This Military Service Page was created/owned by
CWO3 Manuel (Manny) Vizinho
to remember
Marine 1stLt Joyce Madison Sanders.
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Contact Info
Home Town Kingfisher
Last Address 410 S. 10th St. Kingfisher
MIA Date Feb 12, 1944
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Air Loss, Crash - Sea
Location Japan
Location of Memorial Kingfisher Cemetery - Kingfisher, Oklahoma
By June 1943, VMSB-241 was fighting large scale operations against Japanese installations in the northern Solomon Islands. The group moved to Efate in November 1943 and remained there until June 1944.
1stLt Joyce M. Sanders, pilot, and Cpl James P. Griffin, gunner/radioman, missing in action, last seen plunging smoking into water 50 yds east of Credner Islands, St. George Channel. Lt. Sanders was shot down at a perilously low altitude strafing either a gunboat or destroyer which was firing at our retiring planes.
SANDERS, Joyce M, 1STLT, O-021757, USMC, from Oklahoma, location Solomon Islands, date of loss February 12, 1944 + SANDERS, Joyce M, First Lieutenant, O-021757, USMC, from Oklahoma, Manila American Cemetery + SANDERS, Joyce Madison, 21757, VMSB-241, MAG-21, 2nd MAW, FMF, New Britain, February 13, 1945, killed in action + SANDERS, Joyce M., 1st Lieutenant, USMCR. Parents, Mr. and Mrs. Marsh T. Sandrs, 410 S. 10th St., Kingfisher, Okla
Body Not Recovered
Other Comments:
Tuesday, February 12, 1991, a Memorial Service for Marine 1Lt. Joyce M. Sanders, took place at Kingfisher, Oklahoma. He'd been a bomber pilot, who went down in a flying mission against the Japanese in the Rabaul Area, New Britain Island, Southwest Pacific Feb. 12, 1944. The service was 47 years from the date of his presumed death. He was listed as missing in action for 1 year and 1 day, then listed presumed dead. Joyce was a dive bomber pilot and was killed on his second mission when he flew his plane through anti-aircraft fire to strafe into silence the guns of a Japanese vessel threatening the safety of other planes in his squadron. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his self-sacrifice, the Purple Heart Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and the Victory Medal of World War II. The family received numerous citations and awards for Sanders' actions, including one from then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt and another from A.A. Vandegriff, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. Joyce's mother died, never giving up hope she would see him again. Kingfisher's Lowery-Ellyson American Legion Post No. 5 provided the Memorial Service. Joyce's brother, Max Sanders, initiated the Memorial, saying, "I just feel that it is something that needed to be done, and I'm the last of the immediate family to do it." The Sanders family was totally involved in the war effort. Max Sanders served in the Navy, His father, Marsh, served in the Seabees in the Pacific, and Mrs. Sanders worked at the Douglas defense plant in Midwest City (now Tinker Air Force Base) during World War II.
