Name: Charles Francis MacDonald Rank: Sergeant Service Number: 12178049 Service: 421st Bomb Squadron, 504th Bomb Group, 21st Air Force, United States Army Air Force Awards: Purple Heart Date of Birth: June 20, 1909 Place of Birth: Mulgrave, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia Date of Enlistment: March 11, 1944 Place of Enlistment: Fort Dix, Burlington County, New Jersey Age at Enlistment: 34 Address at Enlistment: New York, New York Height: 5 feet, 8 inches Complexion: Fair Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Brown Occupation: Truck Driver Marital Status: Married Religion: Roman Catholic Next of Kin: Mrs. Florence MacDonald (Wife) Date of Death: May 24, 1945 Age: 35 Cemetery: St. Mary’s Cemetery, Heatherton, Antigonish County, Nova Scotia Remembered on the WWII and Korean War Memorial Arch, Memorial Field, Antigonish, Nova Scotia Charles Francis MacDonald was the son of James Alexander MacDonald (1880-1923) and Wilhelmina Lena (Graham) MacDonald (1873-1961), and the husband of Florence (Carpenter) MacDonald (b. 1908) of New York. His mother was born in Heatherton, Antigonish County, Nova Scotia, and his father was Merigomish, Pictou Co., NS. Charles’ siblings were John Graham MacDonald (1904-1968), William James MacDonald (1905-1924), Ruben Faustinus ‘Fauster’ MacDonald (1908-1981), Marcella E MacDonald (1910-1949), and Wallace MacDonald (1913-1996). Charles immigrated to the US via Yarmouth, Nova Scotia aboard the ferry Northland to Boston, Massachusetts on September 11, 1925. He married Florence Carpenter of Brooklyn, New York, on October 6, 1929, in Manhattan, NY. Charles was employed as a driver throughout the 1930’s and 1940’s. At the time of the 1930 census, he is listed with the occupation of chauffer for a news agency, and census of 1930, a newspaper truck driver. In 1930, Charles and Florence are living at 115 Post Avenue, in Hawthorne, Passaic, New Jersey. By 1931, the couple was renting and living at 528 West 111th Street in NY and Charles was working as a gas station manager (when he completed his Declaration of Intention to become a US citizen). His brother Fauster was also living in NY as well at 3145 Rochambeau Avenue in the Bronx and working as a bus driver; noted when Charles completed his Petition for Naturalisation on February 1, 1935. By 1940, they were renting and residing at 500 West 110th Street in New York, NY. Charles F MacDonald served as the Tail Gunner aboard the Boeing B-29A Superfortress bomber #42-65266 (nicknamed the ‘Gamecock’), assigned to the 421st Bomb Squadron, 504th Bomb Group, 21st Air Force of the USAAF. The aircraft crashed on May 24, 1945, on a bombing mission on Tokyo, Japan. No radio contact was made after take-off from Tinian in the Mariana Islands at 8:11 pm on May 23, 1945. B-29 #42-65266 was hit by direct AAA gun fire in the #4 engine and crashed at 382 1-chome Akajikicho, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo. Eight of the crew were initially listed as missing in action and were later recategorized as killed in action in December of 1945. They were interred at the Tama Police Cemetery in Tokyo. In addition to Charles, 7 of the other crew were killed in the crash were: 1st Lieutenant Erik Herbert Gran - (Aircraft Commander) Reinterred at the Acacia Park Cemetery, Beverly Hills, Oakland Co, Michigan, Section J, E/2 Lot 363, Grave 1 2nd Lieutenant Robert T. Boggan (Pilot) Reinterred at the Forest Hill Cemetery Midtown, Memphis, Shelby Co, Tennessee 2nd Lieutenant Martin Swetsky (Navigator) Burial details unknown 1st Lieutenant Robert J. Bensema (Bombardier) Reinterred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Section P, Site 581 Sergeant John Walker Stalnaker (Flight Engineer) Reinterred at the Elmwood Cemetery, Ninety Six, Greenwood Co, South Carolina Sergeant Karl F. Naschold Jr. (Radio Operator) Reinterred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Section M, Site 298 2nd Lieutenant Wayne W. Martin - (Radar Operator) Reinterred at the Harris Creek Cemetery, Bradford, Miami Co, Ohio And three survivors who were taken as prisoners of war were: Corporal Edward Gorrie - (Left Gunner) Sergeant Henry W. Jones (Contral Fire Control) Corporal James T. Macomb (Right Gunner) Corporal Gorrie, Sergeant Jones, and Corporal Macomb, baled out, landed in Tokyo alive, and were detained by the Eastern Gendarmade Command Headquarters. They were returned home after the war. Charles’ family chose to repatriate his remains and he was reinterred at the St. Mary’s Cemetery in Heatherton, Antigonish County, Nova Scotia in 1949.