Page 19 - Gold Star Sons of Georgetown Prep

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UNITED STATES ARMY AIR FORCE
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1ST LIEUTENANT
JAMES CARROLL “CAROL” SHEEHAN ’37
AUGUST 7, 1944
THE CARIBBEAN IN THE VICINITY OF ST. LUCIA AND TRINIDAD TOBAGO
On April 15, 1944, 25-year-old 1st Lieutenant James Carroll “Carol” Sheehan of Baltimore, Md., an airman like fellow classmate Henry Coakley of the Class
of ’37, was the navigator of a U. S. Army Air Force cargo plane about 900 miles off the Brazilian coast. About 4:00 A. M., engine trouble developed, and Carol and others began throwing boxes out of the plane so that the containers would not themselves become flying missiles within the plane as it ditched into the ocean. He then walked up to the pilot and prayed with him.
Carol’s response to the emergency was consistent with
a pattern he had set during his years at Prep. As a freshman, he had joined the Sodality of the Immaculate Heart of
Mary, and by his senior year had been chosen prefect of the organization. This was a great honor in a Jesuit school, akin today to a senior being selected to serve as the prefect of
one of the Kairos retreats. Members of the Sodality pledged themselves to a regimen of daily prayer in honor of the Virgin Mary, frequent reception of the sacraments, and works of Catholic action.
Carol was a constant presence as an altar server in the Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes for school-wide liturgies and commemorations such as the 1934 celebration of the Tercentenary of the State of Maryland. Throughout his time at Prep, Carol consistently garnered first honors, wrote for The Blue and Gray, and played varsity football, basketball, and golf. His classmates held him in high esteem, and he went on to graduate from Johns Hopkins University. Tall and thin at 6’1” and 165 lbs., Carol entered the U. S. Army Air Force in the spring of 1942. He was trained as a navigator and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant that fall. He joined the 12th Squadron, 20th Ferry Group, U.S. Army Air Force, and rose to the rank of 1st Lieutenant. The 12th squadron ferried essential cargo to American bases located in the Caribbean.
Recalling the ditching of the cargo plane, Carol estimated to a reporter that “the odds were “10-1 against us because the sea was full of waves.” Carol further explained that the pilot had to “pancake” on the crests of the waves. If he came in with the nose too low, “it would be curtains.” But the pilot rose to the occasion and “came down beautifully, hurting
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