After more than eight decades, US Marine Corps PFC Edgar Norcross of Manchester, N.H. has come home.
Norcross was one of three crew members flying a TBM Avenger torpedo bomber on a combat mission in 1945 in the south Pacific during WWII.
Norcross’ TBM Avenger was assigned to VMTB-232 (Marine Torpedo Bombing Squadron), known as the Red Devils, operating out of Falalop Airfield at Utilhi Base in the Caroline Islands.
On March 16, 1945 twelve TBM Avengers took off on a bombing mission to the Japanese controlled island of Yap, some 500 miles southeast of Guam, with the objective of continuing previous missions to make the island’s runway unusable to the Japanese.
After Norcross’ TBM Avenger had completed its bombing run, it was shot down and the aircraft crashed near the Japanese runway.
The remains of Edgar Norcross were buried next to the wreckage by the Japanese and Yapese.
His remains were not identified at the end of the war, and he was placed in an unknown grave at the American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Edgar Norcross’ remains were unidentified for 80 years until the Missing Aircrew Project, founded by Patrick Ranfranz, helped convince the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) to exhume the grave and attempt an identification at the DPAA laboratory in Hawaii.
Last summer, Edgar Norcross remains were positively identified.
His funeral and burial took place on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, at the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen, N.H. His funeral drew significant attention due to the long journey toward his identification and return home.
Ranfranz says, “I started the Missing Air Crew Project to find the remains of my missing uncle, T/Sgt. John R. McCullough. John was one of 10 crew members on a B-24 Liberator that was shot down by a Japanese fighter over Yap Island on June 25, 1944.
“Although the B-24 and the remains of the 10 crew members have yet to be found, we expanded our search to finding and memorializing all Americans declared missing in action near Yap Island. To date, we have researched and documented the loss of close to 40 American planes and hundreds of American men, including Edgar Norcross.”
The TBM Avenger was one of some 7,600 TBMs produced by General Motors Eastern Aircraft plants in New Jersey under license from Grumman Aircraft.
Photos of the burial ceremony on July 7, 2026, which included remarks from U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) and other dignitaries, were taken by Aviation Museum of N.H. volunteer Steve Heffelfinger.
