Aviation Museum Honors Bomber Pilot Killed in WWII

Aviation Museum of New Hampshire marks Veterans Day by taking possession of a fragment of the B-17 for a new display.

Monday, November 11, 2024 at 01:49 PM ET

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A framed presentation by noted aviation artist Ron Cole contains a piece of the fuselage of the B-17 flown by Captain Harl Pease of the U.S. Army Air Corps on his final mission in 1942. [Courtesy: Aviation Museum of New Hampshire]

Key Takeaways:

The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire received an authenticated fragment of a B-17 Flying Fortress flown by WWII hero Captain Harl Pease.
Captain Harl Pease, a New Hampshire aviator, was shot down in 1942, captured, and executed by the Japanese, later receiving the Medal of Honor and having Portsmouth Air Force Base renamed in his honor.
The acquired B-17 fuselage piece will be displayed by the museum to help tell Pease's story and preserve the memory of his service and sacrifice.

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The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire marked Veterans Day over the weekend by taking possession of a part of a B-17 Flying Fortress flown by a Granite State aviator, Captain Harl Pease of Plymouth.

Pease, a pilot with the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, was shot down August 7, 1942, during a raid of the Japanese-occupied island of Rabaul, New Britain, in Papua New Guinea. Pease’s aircraft crashed behind enemy lines and the crew was presumed killed in action.

Meg Godlewski

Meg Godlewski has been an aviation journalist for more than 24 years and a CFI for more than 20 years. If she is not flying or teaching aviation, she is writing about it. Meg is a founding member of the Pilot Proficiency Center at EAA AirVenture and excels at the application of simulation technology to flatten the learning curve. Follow Meg on Twitter @2Lewski.