COME JOIN US ON DECEMBER 5, OF EVERY YEAR
The Memorial Ceremony is free & open to the public (rain or shine)
Museum Building at
4000 West Perimeter Rd. Fort Lauderdale, FL 33315
Directions / Contact

Flight 19 is an annual memorial ceremony. The ceremony commemorates the 14 crewmen from 5 Avenger airplanes, and the 13 crewmen from the Mariner rescue seaplane: a total of 6 aircraft and 27 men, all vanishing on the afternoon of 5 December 1945.  Flight 19 began the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, and is one of the great aviation mysteries. The Memorial Ceremony is a public event celebrated on the grounds of the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, and a Florida Heritage Site.  The ceremony also commemorates the 95 service members who died while training at Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale during 1942 – 1946. This memorial celebrates the heroes and heroines of World War II, while educating the public about the important role Florida played in training for the battlefield, and on the home front during the war.

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The Military had to mobilize with speed and urgency, thus the number of casualties at military bases was on the high side.
A sad but equally historic note is the fact that 95 young Americans lost their lives
​at the NAS Fort Lauderdale base during 1942-1945— the three most intensive training years of the war.

The Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Historical Association  & Museum
proudly salutes all of the service members who died
while serving at Fort Lauderdale during 1942 – 1945

List of Those Who Perished at the NASFL

Wilmont, Gerald W.
Caffee, William B.
O'Connor, Vincent J.J.
Butler, John T. Jr.
Cobin, Raymond H.
Avram, Lloyd M.
Barry
McFadden, Samuel G.
Horton, George N.
Osgood, Leland L.
Suythe, Wallace K
Atkins, James M.
Beaton, Russel F.
Belzarine, Louis J. Jr.
Benson, Barney
Comer, William D.
Kwaak, Herberty C.
Raby, Robert T.
Sudak, John
Blair, Jeff G.
Netterville, Le Ray T.
Stormont, F.E.
Barth, William H.
Bruner, Glenn L.
Fenster, Duane M.
Gunderson, Gene R.
Hupp, Ray Jr.
Maloney, William P. Jr.
Christenson, Dorin K.
Ergle, Alva C.
Pfeiffer, William F.
Peterson, Roy H.
Brown, George S.
Dunning, George K.
Fauth, James E.
Hammon, Samuel J.
Lownstein, Victor H.
Minch, Fred Scott
Tanelian, George
Tucker, William H.
Whipple, Irving W.
Teates, Kenneth E.
Barlow, Arthur C.
Potter, Leonard M.
Alem, Peter L.
Barton, James R.
Clayton, Ronald J.C.
Hart, William S.
Hintz, Walter E.
Mikulski, Wassil
Gilmore, Donald L.
Foy, William Fred Jr.
Ellrot, Norbert J.
Morgan, Donald P.
Kusiak, Richard E.
Campbell, James X.
Craddock, Elving C.
Sneed, John W.
Eklund, Burton A.
Fogarty, William P.
Hebstrom, Bruce A.
Hickey, John F.
Scollan, Felix Jr.
Wold, Leland R.
Azer, William S. Jr.
Edwards, Claude F.

Applegate, Sidney S.
Grisez, Reginald Jr.
Maleio, Arnaud Peter Jr.
Gould, Meredith William
Marquat, Joseph Melvin
Burns, Frederick M.
Watson, Robert
Barry, John Edward
Campbell, Robert E.
Krausaukas, Edward S.
Muelenbeck, Robert C.
Taylor, Donald B.
Siden, Harry W.
Hanlan, Kirk Allan
Rud, Duane Elmer

Lost Squadron Flight 19:
Flight 19 was a training flight of five TBM/TBF Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared on December 5, 1945, while over the Atlantic. The squadron's flight plan was scheduled to take them due east from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale for 141 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 140-mile leg to complete the exercise. The flight never returned to base. The disappearance was attributed by Navy investigators to navigational error leading to the aircraft running out of fuel, however the "Mystery of flight 19" still remains, as nobody really knows what happened.

Click on individual names to read biographies:
Baluk, B.E. Jr.
Bossi, J. T.
Devlin, G. F.
Gallivan, R. F.
Gerber, F. J.
Gruebel, R. P.
Lightfoot, W. E.
Paonessa, G. R.
Parpart, W. R.
Powers, E. J.
Stivers, G. W.
Taylor, Charles C. - Squadron Leader
Thelander, A. H.
Thompson, H. O.

NAS Banana River- PBM-5 Mariner:
One of the search and rescue aircraft deployed to look for them, a PBM-5 Mariner with a 13-man crew, also disappeared. A tanker off the coast of Florida reported seeing an explosion and observed a widespread oil slick, while it fruitlessly searched for survivors. The weather was becoming stormy by the end of the incident. 

Allen, Roger M.
Arceneaux, Charles D.
Cameron, Robert C.
Cargill, Wiley D. 
Cone, Harry G.
Eliason, Lloyd A.
Jeffrey, Walter G. - Commanding Pilot of PBM-5 Mariner
Jordon, James F.
Menendez, John T.
Neeman, Philip B.
Osterheld, James F.
Peterson, Donald E.
Zywicki, Alfred J.

Support Project Mariner: An Expedition of the NAS Fort Lauderdale Museum

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A Navy Park is Built

In 1989, Walter Houghton, Assistant Fort Lauderdale Airport Director, noticed the efforts of Allan McElhiney, founder of the NASFL Museum, and received permission to build a Navy Park on the east side of the FAA tower. Walter found a plaque dedicated to Flight 19 designed by the Woman's Council Navy League that had been stored in a warehouse and he had a special Memorial monument built to display it. The monument holds an original WWII propeller mounted at the top, against the background of the tower. The small park was completed in 1990.

The wife and daughter of Captain Edward Powers USMC who was part of the Lost Patrol, arrived for the opening. After the ceremony was over, they told Walter that it was the nicest thing that had happened since the Lost Flight of December 5, 1945. Edward's daughter mentioned that “Since my dad was lost at sea, by having this mounted here, I now find true peace for the first time since he died.”

The Memorial Ceremonies are now held at the NASFL Museum building. The memorial still remains in the same area, and it is the hope of the Museum Board of Directors that it be salvaged, and moved to the grounds of the Museum. 

​To be continued.

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• Flight 19 Complete Naval Report - Testimony & Exhibits: 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
• NASFL Museum Director relates History of FLIGHT 19 on C-SPAN3 - American History TV
• Images from the 70th  Flight 19 Anniversary Memorial Ceremony 2015
• Media Kit

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Navy Park Memorial - Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Photo: Minerva Bloom.

Eagles' All – On Navy Wings

14 men 5 metal birds-from the earth did soar
From Lauderdale's shore to the Bahamas bound--
To apprentice the ways of war.

Eagles' all on Navy wings
The engines roar, their song.
It should have been easy – a practice run
How could anything go wrong?

But the past was not
the present's father that day.
Change was in the wind.

Which island below? Which way do we go?
We'll press on further and see.
On a static filled radio – we hear them yet.
Which heading? Which course?
How long?

Day changes to night.
Then silence.
Is Flight 19 really gone?

The years roll by like a curtain.
And we wonder – what happened to them?
Did the wind blow them into confusion?
Naw... they were too good.
And we wonder again.

The compass lied... but there were five.
No sense can we make, there's no trend.

Did they crash in a swamp or ditch in the sea?
We ponder the place of their grave.
But when the wondering's done— there isn't much left.
And only one truth can we save.

They were eagles all, on Navy Wings
and they flew
To eternity.


– Written by Jim Reynolds –

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