Theodore P. Schoonmaker

Theodore P. Schoonmaker was a navigator with HALPRO.

Ted's widow submitted the following bio of him in 2006. I have divided his story into two sections - the first is the beginnings and the second is is last mission.

After completing his junior year at Harvard, my husband enlisted in the Army Air Corps in the summer of 1941.  He received his commission as Navigator the following spring and was assigned to the Halverson Provisional Group (HALPRO), which later became the 376th Heavy Bombardment Group.  HALPRO was intended to fly to China and from there bomb Japan as a follow up to the Doolittle Raid.  However that never materialized because the British requested our help in the North Africa campaign.  By September 1942, Ted was stationed in Egypt and then Palestine flying support for the British.

mission of January 11, 1943