Seventy-nine years after Wilbur A. Mitts was killed during World War II combat operations in the western Pacific Ocean, the Navy sailor has finally been laid to rest in his hometown.
One of Diana Ward’s strongest memories from her childhood in Seaside is taking flowers to the ocean with her grandmother, somewhere between Lovers Point and Asilomar, she thinks, to be
On Sept. 10, 1944, a TBM-1C Avenger aircraft with three crew members onboard took off from the U.S.S. Enterprise in the Philippine Sea for a strike mission against Japanese forces in the Palau Islands. The torpedo bomber was shot down by anti-aircraft fire and was reportedly last seen spinning violently before crashing into the sea near Malakal Island. All three of its crew were lost in the incident including Aviation Radioman First Class Wilbur Archie Mitts who was 24 years old.