Rank and Name, Major Jack Ralph Amende Jr.
Unit/Placed in, Fighting Squadron 217 (VMF-217) Marine Corps.
Ralph is born approx. on 1920 in Wisconsin.
Father, F. Ralph Amende.
Mother, Elsa K. Amende.
enlisted the service in with service number # .
Jack was KIA when on a mission to Manufacturing aircraft plants he was shot down and crashed on Feb. 17, 1945, he is honored with a Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal, Expeditionary Medal Marine Corps, American Campaign Medal, Distinguished Unit Citation, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, WW II Victory Medal.
Jack is buried/mentioned at Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu County, Hawaii U.S.A.
Courts of the missing.
http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/295498-vmf-217-maxs-wild-hares/
Jean Louis Vijgen, WW2-Pacific Website.
Air Force Info, Rolland Swank.
ABMC Website, https://abmc.gov
Navy Info, http://navylog.navymemorial.org
POW Info, http://www.mansell.com Dwight Rider and Wes injerd.
Family Info, https://www.familysearch.org
Marines Info, https://missingmarines.com/ Geoffrey Roecker
Info, https://www.pacificwrecks.com/
Medals Info, https://www.honorstates.org
Philppine Info, http://www.philippine-scouts.org/
Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com
History
VMF-217 was activated at Marine Corps Air Station El Centro, California on September 15, 1942.
The squadron did the majority of its training on the F4F Wildcat as there was a shortage of F4U Corsairs.
They remained there and trained until December 12, 1943 when they went to Naval Air Station North Island, only to be embarked on the USS Barnes (CVE-20) a week later for transit to the Pacific Theater.
The squadron arrived on Espiritu Santo on January 5, 1944, and soon moved to Bougainville on January 28, 1944.
Two days later the squadron began striking the bypassed Japanese garrison at Rabaul.
The flight echelon returned to Espiritu Santo on March 19, 1944 and remained until June 1, 1944 when they embarked on the USS Santee (CVE-29), USS Cetus (AK-77) and a few other ships for a voyage to Guam.
