1943 Servicemen Aircraft Accident Memorial
Smithfield, Providence County, Rhode Island
Marker Inscription
On This Location 5 August 1943 Three U. S. Servicemen Perished In An Aircraft Accident 2 LT Otis R. Portewig Richmond VA 1 SGT Herbert D. Booth Rahway NJ 2 LT Saul Winsten Pawtucket RI
The Story
In the summer of 1943, the United States was deep in World War II, and the skies over the home front were crowded with military aircraft ferrying crews, training airmen, and testing planes bound for the war effort. Accidents were tragically common: thousands of servicemen died not in combat overseas but in crashes on American soil. This marker in Smithfield remembers three such men — an officer from Virginia, a sergeant from New Jersey, and a lieutenant from nearby Pawtucket — who lost their lives together when their aircraft went down on August 5, 1943.
Why it matters
It preserves the memory of the many Americans who gave their lives in uniform far from any battlefield, a reminder that the cost of the war was paid in training fields and quiet crash sites across the country as well as abroad.
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Related people
- · 2 Lt Otis R. Portewig
- · 1 Sgt Herbert D. Booth
- · 2 Lt Saul Winsten
Related events
- · World War II
- · August 5, 1943 military aircraft accident
Themes & tags
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