From left, Jeff Meyer, 36th Wing base historian, Jeff Richard McGhie and Kevin Wright pose for a photo with a plaque listing the names of B-29 #44-61700 crew members at the Memorial Field on Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, August 26, 2024. Jeff McGhie’s father, Richard McGhie Jr., was the co-pilot of B-29 #44-61700. During a training flight the B-29 went missing. Jeff was only a year old at the time. 77 years later, Jeff finally made it to Guam to see the Memorial that was dedicated to his father and crew following the tragic incident. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Pedro Tenorio)
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam -- Dedicated in 1948, then forgotten … rededicated in 1998, then forgotten … written about in 2024, hopefully never forgotten again.
This story is dedicated to 11 Airmen who never came back, and to a son who never forgot his father.
In August, we at PA received an email requesting support for an unusual tour. A gentleman named Jeff Richard McGhie, has come to Guam to see his father … and that his father would be at that old baseball field near the BX.
For us at PA this was quite boggling, we learned Mr. Jeff McGhie was an older man, around 70, so his father must be older … and what did the email mean by his father was at that unspectacular baseball field? We at PA agreed to support this tour, which led us to uncover a story far deeper than we had anticipated.
On the morning of August 26, we joined Jeff Meyer, 36th Wing base historian, and met with Jeff Richard McGhie and his brother, Kevin Wright, and with their help we learned the deeper than the trench story of that baseball field near the BX.
In 1948, a pilot, Maj. Richard McGhie Jr., was gearing up for a routine training flight from Guam to Faralon De Mendilla (an island north of here.) He had just come to the 19th Bomb Group, only been on Guam for a month and left behind a wife and a year old son in the states.
Sadly, this training flight would be anything, but routine. After takeoff his team would radio their status once every hour. The first and second proceeded as normal … on the third, the message was garbled … there was no fourth. B-29 #44-61700 and its crew of 11, had gone missing.
“They started a search the same day,” said Jeff McGhie. “The records show that they searched for about 15 days. They found nothing.”
This news unfortunately made it to Richard McGhie Jr.’s wife and father over an unexpected source - over public radio. This was several days after the accident and before the Government released an official statement.
This cold-shoulder would have the McGhie family invested more deeply in this incident. From letters to senators asking for assistance, requesting official accident reports, obtaining his father’s flight log, anything that could help bring closure. His mother keeping all these documents stored in a lockbox, which Jeff McGhie now preserves diligently. One of these, newspaper clippings officially sent by the base to the family, is at the center of the story today.
“[Inside was] pictures and an article, a dedication of a baseball field, a memorial field in 1948,” said Jeff McGhie. “According to this article, there was a big dedication for the crew that my father was a part of. Speeches, all that stuff, and there was a cardboard sign on an easel with the idea that they were going to make a permanent marker.”
Throughout his life Jeff McGhie couldn’t help, but think about this memorial field. Always imagining it at the back of his mind. One day, while returning from a trip in Chuuk, he decided this would be his chance to “visit his father” here on Guam.
In 1994, he got on base and finally attempted to pay respects to his father at the memorial field. The only problem was … the memorial field was also missing.
“We looked all day for the baseball field and couldn’t find it,” said Jeff McGhie. “What my guide could surmise was that it was never done. That was in 94. I left and went back to the states and the historian at that time said we have a good idea.”
That idea was to rededicate a new Memorial Field on the 50th anniversary of the missing crew. This new Memorial is the field that you see today near the BX. Jeff McGhie had become the reason that the missing crew would not be forgotten. In 1998 they would be re-honored with a new field and their names immortalized on a giant brass plaque.
“As I pursued it with the base historian at that time in 98, he told me that a lot of the information or records from the 40s was lost to history because he said there was a huge fire in St. Louis where they store the records,” said Jeff McGhie. “Most of the information came from my mother’s lockbox. So it’s interesting to me that if I never came in ‘94, no one would be the wiser! They would go ‘yeah right, sure there’s a memorial,’ and I go ‘that’s funny ‘cause here’s the pictures!”
Unfortunately, whether through blunder or by design, Jeff McGhie and his mother never received invitations to this new memorial ceremony. It came and went while they were in the states. In good faith though, they were given copies of articles and even a copy of a video news segment about it, but that still wasn’t enough for their closure. Jeff McGhie said he and his mother would have come halfway across the world in a heartbeat to see Richard McGhie Jr. and his crew be properly remembered again.
With that done, the story goes dark for a while, until Jeff McGhie, after finishing all his work, after raising his kids that would have kids of their own, he would imagine that field one more time.
“I retired in January this year and I told my wife that I always wanted to go back and see that monument,” he said. “I thought it was important to come to Guam and see the plaque in person … maybe I’m too sentimental, I don’t know … but I wanted to see it in person and put my hand on it. That’s all I am coming here for.”
On August 26, 2024, 77 years after his father’s plane disappeared, Jeff McGhie visited the Memorial Field dedicated to his father and crew. Finally, placing his hand on his father’s name.
At the time of writing this, Jeff McGhie has worked diligently to keep this memory of the missing crew alive and also figure out more of the mystery behind the disappearance. Talking to old members of the 19th Bomb Group, current and past Base Historians, a B-29 historian, all of these different sources for the sake of remembering his father and his crew.
Below are just some of the interesting findings behind the disappearance of B-29 #44-61700,
During those times the pilots didn’t have a set plane they would use. They would constantly rotate. That day, Richard McGhie Jr. and his crew would get on B-29 #44-61700. - 19th Bomb Group Association Member The plane that his father rode co-pilot for on that fateful day was known as a “hangar queen.” A nickname given to a plane that would constantly be on the ramp due to maintenance instead of actually flying. - 19th Bomb Group Association Member The day before the plane disappeared, the crew that rode it the day before reported the plane shuttered violently when landing. - 19th Bomb Group Association Member During the search, one team saw a life raft with what looked like 4 people, but were unable to get them as they were flying a bomber. By the time another team got out there, there was nothing. - Pilots involved with the search in 1948. Much more has been uncovered and Jeff continues to uncover more. The most recent task on his mission of remembrance being the search for any living family members of the other missing crew members. Be it a grandchild, niece or nephew, he hopes to form a small community with others affected by this event, but at the very least, let them know their family member is honored with a memorial here on Guam.
For those that made it this far, we thank you for reading this. We ask please spread the word on this for awareness as most of us pass that field on a daily basis (some of us play on it) yet most probably don’t know the significance behind it.
11 Airmen could have been playing or watching their kids on that field. Jeff McGhie could’ve learned baseball with his father on a similar field, if this tragic incident did not happen. Jeff McGhie shared that the older he gets the more he understands the importance of family and hopes that most of us treasure ours.
Disclaimer: For those who have been to the field and never seen the plaque in the past years, this was due to brass being stolen in the mid-to-late 2000s from memorials around the island. The plaque was taken out of storage in the photos above.
As well we would like to share, that memorial field will be gone soon due to Andersen building a new commissary in the area. Jeff Meyer, has vowed to keep the plaque and inter it in the planned Andersen AFB Museum, slated to be built in the near future.
