USNR Lt. Bridwell James McKnight was born in Laneville, Rusk County, Texas on June 2, 1914, the son of James Richard "Dick" McKnight (1882-1977) and Annie Lee Bridwell (1889-1975). His father supported his wife and his son Bridwell as well as his daughter Theda Rae as a farmer. After a normal childhood in Texas, he enrolled and graduated from Texas A&M University. He enlisted July 15, 1940 in the US Naval Reserve V-5 program on September 13, 1940 in Houston, TX. He reported to the Naval Reserve Aviation Base in Miami, Florida three days later for training as a "pilot cadet" with the rank of Seaman 2nd Class. After training, he returned to his civilian life and placed on "inactive duty" in October of 1940. In 1941, he reported into NAS Pensacola as an Ensign for flight training as Naval Aviator #7837.
Sometime before 1943, he married Ruby Ann "Annie" Lawrence McKnight (1921), the daughter of Jack Rainey Anderson Henderson (1899-1961) and Ella Giles (1895-1970) of Henderson, TX. As McKnight left for the Pacific, Annie was renting a room at 123 West Blount Street to anxiously await his safe return.
When the war began, he was assigned to the Pacific Theater with Squadron VR-13 of the Naval Air Transport Service on the Admiralty to Philippine air route. His duty station was at the Momote Airfield (Manus Island), Los Negros in the Admiralty Islands. In mid-January, he was ordered to the Tacloban Airfield on Leyte in the Philippines to pick up several military personnel. Two of the men had been turned over to the American military by Filipino guerillas that were fighting the Japanese. One was Ensign Nicholas Joseph Roccaforte, Squadron VT-18 off the USS Intrepid and the other Ensign Maurice Naylon, a F6F fighter pilot off the USS Cabot. Naylon had been shot down by the Japanese on September 21, 1944 during a raid on Luzon. He was rescued behind enemy lines by Filipino guerillas and returned to US forces on Leyte. Roccaforte had been shot down on another mission with his squadron in October 1944. Now both men were fed, clothed, and ready to head for home!
After landing at Tacloban, McKnight fueled up and checked his passenger manifest for the return trip. The battle for Leyte had begun on October 20, 1944 and had only ended three weeks earlier on December 26, 1944. When all was ready, McKnight along with his co-pilot taxied to the end of the runway and revved up his engines for takeoff. As they sped down the runway, the passengers felt the aircraft lift off into the humid air. Then suddenly, there was crash as a Stinson L-5 observation plane rammed into them in mid-air at the end of the runway. Within seconds, it was all over and 21 passengers and crew were dead. Roccaforte and Naylon had survived being shot down, had evaded Japanese troops in the thick jungle, and thought their luck would hold as they safely headed home. But luck wasn't with them that day!
A telegram was delivered to Mrs. Annie McKnight on Blount Street informing her of her husband's death and burial in a military cemetery on Leyte. After the war, his parents had his remains shipped back home and buried in the New Salem Cemetery, New Salem, Rusk County, Texas where he was reinterred in 1948. His article of 1948 mentions a daughter Beverly Rae McKnight but does not mention Annie or the whereabouts of either.
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