Date of birth:

October 22nd, 1913 (Revere/Massachussetts, United States)

Date of death:

April 5th, 1945 (Ryukyu Islands, Japan)

Buried on:

American War Grave Mount Hope Cemetery
Grave: 185311959.

Nationality:

American

Aviation Chief Machinist Mate Peter John Cirafice and Lt Jg. Frank Haas Jr, while on a mission to rescue a downed carrier pilot flying a Hellcat, were declared MIA.

Cirafice was flying in a Kingfisher launched off the USS Indiana on March 27th 1945 off the coast of Okinawa. Upon take-off from the water and after rescuing the downed pilot, they were overcome by a wave and were declared MIA. The search for them was conducted on 03-28-1945 to no avail.

Peter had volunteered for this mission as there was insufficient men for this mission. From previous MIA on these particular missions of downed pilot recovery's they upon receiving orders were sent out to recover a downed pilot from a carrier after recovering the downed pilot and upon takeoff from the water the pontoon on one of the wings caught on a wave and the aircraft spiraled in a loop and capsized as witnessed by their spotter plane, that dropped a raft to the men only to have the raft blown away from high wind and choppy seas. The only remains were found on a remote Reukyu island chain were that of Peter John Cirafice in 1952 by the US Army recovery team, it was determined that he survived after making landfall and died from hyperthermia and exhaustion from at least 9 or 10 days at sea with nothing but a life preserver of sort. His remains were flown back to Massachusetts for burial.

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• Photo 1: Robert Cirafice
• - Family
  - US BUREAU OF NAVAL PERSONNEL - KILLED AND DIED, 1945
  

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