The Pittsburgh Press (October 26, 1942)
Lost with Rickenbacker –
Eight on board missing plane
Hunt continues for craft in Pacific area
Washington (UP) –
The War Department revealed that seven Army officers and men accompanied Capt. E. V. (Eddie) Rickenbacker, foremost American ace of World War I, in the big Army plane that disappeared during a secret Pacific flight.
The names of Capt. Rickenbacker’s companions were disclosed as all available Army and Navy air and sea forces in the Hawaiian area continued to search for a trace of the plane and its occupants.
The ship, believed to be a four-motored bomber, was on a flight from Hawaii to an undisclosed island in the Pacific. Those aboard besides Capt. Rickenbacker were:
- Col. Hans C. Adamson, Washington, a passenger;
- Capt. William T. Cherry Jr., pilot, Fort Worth, Texas;
- 2nd Lt. James C. Whittaker, Burlingame, California;
- 2nd Lt. John J. De Angelis, Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania;
- Sgt. James W. Reynolds, Fort Jones, California;
- Sgt. Alexander T. Kaczmarczyk, Torrington, Connecticut;
- Pvt. John F. Bartek, Freehold, New Jersey.
The disappearance of Pvt. Bartek, 23, is the second tragedy to strike his parents within a month. John’s sister, Ruth, 17, dropped dead on her way to school recently.
Officials here clung to the hope that Capt. Rickenbacker and his companions are still alive, possibly awaiting rescue on rubber life rafts or on some island.
Capt. Rickenbacker was surveying military installations in the Pacific area on behalf of Lt. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, Chief of the Army Air Forces. He only recently returned from a similar tour in Great Britain.