Deirdre,
 
The Dixie Darling disappared on 12/18/44.   It had two crews -- the Walling crew (of which Bud was a member) was one.  The DD had previous mechanical problems (as did many of the B29s).
 
Bud was flying on his 3rd mission to Japan -- the specific target was the Mitsubishi AC Factory in Nagoya.  It was last seen west of Iwo -- left the formation to return to base, presumably due to mechanical problems.  From what is known, the crew of the DD was about 1/2 to the target.  All other AC in the formation continued on the mission. As far as can be determined, there was no radio contact, no "mayday" calls.  It never made it back to Saipan.  Exact location of where it went down is not known, last sighting is.  No search was ever conducted.  It is considered "unrecoverable".   
 
 
Monica

I am posting a reply to this message to correct a misunderstanding. This statement "I believe that he may not be, because my understanding is that Callaghan was not originally assigned  to the Dixie Darlin. He was a member of another crew, and he flew on the DD for the mission when it went down because the bombadier who was the official crew member was ill." is based on a misunderstanding and is not accurate.

I believe that there are several people who can identify Callaghan in the picture, and if I can determine the correct identification, I or the person who can make the identification will make the posting.
 
Ned Benton
 

ORIGINAL: nbenton

Bill:

I am Ned Benton the webmaster for the Larchmont Historical Society. I posted above about the information about James Callaghan that we have on our site.

We have a photo of the Walling Field memorial that includes the names of the crew when the Dixie Darlin' went down.

http://memorials.larchmonthistory.org/individual/CallaghanPhotos.html

It is the third photo on this page. The list establishes the probable people in the photo but does not establish who is who.

We are going to share your photo with some people who knew Callaghan - we've located a high school classmate - to see if he is in the picture. I believe that he may not be, because my understanding is that Callaghan was not originally assigned  to the Dixie Darlin. He was a member of another crew, and he flew on the DD for the mission when it went down because the bombadier who was the official crew member was ill.

But I'll post what we find.

Ned Benton