Sergeant Edwin V. Bain

Edwin Vance Bain was born on 23 September 1917 in Greensboro, North Carolina. He was the son of Edwin Vance Bain and Elizabeth Doyle Bain.

He had at least one sister named Kathryn (Catherine) Bain. I was not able to find much infomation about his youth. He attended the James A. Garfield High School in Los Angeles before he joined the army.

Bain was a remarkable man whose first brush with fame came on 18 April 1942, when he flew as a gunner on the daring Doolittle Raid against the Japanese homeland. 

After bombing targets in Japan, Edwin and his crew flew to China. When their aircraft ran out of fuel, the crew bailed out. Edwin became separated from the crew and was reported missing. Nevertheless, after two days Edwin reunited with his crew in a friendly Chinese village. Bain was rescued by local farmers. Legend has it that Bain calmly munched a peanut butter and jelly sandwich over Japan. 

That's why he is not in the picture of Crew 14 in China/ (picture 6 below).

But Bain was already a hero. Earlier in the war, he had rushed back into a burning aircraft after a training accident to save the lives of fellow crew members at great risk to his own life, for which he received the prestigious Soldier’s Medal. Reassigned to the Mediterranean Sea area—and after having flown the required number of missions to qualify him for a return trip home—Bain volunteered to fly one last more mission. He was helping fill out a crew for a pilot friend who needed one more missionto earn his own trip home. After bombing the rail yards outside of Rome, Italy, their plane took a direct hit and began going down rapidly. Sacrificing his own chance to parachute to safety, Bain made sure each of his fellow crew members got out of the stricken aircraft. By the time the last man was out, the plane was too low for him to jump. Bain and the plane crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea and were never found. For his supreme sacrifice, Bain was posthumously awarded an unprecedented second Soldier’s Medal. 

Although the Greensboro press noted Bain's bravery during the war, his name faded after his death. His deeds were rediscovered by World War II history buff and ex-Marine Louis Godwin. Godwin started an effort to memorialize Bain. The Bain Memorial Committee has raised $3,000 to help erect a granite marker and plaque in front of the Old County Courthouse in memory of the Greensboro war hero, who died in action in 1943. A gunner and a master sergeant, Bain was one of 79 volunteers who conducted the first bombing raids on Japan in April 1942. 

Edwin Vance Bain is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, Nettuno, Italy. This is an American Battle Monuments Commission location. He is missing in action or lost at sea on 19 July 1943.

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