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Wartime Heritage
ASSOCIATION
Remembering World War II
Harold Elton Hoskin
Name:
Harold Elton Hoskin
Rank:
Second Lieutenant
Service Number:
0-736523
Service:
Weather Testing Detachment,
Air Transport Command,
United States Army Air Force
Date of Birth:
April 9, 1921
Place of Birth:
Houlton, Aroostook County, Maine
Date of Enlistment:
April 13, 1942
Place of Enlistment:
Dow Field, Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine
Address at Enlistment:
Houlton, Aroostook Co., Maine
Age at Enlistment:
21
Height:
5 feet, 7 inches
Occupation:
Actor
Marital Status:
Single (at enlistment)
Religion:
Unknown
Next of Kin:
George Hoskin (Father)
Date of Death:
December 21, 1943
Age:
22
Cemetery:
Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia
Grave:
Section 60, Grave 310
Harold Elton Hoskin was the son of George Sandoe Hoskin (1881–1950) and Eva Almeda (Cosseboom) Hoskin
(1883–1973). Harold’s father was born in Londonderry, Colchester Co., Nova Scotia, and his mother was born
in Maine. Harold had two siblings - John S. Hoskin and Edith May Hoskin [later Bolster] (1912–1999).
Harold’s father was working as a real estate agent in 1940, and the family was still living in Houlton,
Aroostook Co., Maine. Harold enrolled in Bates College to study medicine but left after Pearl Harbor to enlist
in the US Army Air Corps.
After enlisting in the spring of 1942, Harold married Mary Roberta
(McIntosh) Hoskin Scovill (1921–2004) in Pima, Arizona, on January
19, 1943; likely where he was stationed during training. The
Davis–Monthan Army Air Field was there. Mary was born in
Littleton, Aroostook County, Maine. They had one daughter, Joann
Hoskin (later Goldstein).
In 2004, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) received
information from a National Park Service Historian regarding a
possible WWII crash site in the Yukon-Charley Rivers National
Preserve, Alaska.
Lieutenant Hoskin was one of five men who were flying in a B-24
Liberator that crashed while on a cold-weather test flight December
21, 1943, flying from Ladd Field in Fairbanks, North Star Borough,
Alaska. He led a crew of five assigned to test the bomber's propeller
systems in cold weather. An engine malfunctioned during the flight
and sent the plane into a downward spiral, according to military
documents. Search teams could not find the wreckage for months.
The aircraft never returned to base and it was not located in subsequent search attempts. The following
March, one of the crewmen, 1st Lt. Leon Crane, arrived at Ladd Field after spending more than two months
in the Alaska wilderness. He said that the plane had crashed after it lost an engine, and Crane and another
crewmember, Master Sgt. Richard L. Pompeo, parachuted from the aircraft before it crashed. Crane did not
know what happened to Pompeo after they bailed out. In October 1944, Crane assisted a recovery team in
locating the crash. They recovered the remains of two of the crewmen, 1st Lt. James B. Sibert and Staff Sgt.
Ralph S. Wenz. Hoskin's remains were not found and it was concluded that he probably parachuted out of
the aircraft before it crashed.
With no body recovered, Harold was listed on the American Battle Monuments Commission’s Courts of the
Missing of the Honolulu Memorial at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.
Lieutenant Harold Elton Hoskin's remains were discovered in August 2006 and identified in April 2007. His
remains were interred during a service at Arlington National Cemetery on September 7, 2007.
When an individual’s remains have been accounted for by the U.S. Department of Defense,
a rosette is placed next to the name on the Wall/Tablet/Court of the Missing to mark that
the person now rests in a known gravesite.
Harold’s burial at Arlington National Cemetery in 2007