Harry Lewis Cole, Jr.

Harry Lewis Cole, Jr. was born on August 22, 1920 in Pullman, Washington to Harry Lewis Cole, Sr. and Ida Carrie Conard Cole. His father served as a lieutenant in the Army Air Corps during World War I before taking a position as an associate professor of chemistry at Washington State College (WSC) in 1917. Cole, Jr. graduted from Pullman High School in 1938 and enrolled in WSC that fall.  While at WSC, he was a Business Administration major and member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. He enrolled in the Civilian Pilots Training Program (CPTP), but he left WSC before graduating to enlist in the United States Naval Reserve on April 7, 1941.  Cole was a flight instructor at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, and after achieving the rank of First Lieutenant, he transferred to a fighter group of FM II's (Wildcats) assigned to the USS Kitkun Bay, an escort carrier. The Kitkun Bay began serving as escort to the bombardment and transport units of the Fifth Fleet Task Group 52.17 to Saipan. Cole died on June 17, 1944 after participating in a mission where his plane was damaged; he attempted to land on the escort carrier under cover of darkness. His body was never found.  He is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing, Honolulu Memorial, within the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl), Honolulu, Hawaii as well as Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, Oregon.