Monday January 3, 1944. The Turner Explosion.
George C. Marshall was Time's Man Of The Year.
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The USS Turner suffered a series of internal explosions while in harbor off of the Ambrose Light in New York. 138 of the 256-man crew died during the incident. A Coast Guard Sikorsky HNS-1 flown by Lieutenant Commander Frank A. Erickson flew two cases of blood plasma, lashed to the helicopter's floats, from New York to Sandy Hook, saving many of the injured crewman, and providing the first incident of a helicopter used in that fashion.
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Commander Frank A. Erickson, USCG and Dr. Igor Sikorsky, Sikorsky Helicopter HNS-1. The HNS-1 had been in service for slightly under a year at this time.
Gregory "Pappy" Boyington was shot down and became a Prisoner of War of the Japanese.
