Burt Edward Baluk, Jr. 
S1c  - U.S Naval Reserve
Crewman Flight 19, FT-3

Burt Edward Baluk, Jr., was born in Bloomfield, New Jersey, in 1926. Burt graduated from Bloomfield High School in 1943, and entered the naval reserve soon after. He began his training at the Naval Air Technical Training in Tennessee, and then graduated from Gunnery School at the Naval Air Gunnery School located in NAS Miami.  He then transferred for Operational Training at NAS Fort Lauderdale, where he began intensive training in the TBM/TBF Avenger torpedo bombers.

On the fateful day of 5 December 1945 at NAS Fort Lauderdale, Burt (along with 13 other crewmen), was assigned to a training squadron of 5 Avenger aircraft that would be known as Flight 19. The squadron was to perform a routine navigation exercise, and mock bombing run over the Hen and Chickens shoals in the Bahamas, and then return to the NAS Fort Lauderdale. The planes never returned. Neither did a PBM Mariner rescue seaplane with 13 crewmen aboard, that was dispatched to search for their lost colleagues.  In total, 6 aircraft and 27 men disappeared that afternoon. A massive search was organized, and nothing was found. Their disappearance launched one of the largest air and sea searches in history, and began the legend of the Bermuda Triangle. To this date, Flight 19 remains one of the great aviation mysteries.

Burt Edward Baluk, Jr., was radioman on FT-3, the pilot was Ensign Joseph Tipton Bossi, USNR; the gunner was Herman Arthur Thelander, S1c, USNR. The aircraft was a TBM-1C with BuNo 45714.  Burt Edward Baluk, Jr., was 19 yrs old.

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​Flight 19 - The Lost Squadron
Great Aviation Mysteries

Memorial brick at NAS Fort Lauderdale

​Flight 19 Project Research by Matthew J. Bloom,
Curated by Benjamin Walter-Range & Minerva Bloom

• Flight 19 Complete Naval Report: Get the naval investigation from original microfilm, published  in book form (proceeds go to Museum).
• Support Project Mariner: An Expedition of the NAS Fort Lauderdale Museum.