilot Ensign Lee Christian Hiller was killed in the line of duty and his death was not due to his own misconduct.
(c) Material failure was in no way responsible for the crash.
(d) The reason for Ensign Hiller’s failure to recover from the dive is, and must remain, unknown.
After reading the newspaper article included in the gallery above, I was curious about the death of Lee’s friend, John Scholz, especially since it was less than 4 weeks from Lee’s own crash. A Fort Myers News-Press article dated 16 October 1943 that “the flier (John Scholz) crashed in the center of Fort Myers Thursday after knocking a wing-tip off his plane while stunting low over the business section of the city”. Quite a different scenario than Lee’s crash. Then I came across another article in the Tampa Bay Time, 23 November 1943. Besides Lee, that weekend the Navy lost 2 other men in a separate air crash and at press time the men were still missing and believed dead. Gosh that seems like a lot of crashes at the same base in a short amount of time.
During this month of Thanksgiving, I want to say thank you for your service, Great Uncle Lee. Although your life was so very short, almost 100 years later you are still remembered.
Footnotes:
1. Glossary of U.S. Naval Abbreviations
2. Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum
Additional Reading: