Sgt. George Richard Paonessa
United States Marine Corps Reserve
Flight 19 Radioman on FT-36

Sgt. George R. Paonessa with his father Frank, 1940's.

George Richard Paonessa was born in November 1917, in Mamaroneck, New York. He was the 3rd of 8 children, to Italian immigrants Frank and Irene.  Five of the Paonessa boys would serve in the war. 

From January - February of 1944, George saw duty as an aerial gunner in Kwajalein Atoll, in the Marshal Islands. This battle was a significant moral victory for the Allies, because it was the first time the Americans had penetrated the "outer ring" of the Japanese Pacific sphere.

Upon his return to the US, Sgt. Paonessa was assigned a second training as a Radioman/Bombardier on the TBM/TBF Avenger torpedo bombers.

​On the fateful day of 5 December 1945 at NAS Fort Lauderdale, George (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.

Sgt. George R. Paonessa was Radioman on FT-36. The Pilot was Capt. Edward Joseph Powers, USMC. The Gunner was Sgt. Howell Orrin Thompson, USMCR. Aircraft was a TBM-1C with BuNo 46094. Sgt. George Richard Paonessa was 28 years old.

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Golf Team at Mamaroneck High School, 1937.
Paonessa is second from right. ​

The Paonessa family received a telegram days later on December 26, from NAS Jacksonville, reading "You have been misinformed about me. Am very much alive."  Signed with his nickname “Georgie”  (reportedly a hoax).

​​​Flight 19 - The Lost Squadron
Great Aviation Mysteries

Memorial Gravesite for George Richard Paonessa at Arlington Cemetery. The Paonessa family commissioned this gravesite, according to a family spokesperson.

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​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.