HAVERHILL, Mass. (Tribune News Service) — Just three months after earning his wings, 22-year-old U.S. Navy Ensign Robert E. McLaughlin of Haverhill was killed when his U.S. Army Corsair F4U fighter plane crashed and exploded in full view of family and neighbors into Cashman’s sandlot off of Hilldale Avenue, not far from Cashman’s Park.

The fateful event happened on the afternoon of Saturday, Nov. 4, 1944, and according to witnesses and reports, McLaughlin steered his crippled plane clear of residential areas and as a result saved many lives.

To memorialize McLaughlin’s sacrifice, the city recently installed a granite memorial to McLaughlin in Cashman’s Park and will hold a dedication ceremony hosted by Mayor James Fiorentini on Friday, Sept. 22, at 10 a.m. The public is invited.

Permanently recognizing this historic city and neighborhood event has been a goal of Fiorentini’s for some time.

Navy veteran Joe Seymour, 91, of Haverhill, who grew up in Lafayette Square, said he was attending a football game at the Haverhill Stadium when he heard a loud bang over the Merrimack River then looked up into the sky to see a Corsair in a bank turn with black smoke billowing from the engine.

“Shortly after I heard that a plane crashed on Hilldale Avenue,” he said. “I ran to Hilldale Avenue and when I got to the site of the crash, the National Guard, police and firefighters had encircled the site. The plane was upside down and the pilot’s body was wrapped in a sheet.”

According to New England Aviation History, on the afternoon of Nov. 4, 1944, McLaughlin was piloting an F4U-1D Corsair over Haverhill when the aircraft was observed to go into a roll and then dive into the ground at high speed and explode in a clearing off of Hilldale Avenue.

A Haverhill Gazette newspaper article at the time said McLaughlin was on a routine training flight when smoke was seen coming out from under the wings while streaks of fire were seen under the fuselage before the engine either stopped on its own, or was shut down by the pilot.

According to the Gazette article, McLaughlin’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Enes McLaughlin, were watching from their home.

The article stated it was hours after the fatal crash before the pilot was identified, as another name was stenciled on a shirt the pilot was wearing, which confused investigating officials in making a positive identification.

“The victim’s father, one of the first to arrive on the scene of the crash, lingered for hours beside the still form of the young flying officer, burned and mangled beyond recognition, with the flickering hope that the victim was not his son. But a Haverhill High School class ring with the date 1940, the year Mr. McLaughlin’s son graduated from high school, found on the dead pilot’s finger, quenched the last spark of hope when it was removed and found inscribed on the inside with the initials R.E.M.”

City Veterans Services Director Jeffrey Hollett said the crash site is now a wooded area within the Katherine Heights housing development on Kathy Drive, which is about several hundred yards north of Cashman’s Park, on the west side of Hilldale Avenue.

The Gazette article said the accident could have caused more damage had the plane crashed into houses nearby or the huge gas tanks of the Haverhill Gas Co., located just a few hundred yards away.

“The plane landed with a a terrific impact and gouged a huge hole in the embankment,” the article said. “Simultaneous with the crash the plane exploded into hundreds of pieces.”

McLaughlin was assigned to Carrier Air Service Unit 22, (CASU-22) at Quonset Point, Rhode Island. He enlisted in the Naval Air Corps V-5 program on Sept. 30, 1942, training at Amherst College in Amherst Massachusetts, followed by further training in North Carolina, Florida, Illinois, and Texas. He earned his wings at Corpus Christi, Texas, on July 28, 1944, according to New England Aviation History.

An iconic aircraft easily identifiable by its gull-wing design, the Corsair F4U was one of America’s most successful fighter planes and was made famous by legendary combat pilot and fighter ace Gregory “Pappy” Boyington and his Black Sheep Squadron.

Hollett said the mayor asked him to create something to memorialize McLaughlin, so he contacted Rick Atwood of Atwood Memorial Company of Haverhill and together they designed a bronze plaque that included the image of a Corsair F4U.

“While shopping for a granite stone to mount the plaque to I stopped at Benevento Sand and Stone in Wilmington and their operations manager took me out to their yard, where we found a suitable stone that was upside down and partially buried,” he said. “The company donated the stone, which would have cost us $5,000, and also trimmed and polished it.”

Hollett said Atwood Memorial sandblasted the face of the stone so the bronze plaque, which had received the blessing of the mayor, would fit into the recessed area.

Ensign McLaughlin was buried in St. Joseph’s Cemetery on upper Hilldale Avenue.

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