Another human history brought to you by Aerothentic

 

The gentleman smiling on the left, with the beer in front of him, is Brig-General Howard K. Ramey, whose disappearance on 26th March 1943 remains shrouded in mystery. Ramey was a passenger on board B-17F # 41-24384 carrying out a reconnaissance flight from Port Moresby to the Merauke/ Horn Island area. The Fortress, named Pluto, was assigned to the 63rd Bombardment Squadron at the time and simply disappeared. It has not been found to this day. Whilst there was bad weather in the Torres Strait, the crew was experienced and no reason for the loss has ever surfaced. Ramey's disappearance caused concern at the time because General Douglas MacArthur was concerned that Ramey might have fallen into Japanese hands. To further complicate matters, on board this Fortress also was US navy Lt-Commander, Ferdinand D. Mannoccur II, a senior navy officer.

The other two gentlemen in the photo are (L to R) Lt-Colonel "Shanty" O'Neill, then Commanding Officer of the 22nd Bombardment Group, and Lt-Col Dutton. The venue is the U.S officers club which faced out onto Ela Beach near Port Moresby. After the war this building became the Returned Serviceman's League Club, known colloquially by post-war Port Moresby residents as the RSL, and a well-known expatriate drinking hole. The building also served as Port Moresby's library throughout the sixties, however today there is nothing left of it.

Remarkably, there is a Ramey School in Puerto Rico. Under that country's education system, it teaches pre-Kindergarten thru to Grade12. Little is known or celebrated about Brig-General Ramey at the school however, which was named in honor of a nearby military base, no longer in existence. This base was in fact named in Ramey's honor, and known as Ramey Air Force Base. The base was originally called Boriquen Field.

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