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MTSU Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center

Roll of Honor

Cornwell, Francis O.

Branch of Service: USAAF
Era: WWII
Location of Burial: Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial
Town of Burial: Honolulu, Hawaii

Francis Cornwell

Francis O. Cornwell (Class of 1940) was the navigator of a B-17 dispatched to locate a Japanese carrier task force raiding Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. When previous attempts to find the enemy failed, desperate commanders assigned Cornwell’s outdated aircraft the mission. They discovered the enemy carriers off Attu and made a bombing run. Five B-17 Flying Fortresses left at 10:30 AM to intercept the Japanese Fleet. After flying for several hours, the flight sighted an aircraft carrier when a portion of them broke out of a thick sea fog into a small opening. Captain Mansfield (pilot) and his entire crew were lost in this momentary encounter. The exact details of their last few seconds are unknown. They were seen flying directly toward the carrier. 1LT Cromwell was the Navigator. (From the journal of the 36th Bomber Squadron). From other accounts, it appears that Capt. Mansfield went down to minimum altitude and dropped a bomb. The pilot of their wing plane stated that they most likely were either shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft at that moment or the blast of their own bomb destroyed them. Second Lieutenant Cornwell and fellow college alum, Corporal Edgar Rogers, on June 4, 1942 were killed.

Clyde Francis Cornwell is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii. This is an American Battle Monuments Commission location.

See a service overview at https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=112618.

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