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STAFF SERGEANT HAROLD R. “HAL” HIRSCH, JR. ’28
A Japanese attack on an airfield near Port Moresby.
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struck two airfields — 14 Mile Drome and 3 Mile Drome. At 14 Mile Drome, two B-25s took direct hits and 5 others suffered major damage. One group of Japanese planes continued on to hit 3 Mile Drome, which was used by the 8th and 89th Bomb squadrons. A gasoline dump was located next to the squadron headquarters, and according to an eye witness, the Japanese “laid a string of bombs thru the gas dump and the camp area,” triggering secondary explosions.
Unfortunately, Hal was one of the fatalities of the Japanese raids. He was pronounced dead the next day from bomb blast. At age 32, Hal was the oldest of the 12 Prep fatalities suffered during the war. He was buried in Long Island National Cemetery, East Farmingdale, New York, a casualty of one of the countless numbers of now anonymous engagements that took so many lives during the course of the war. H
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GOLD STAR SONS OF GEORGETOWN PREP | winter 2021 9
