Cornwell, Francis O.

Francis O. Cornwell (Class of 1940) was the navigator of a B-17 dispatched to locate a Japanese carrier task force raiding Alaska's Aleutian Islands. When previous attempts to find the enemy failed, desperate commanders assigned Cornwell's outdated aircraft the mission. They discovered the enemy carriers off Attu and made a bombing run. Japanese anti-aircraft fire destroyed the plane, killing Second Lieutenant Cornwell and fellow college alum, Corporal Edgar Rogers, on June 4, 1942.

Clyde Francis Cornwell is buried or memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii. This is an American Battle Monuments Commission location.