IV 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 106 

Expressing the sense of Congress that a site in Arlington National Cemetery 

should be provided for a memorial marker to honor the memory of 

the 40 members of the Armed Forces who lost their lives in the air 

crash at Bakers Creek, Australia, on June 14, 1943. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 29, 2007 

Mrs. CAPITO (for herself, Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts, Mr. BAKER, Mr. VAN

HOLLEN, Mr. DOYLE, Mr. PEARCE, Mr. SPRATT, and Mr. WELLER of 

Illinois) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred 

to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of Congress that a site in Arlington 

National Cemetery should be provided for a memorial 

marker to honor the memory of the 40 members of 

the Armed Forces who lost their lives in the air crash 

at Bakers Creek, Australia, on June 14, 1943. 

Whereas during the Second World War, the United States 

Army Air Corps established rest and recreation facilities 

in Mackay, Queensland, Australia; 

Whereas from the end of January 1943 until early 1944, 

thousands of United States servicemen were ferried from 

jungle battlefields in New Guinea to Mackay; 


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•HCON 106 IH 

Whereas these servicemen traveled by air transport to spend 

an average of 10 days on a rest and relaxation furlough; 

Whereas they usually were carried by two B–17C Flying Fortresses converted for transport duty; 

Whereas on Monday, June 14, 1943, at about 6 a.m., a B– 

17C, Serial Number 40–2072, took off from Mackay Airport for Port Moresby; 

Whereas there were 6 crew members and 35 passengers 

aboard; 

Whereas the aircraft took off into fog and soon made two left 

turns at low altitude; 

Whereas a few minutes after takeoff, when it was five miles 

south of Mackay, the plane crashed at Bakers Creek, killing everyone on board except Corporal Foye Kenneth 

Roberts of Wichita Falls, Texas, the sole survivor of the 

accident; 

Whereas the cause of the crash remains a mystery, and the 

incident remains relatively unknown outside of Australia; 

Whereas United States officials, who were under orders not 

to reveal the presence of Allied troops in Australia, kept 

the crash a military secret during the war; 

Whereas due to wartime censorship, the news media did not 

report the crash; 

Whereas relatives of the victims received telegrams from the 

United States War Department stating little more than 

that the serviceman had been killed somewhere in the 

South West Pacific; 

Whereas the remains of the 40 crash victims were flown to 

Townsville, Queensland, where they were buried in the 


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Belgian Gardens United States military cemetery on 

June 19, 1943; 

Whereas in early 1946, they were disinterred and shipped to 

Hawaii, where 13 were reburied in the National Memorial 

Cemetery of the Pacific, and the remainder were returned 

to the United States mainland for reburial; 

Whereas 15 years ago, Robert S. Cutler was reading his father’s wartime journal and found a reference to the tragic B–17C airplane accident; 

Whereas this discovery inspired Mr. Cutler to embark upon 

a research project that would consume more than a decade and take him to Australia; 

Whereas retired United States Air Force Chief Master Sergeant Teddy W. Hanks, of Wichita Falls, Texas, who lost 

four of his World War II buddies in the crash, compiled 

a list of the casualties from United States archives in 

1993 and began searching for their families; 

Whereas the Bakers Creek Memorial Association, in conjunction with the Washington Post and retired United States 

Army genealogy experts Charles Gailey and Arvon 

Staats, located 23 additional families of victims of the accident during the past two years; 

Whereas Joy Shingleton, Donnie Tenney, Wendy Andrus, and 

Wilma Post, the family of Army Air Corps Corporal Edward J. Tenney, of Buckhannon, West Virginia, helped 

to bring this recently uncovered World War II tragedy to 

light; and 

Whereas as of February 24, 2005, the commander of the 

United States Fifth Air Force officially had notified the 

relatives of 36 of the 40 victims: Now, therefore, be it 


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1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 

2 concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that an ap3 propriate site in Arlington National Cemetery should be 

4 provided for a memorial marker to honor the memory of 

5 the 40 members of the Armed Forces of the United States 

6 who lost their lives in the air crash at Bakers Creek, Aus7 tralia, on June 14, 1943, provided that the Secretary of 

8 the Army have exclusive authority to approve the design 

9 and site for the memorial marker. 

Æ 


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