Richard Norton Long

2nd Lt. Richard N. Long, USAAF pilot that lost his life on 10/24/41 in Curtiss P-40 39-287. The wreckage of 2nd Lt. Long’s P-40 was not discovered until July 1959 when hikers accidentally spotted the the plane near South Guard Lake in the High Sierra.

On 10/24/41 a flight of nineteen P-40 “Tomahawk” fighters departed March Field in Riverside County, CA bound for Sacramento, CA. The flight encountered severe weather over the Sierra Nevada with fatal result for two of the USAAF flyers. 2nd Lt. Richard N. Long crashed to his death in a remote area Kings Canyon National Park. The remains of 2nd Lt. Long and that of his plane P-40 #39-

287 were not discovered until July 1959. On 8/5/89 I flew by helicopter to 2nd Lt. Long’s crash site on behalf of Project Tomahawk. While at the site I helped construct a rock cairn into which a memorial statement in a metal tube was placed.