MISSING ARMY FLIER FOUND DEAD ON PEAK
Lieutenant E. H. Bobbitt’s Plane Had Crashed Near Elkins, West Virginia
And Caught Fire
ELKINS, West Virginia, January 6, 1932 – Wedged in the cockpit of his wrecked plane, Lieutenant E. H. Bobbitt, Army Pilot, was found dead today on one of the highest peaks of the Cheat Mountains.
M. S. Simmons, a farmer, and Carl Reefer, a trapper, came upon the wreckage while tramping through the hills in search of the aviator who disappeared Christmas Day while en route from Selfridge Field, Michigan, to his home in Hot Springs, Virginia.
The body was charred badly and the plane, with a broken wing, was badly burned. The ship apparently struck a tree on Pools Knob and crashed, bottom down in the bushes. The peak there rises almost 4,000 feet. Three miles south Lieutenant Bobbitt would have found a clearing on which he could have landed – the only one in that part of the mountains.
WASHINGTON, January 9, 1932 – Funeral services with full military honors were held at Arlington National Cemetery today for Second Lieuenant E. H. Bobbitt, Jr., who met his death in the West Virginia mountains while flying to his Hot Springs, Virginia, home for the holidays.
Six members of the Army Air Corps acted as honorary pallbearers.
BOBBITT, EVERETT H JR
2ND LT AIR CORPS RES USA
- DATE OF DEATH: 12/25/1931
- BURIED AT: SECTION 7 SITE 9802-WH
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.
Reviewed by: Michael Howard