To honor the men and women who flew and trained at Luke Field, Arizona, during World War II.

Evaders, Escapees, & Rescued

Research into the 8474 cadet names contained in the 22 Class Books initially loaded at lukefieldaz.com resulted in 741 Luke Field airmen, who died from aircraft accidents, injury, or disease, not directly related to combat. The main source was the National Archives WWII Army and Army Air Force Casualties lists as of January 31, 1946, published in June 1946. That meant some graduates actually survived the war and died later, but before January 31, 1946.

Multiple Service numbers (#) indicate the first one is probably the cadet’s Army Enlistment number; if the number starts with T- it is their Flight Office Service number; if the number starts with O- it is their Officer Service number (some sources use an A or AO- instead of an O-).

Some cadets took more than one class to complete their training. Their graduation class is listed first. There were many reasons why a cadet might not finish with his initial class. The most likely cause was due to illness or injury.

The dates when they went died is in a year, month, day sequence, i.e., yyyymmdd. Thus, July 14, 1944 would be 19440714.

In the Event column, the codes indicate how they died. An “a” code indicates the airman was killed in an aircraft accident. A “doi” code indicates the airman died from an injury, disease, or non-aircraft accident. An “evd” indicates the airman evaded at some point prior to their death. An “esc” indicates the airman escaped after being captured. An “int” indicated the airman was interned at some point prior to their death. A “kia’ indicates they were later Killed in Action. A “mia” indicates the airman went Missing or Missing in Action. A ‘pow’ indicated the airman was a Prisoner of War at some point prior to their death. A “resc” indicates they went down and were later rescued.

SOURCES: Luke Field Class Books; WWII escape and evasion Information Exchange https://www.conscript-heroes.com/Art38-MIS-X.html, Accessed Dec. 9 2024; National Archives WWII Army Enlistment records https://aad.archives.gov/aad/fielded-search.jsp?dt=893&cat=WR26&tf=F&bc=,sl, Accessed Dec. 6, 2024; Findagrave.com;