“Worst Thing I Ever Saw”
On June 26, 1944, notice came in through Communications, stating that the wreckage of an airplane had been spotted about twenty-five miles southeast of Moran, right at the foot of the Himalayas. A rescue crew with three jeeps, a truck, and an ambulance set out over a muddy jungle trail to the scene of the crash. Sgt. James H. (“Hank”) Mills was a member of the team. "It was the worst thing I ever saw," he recalled many years afterward. The heavy B-29 “Superfortress” bomber had broken apart and been driven into the ground. The team found no survivors, only parts of bodies. Official records still list the aircrew of “Stockett’s Rocket” as missing, although the circumstances of that crash conform to what is known about the wreckage reported by 3rd Bomb Squadron personnel.