868th BS, 13th A.F., So. Pac.

A suggestion....as this was a Secret Operational Squadron, I think your best bet will be to ask for the IDPFs on these individuals. To do so, please go to the top of this page and there will be a double row of sections across the top above the blue line. At the right side of the top row, is Research...click on that, and a window will appear, with directions and addresses to write to for the IDPFs....There is no known MACR in the available MACR database for March 20, 1944, with a loss for the 868th BS.
This tells me that the MACR was made out AFTER the war was over and those numbers are above the 14,000 series of numbers....one problem, is, that the MACR number has to be known in order to obtain a copy.

The recourse, is to request the individual IDPF for each individual. You should make the requests under the Freedom of Information Act, as you are not a relative.

It is possible that the MACR number and the actual date of loss will be on the IDPF, and the circumstances surrounding the loss as well. IDPF stands for Individual Deceased Personnel File. MACR is the Missing Air Crew Report.

As the MACR is unknown, and the actual date of loss is suspect ,for at least two of the crew, and possibly the rest of the crew, ...the IDPF is the only answer at this time.....if the MACR number can be ascertained, then you can ask for it. This may be a lengthy wait, as the issuing agency is backlogged.

You do not say what your interest is in this crew.

Jim :-)
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I would add this....after the war was over...MACRs were generated for losses that did not have a MACR assigned to them....the new MACRs are numbered in the 16,000 +, and the MACR number has to be KNOWN to obtain the correct MACR.
Up until the max number of 14,000, the MACRs are available on MICROFILM....the Numbered MACRs generated after the war (16,000 +) are on MICROFICHE.. two to three MACRs to a Microfiche card,..it has been estimated that a full set of microfiche cards would cost around $ 2000.00.

Jim :-)
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Let me correct the above. Toole was the copilot who survived - Gay was the pilot.

I would like to reconstruct more about the 868th and my Dad's experiences, but he only talks about things when he feels like it, which is not too often. He's 87 and I have bits and pieces from him, which I've always wanted to get down somewhere.

This was a standard solo night mission for a "Snooper", interdicting enemy shipping as their primary mission in the Solomon area. My dad said he knows the radar dome had been deployed - rolled down where the belly turret would normally be. This means they were at operational altitude, which could be 2,000 feet. The after action note said they crashed right off the runway, but my dad says that is impossible because the dome wouldn't have been deployed that early. More like it was 15 minutes o ros after takeoff. My dad said their first plane that night had a run-away supercharger on one engine, and they aborted and took this one.

Dad said he had no indication they were going in and recalls nothing about the crash itself. He came to in the water. He speculates that the heavy radar dome hit first and tore the plane in half so he could have floated free. Getting down to his compartment was convoluted so he sees no way he could have climbed out normally with the high winged B-24 sinking fast.

Dad was badly hurt, especially in his back, and Toole had gone through the windshield and had major head injuries and was mostly unconscious. LaMica, the flight engineer, kept them afloat through the night - two men drifting in an out of consciousness in shark-infested waters. They happened to get picked up by a U.S. destroyer the next morning some time. The crew was supposed to shoot the radar operator according to my dad if there was a chance of being captured by the enemy.

They were evaced to a hospital around Henderson field which was still subject to Japanese strafing runs at night. My dad recalls lying immobilized on a cot after some surgery during one of these when a bullet came in his area spinning on the sand. He reached down to pick it up and dropped it because it was hot.

Some months later, LaMica wanted Dad to take a plane to NZ for R&R and Dad said he didn't feel like going. The plane was never heard from again. About ten years ago, the local paper found LaMica's sister in New York state and they had a phone call. My dad always talking glowingly about LaMica and relayed this to his sister after all these years.

Dad also flew B-18's [?] out of Langley after his first radar training on anti-sub patrols before going overseas. Prior to that, he had been selected for OCS, but just before he left his sgt said "Dyer you're not going to OCS and I can't tell you why." which led to his going to radar school. Dad was originally trained as a radio operator.

As I recall, this was his 13th mission in SOPAC. He told a few other interesting tales which I will attempt to recount here when I have the time.

I can't believe Toole would have been restored to flight status.  I met him years ago and he still showed clear evidence of his injury - his forehead was at a very odd angle and he had a plate in it.  I can't answer your question for sure though - I know pilots were in demand then, but not before 1945 I would think. 
 
In the crash, Toole clearly went through the windshield, accounting for the head trauma.  LaMica was the only one of the three relatively uninjured and kept the other two together and afloat until they were picked up some time later (morning).  I believe LaMica received a commendation for that of some sort.

My Dad always referred to himself as "radar operator", not observer, and he was a tech sgt, which I think was an E-5 (??).  As mentioned above, he thought he was headed to OCS when he was picked out for radar school.  After radar training, he flow out of Langley on antisub patrols over the Atlantic in 1943 - I don't know how many missions.  I recall he talked about flying in a B-18 early on and then they transitioned to a B-25.  I know the B-18 (Bolo I think) was an odd plane, but that early in the war I could see it being used for antisub missions.
 
My Dad said he liked the B-25 because it had plenty of power and the engines ran smoothly etc.  He said the B-24s were "lumbering" and barely made it into the air.
 
He always contested the written accounts of his crash because he said they had been airborne for a good while, enough for him to get the radar dome down.  On the other hand, chances of recovery too far out would have been minimal I would think flying northwest from Munda.   It is of course possible given the trauma of the crash that his memory if faulty, but his notion that the radar dome tore the air frame in half allowing him to float free then becomes probematic.
 
He told me that the daylight B-24s would raid Truk once a week and it was at the extreme range of the B-24.  They took a Snooper B-24 along with them to navigate clear of storms, as radar could be tuned to pick up clouds.  Dad said the Snooper on those missions had never once come back to base.  Again, his memory could be questioned about this, but he recalls waiting for his crew to fly that mission where he recalls thinking that would be it.  He said the optimists among them thought the war might be over in 1948. 

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Arly (Arlington) is my cousin.  His father, my father and Izzy were brothers (along with many others!).  I would very much like to have copies of the pictures you sent to Arly (and I would be more than happy to pay you for them !), since he lives in CA and I live in NY and we have lost touch over the years.  I have one photo now of the entire crew that was e-mailed to me by someone else and that's the only photo I have of Uncle Izzy.  I will send you an e-mail with my mailing address if you can provide me the photos.  I would also like to talk with you more about Izzy, if I may.