The Painful Story Of U.S. Navy LCDR Bruce Van Voorhis of Aberdeen, The Hero We Lost WWII.

U.S. Navy LCDR Bruce Van Voorhis of Aberdeen, WA and Fallon, NE, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on July 6, 1943, near Greenwich Island, Solomon Islands.

Following Van Voorhis’s graduation from the U.S.N.A. in 1929, he reported for duty on the USS Mississippi until Nov. 1930, when he transferred to the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, FL, for aviation training.

In July 1942, Van Voorhis was promoted to LCDR. Soon after, he requested combat duty in the South Pacific after learning that his brother, Army 1st Lt. Wayne Van Voorhis, was MIA in the Philippines.

On July 6, 1943, Van Voorhis volunteered to command a PB4Y-1 long-range, heavy bomber, known by the Army as a B-24 Liberator, over the Japanese-held Greenwich Island (also known as Kapingamarangi Atoll).

He and ten other men took off in the middle of the night on a 700-mile journey across the Pacific without an escort or other military support.

As the bomber flew over an island lagoon, it encountered fierce antiaircraft fire and was quickly pursued by enemy fighters. Despite being forced to fly lower, Van Voorhis made six bombing runs over several Japanese ground installations.

They destroyed a radio station, antiaircraft guns and other vital targets. Van Voorhis' crew took out one enemy fighter aircraft in the air and strafed three more seaplanes in the lagoon.

On his very last bombing run, Van Voorhis made sure he was low enough to hit his target successfully. In doing so, the bomber itself got caught in the blast. The plane crashed into the lagoon, and all of its crew died. However, their mission was a success, and it contributed to the Allied offensive that eventually drove the Japanese from much of the South Pacific.

The fate of Van Voorhis and his crew members wasn't known for a long time. Van Voorhis was listed as MIA for over a year.

Van Voorhis was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor and promoted to CDR for his actions on July 6, 1943.

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