Veterans' Memorial Project

George Henry Harber

Jacksonville, IL

World War II

College: Fine & Applied Arts

Graduation Year: Attended 1938

Service Branch: Navy

Rank: Ensign

Date of Birth: 10/08/1918

Date of Death: 07/05/1943

Affiliations: Alpha Tau Omega

Ensign Harber was in Astoria, Oregon with the Composite Squadron Thirty-Four (VC-34) aboard an FM-1 Wildcat, number 15194. The Wildcat fighter was towing a gunnery target sleeve and circling at 500 feet near Miles Crossing while pilot Harber waited for landing instructions at NAAF Clatsop County Airport. Witnesses reported that the plane rolled slowly until it was upside down and then dived into the soft earth next to the Youngs River Loop Road, Clatsop County, Oregon. Harber died instantly. Witnesses also stated that the plane’s cockpit hood was open at the time of the accident. Navy investigators speculate that a possible cause of the accident was that Harber might have been overcome by carbon monoxide from the plane’s engine exhaust entering the cockpit through the open hood. (from The Astorian-Budget) Ensign Harbor was survived by his wife, Margaret Movius Harber, who was pregnant with his unborn child (a daughter, Margaret Ethel Harber Weissman). Ms. Wynne McIntosh is the granddaughter.

-submitted by Ralph Hawes, Jr., World War II history researcher of the Navy in the Lower Columbia River area, Oregon; Wynne McIntosh, granddaughter; Margaret Weissman, daughter; and Ian C. McIntosh, grandson

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