JAMES J. OWENS, CAPT, USMC
James Owens '38
Date of birth: November 8, 1916
Date of death: September 18, 1942
Age: 25
Contents
Lucky Bag
From the 1938 Lucky Bag:
Loss
James was lost when the SNJ trainer aircraft he was aboard crashed near Santa Barbara, California, on September 18, 1942. Another Marine Corps Captain also perished; they were searching for a missing plane and two other officers.
He is buried in Minnesota.
Other
From naval aviation historian Richard Leonard via email on February 9, 2018:
He had an earlier crash in which he was not injured. NAS San Diego war diary entry for 6 July 1942:
“1516 * J2F-5 #00733 attached to Marine Air Wing TWO, crashed making a rough water landing, two (2) miles north of Prisoner’s Harbor, Santa Cruz Island. PBY-1, #0138, plane enroute Alameda to San Diego diverted to scene to search for plane and personnel. Captain James J Owens, USMC, pilot, and his passenger Lt. Col. Utterbach, USA, rescued by Naval section base boat ‘PACIFICO’”.
Class of 1938
James is one of 70 members of the Class of 1938 in Memorial Hall.
