Lt. Conrad Thomas Mitchell Goertz was born on June 27, 1919 in New York, the son of Conrad Thomas Goertz (1883-1958) and Georgia Mitchell (1893-1970). His father was a WWI veteran and a lieutenant in the US Navy stationed in New York at the time. The family moved to Alton, New Hampshire around 1921 where he would retire eight years later. Conrad would graduate from the University of New Hampshire in 1939 and enlist in the US Navy flight program. After earning his wings in Pensacola, he appointed as an instructor at NAS Whiting in Squadron #5.
And, as it so often happens amongst our naval aviators, the charm of our southern ladies of Pensacola once again captured an unsuspecting aviator and a wedding was soon in the making. The young damsel was Pensacolian Rita Nora Navarro (1922-2005), the daughter of Pedro Navarro (1889-1930) and Evelyn Malone (1898-1986). Her father had been born in Pensacola and supported his family as a seaman on a merchant vessel. The young couple married in Santa Rosa County on February 26, 1942.
Before long, Mitchell was appointed the new personnel officer of Training Squadron #7 and they moved into a house at 132 North "M" Street. The students of his new squadron received 100 hours of training on seaplane aircraft including familiarization, gunnery, as well as carrier operations. In conjunction to these types of missions that were given specialized training in glide and dive bombing, navigation, scouting, communications, and formation tactics. PBY's and PBM's were brought into service because after Pearl Harbor so many of our ships and planes were destroyed. With few offensive weapons available, the US had to use whatever they had to strike back. One weapon was the Navy’s PBY “flying boats.” These aircraft were superb for patrol and rescue operations and their later conversion into long range bombers. They had a wingspan of 104 feet and a maximum speed of 196 MPH at a range of 2,900 miles. They had twin .30 caliber machine guns and bomb racks under their immense wings. Enemy shipping and submarines never knew when they would dive suddenly from the sky with bombs falling and machine guns blazing. The men who flew aloft in these planes were truly some of our bravest!
But finally, it was time for Goertz to head to the Pacific and leave his training assignment. He was assigned to VPB-28, a Patrol Bombing Squadron flying out of Kaneohe, Hawaii, the Navy's major seaplane base. Their mission was to provide surveillance around Pearl Harbor and attack and destroy any enemy submarines lurking about. But early on December 12, 1944, as Rita was preparing for Christmas with her daughter Gloria Louise (1945) and her family, Lt. Goertz was taking off from in his PBM Mariner for a routine patrol. Lifting off at 7:00 AM, his orders were to return to the base by 5:30 PM. However, nothing was heard from Goertz until 6:50 PM stating that he was lost, giving his position as 386 miles from Oahu. At 9;15 PM, Goertz ordered the crew to prepare to ditch. His 1,300 pounds of bombs were jettisoned, and float lights were dropped to inspect the sea's surface. At 9:33 PM, he brought the plane down into a 15-20 knot wind and seas of 10-20 high. On their third bounce, the nose was driven under the surface with the entire bow collapsing into the flight deck. Goertz and his co-pilot Jack Bunyan Higgins were likely killed instantly with Francis Xavier O'Connell and Paul V. Mackey behind them killed or trapped and drowned. The remaining six were unhurt and three of these were picked up by the SS Cape Lopez on December 16, 1944. The remaining three perished.
Back home, Rita received the all too familiar hand delivered telegram from the War Department that her husband was missing. And there would be no remains coming home, as experienced by so many of Pensacola's WWII wives of naval aviators. Rita would remarry another WWII Navy veteran, Lt./Dr. Lemuel Sumpter Porter (1919-1995) who opened an optometrist office at 2817 West Cervantes Street during the 1950's. The family eventually moved to Oneonta, AL where Rita & Lemuel would lose their son William in a tragic motorcycle accident in 1969. Rita would pass away in 2005.
Conrad Thomas Mitchell Goertz
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