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Casualty Info
Home Town Mobile, AL
Last Address 2606 Saint Stephens Rd Mobile, AL
Casualty Date Feb 22, 1944
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Air Loss, Crash - Land
Location Saipan
Conflict World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Mariana and Palau Islands Campaign (1944)/Battle of Saipan
Location of Interment Pine Crest Cemetery - Mobile, Alabama
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
LT McVay was a pilot in Fighting Aquadron One (VF-1). On 15 July 1943, VF-1 it was redesignated VF-5 and assigned to the USS Yorktown (CV-10). The squadron was equipped with the new Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat. During October he was promoted to the rank of Lt. USNR and became a division leader. During the cruise, Lt. McVay was credited with three aerial victories. The first was against a Zero near Wake Island on 5 October, 1943; the second was against a Kate near the Marshall Islands on 29 January, 1944; the third was against a Hamp near Yap, Caroline Islands on 17 February, 1944. He was listed MIA when he did not return to the carrier after strafing over Siapan on 22 February, 1944 then later presumed dead.
In February 2009, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency exhumed the remains of an Unknown Soldier buried in Plot F Row 12 Grave 2 at Manila American Cemetery with the belief that identifications could be made. DNA analysis and historical evidence were used to positively identify the remains as belonging to Lt. Woodie L. McVay, Jr. His name remains permanently inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.
Comments/Citation:
Service number: 099808
Service dates:
Army National Guard 1936-1940
US Navy 11/1940-2/1944
The information contained in this profile was compiled from various internet sources.
Lieutenant McVay, a division leader, launched from the USS Yorktown on February 22, 1944, to attack Japanese targets on Saipan. Unfortunately he was shot down while conducting a strafing run. McVay's body was reportedly found by children next to his crashed plane on Saipan and buried in a shallow grave near a Catholic church. Several months later his body was exhumed, identified, autopsied and then reburied in Saipan. But, in the rush of war, the autopsy report and the location of McVay's body were lost. His body was later placed in an "Unknown" grave in 1950 at the American Cemetery and Memorial in Manila, Philippines. Although his wife was notified that McVay was missing and presumed dead, the location of his grave remained unknown. By the time of his death he had been credited with shooting down three Japanese planes.
His granddaughter felt it was important that his body be located and returned home to give closure to his family. Thus she began a campaign that lasted several years to locate McVay's body and have it returned to the U.S. for permanent burial. Her campaign involved reviewing many records and contacting numerous Washington lawmakers. In so doing she kept McVay's case on the tops of many desks so that his unidentified body would not remain in a cemetery 17,000 miles from home. She was often met with the dismissive, "We'll see what we can do" which she learned often meant "Leave me alone." In spite of the rejections, McVay's granddaughter remained focus and she said, "Well, I'm not going away. You might as well deal with me." Missing in action and presumed dead for more than 65 years, McVay's body was finally located in the "Unknown" grave in Manila after numerous emails, snail-mails and personal contacts. McVay was officially identified after being disinterred and sent to Hawaii for positive identification. He was finally brought home after having been buried and disinterred three times before being given a fourth burial with full military honors at Pine Crest Cemetery in Mobile, Alabama, where he rests alongside his parents and his only child, a daughter who died in 1995 never having known her father as she was born several months after his death at Saipan. His granddaughter said she particularly wanted her grandmother to be alive when McVay was returned home and this objective was achieved.
