Lindsay D. Thomas -- Military Air Crash Casualty

 

Lindsay D. Thomas

Lindsay D. Thomas was born on October 25, 1911 in Trigg County, Kentucky in the Pleasant Hill community which is located in what is now known as the Land Between the Lakes. He was the only son of Edward “Edd” Clark Thomas and his wife, Augusta “Gustine” Arbell Thomas.  He had two sisters, Edna Lucille Thomas born in 1909 and Ambie Marie Thomas, born in 1918.  When Lindsay was young, his parents moved to the Donaldson Creek community in Trigg County. It was on Donaldson Creek where Lindsay grew to maturity.

Lindsay was known as a carefree young man He was a talented guitar player and loved to sing county-western songs.  During his twenties he worked at many jobs including being a waiter, a cook, and a partner in a restaurant and even a gold miner.  

Lindsay had moved to Cripple Creek, Colorado and was a young man of only 30 when World War II began.  In July of 1942, he entered the United States Navy where he became a gunner’s mate.  He was assigned to the Navy Air Force and was subsequently sent to the South Pacific Theater where he was involved in several major battles against the Japanese.  His assignments included duty at Pearl Harbor, Wrigley Island, and other islands.

After the war ended Lindsay returned to the United States in 1945 and was assigned to the United States Navy Air Station at Whidbey Island located in the Puget Sound, south of Seattle, Washington. Lindsay was the rank of Aviation Ordnanceman, first class (AOM 1/c) and was responsible for the maintenance of aviation ordnance equipment. He also served as an instructor at the Air Station.

On the evening February 14, 1945, Lindsay was aboard a Navy plane that was making a routine night training flight in the Puget Sound area near the town of Arlington, Washington  The plane was apparently circling an airfield trying for a landing when it crashed into the side of a nearby mountain.  The bodies of the eight officers and men aboard the plane were recovered but their bodies were so badly burned that exact identification of the men was impossible.

Due to the lack of identification, all eight men on the flight were buried together in a joint grave at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California.  A memorial service was held for the men at the Naval Air Station at Whidbey Island on February 18, 1945.  Another memorial service was held on February 25, 1645 at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in Shelton, Washington.  From there the bodies were sent under military escort to the cemetery in California.  Burial at the gravesite was made with full military honors. A common headstone was erected at the gravesite bearing the names of all the men who died in the crash.

In addition to the tombstone at the Golden Gate National Cemetery, a separate tombstone to honor Lindsay Thomas was erected near his parents’ graves in the Peyton Thomas Cemetery in the Donaldson Creek community. The Inscription on the tombstone reads “Killed in the line of duty, U. S. Navy, buried at San Bruno, California.”  The tombstone also has the name of his older sister, Ambie M., who died of influenza on February 16, 1937 at the age of 18.

Lindsay Thomas tombstone in the Golden Gate Cemetery in California

 

Lindsay Thomas tombstone in Peyton Thomas Cemetery in Kentucky

LINEAGE: (Lindsay D. Thomas was the son of Edward Clark and Augusta Arbelle Carr Thomas, the grandson of Carroll and Margaret Jane Reid Thomas and the great-grandson of James, Jr., and Margaret Ethridge Thomas.  James, Jr. was the sixth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.)