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Arlington National Cemetery
Section 11 Grave 426-SH
Filename P1300926.JPG
Image © 2019 by Christopher Mills

Arlington National Cemetery
Section 11 Grave 426-SH
Filename P1300923.JPG
Image © 2019 by Christopher Mills

People Names and Dates


Full Name	Thomas Buchanan McGuire
AKA Full Name
People ID	667321
Title
First Name	Thomas
AKA First Name
Nickname	Tommy
Middle Name	Buchanan
AKA Middle
Patronymic/Matronymic
Priorsurnames
Surname	McGuire
AKA Surname
Father's Surname	McGuire
Mother's Surname	Watson
Suffix	Jr
Gender	Male
Full Birth Date If Known	1920-08-01
Birth Year	1920
Birth Month	8
Birth Day	1
Full Death Date If Known	1945-01-07
Death Year	1945
Death Month	1
Death Day	7

Events, Dates and Places

Event	Date	Geo Top Level	Geo 2nd Level	Geo 3rd Level	Geo 4th Level
Birth	1920-08-20	USA	New Jersey	Bergen	Ridgewood
Death	1945/01/07	Philippines	Negros Occidental
Interment/Inurnment/Scattering	1950/05/17	USA	Virginia	Arlington	Fort Myer

Relationships

Relationship	Related To	Relative's People ID	Relative's Birth Year	Relative's Death Year	Other Date (typically Marriage Date)
Son of	Pauline Hoffman Watson McGuire	667322	1890	1943
Friend of	Jack Ball Rittmayer	490173	1919	1945

Military Service

Rank If Known Or Highest Or Final Rank	Branch of Service	Beginning Date if Known	End Date if Known
Major	US Army Air Force/Air Forces

Military Actions Served During


World War II

Interment, Inurnment or Memorialization Information


Cemetery	Arlington National Cemetery
Address	1 Memorial Avenue
City/Town	Fort Myer
County/District	Arlington
State/Province	Virginia
Postal/Zip Code	22211
Country/Principality	USA
Section	Section 11

Grave	426-SH


Organization
Property Type
Has Marker	Yes
No Marker
Is Cenotaph
GPS/LatLong Coordinates
End of Interment Record	If there are additional interments or cenotaphs for this person they will appear below

Inscription Information

No inscriptions added for this person yet

Other Information

Biographical or other information about the person

https://mills-sfv.com/Genealogy/GLS/People/Text/667321.txt

America's second leading ace of WWII with 38 victories. Killed in combat in the Philippines when he crashed trying to come to the aid of a fellow American fighter pilot.

McGuire was wounded in combat on 17 October 1944 and narrowly escaped being killed. He returned to duty after spending six weeks in the hospital.

General George C. Kenney gives an account of what happened in his book on Richard Bong, Dick Bong - America's Ace of Aces:

"Tommy (McGuire) assured me that he would be careful. He said that the next morning he and Major Rittmayer, a visiting P-38 pilot from the Thirteenth Air Force, who had four (victories) to his credit, were planning to take along a couple of youngsters who had just arrived in the squadron for a sweep over the Jap airdromes on the islands of Cebu and Negros to see if they could stir up something. We said goodnight."

"...Over Negros Island, they finally sighted a lone Jap fighter that had just lifted off the runway and was flying at about two hundred feet. McGuire led his flight to the attack (but neglected to jettison his wing fuel tanks, severely impacting the maneuverability of his P-38). The "Nip" turned sharply to the left and quickly maneuvered into position on Rittmayer's tail."

More recent (and detailed accounts) suggest that McGuire was trying to engage an aircraft flown by Warrant Officer Akira Sugimoto, while Rittmayer was shot down by Sergeant Mizunori Fukuda. McGuire pushed the envelope too hard in his attempt to engage the enemy fighter and stalled his P-38 at low altitude and crashed. After McGuire crashed, Lieutenant Douglas Thropp engaged W/O Sugimoto and damaged his plane enough to cause him to make a forced landing. Some accounts state that Sugimoto was shot by Filipino guerrillas after the forced landing. The second fighter piloted by Fukuda subsequently attacked Rittmayer in a head-on attack and shot down his plane. Fukuda's plane was later severely damaged by Captain Edwin Weaver and crash landed but Fukuda survived the crash.


Air Medal
Distinguished Flying Cross (USA)
Distinguished Service Cross (US Army)
Medal of Honor
National Aviation Hall of Fame	2000
Purple Heart
Silver Star/Silver Star Medal
Small notes (field in database 50 characters max)
Family Search ID	L1JK-23G
Find A Grave 1	2207
Famous per Find A Grave	Yes
Famous per Consensus	Yes
Find A Grave 2
Find A Grave 3
BillionGraves Record ID
Other websites	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_McGuire
Record Entry Date	2018-08-17 18:39:20
Record Last Edit Date	2019-09-19 08:39:00

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