"Eufate" Island - A.L. Scoggin, Jr. - Fairview Cemetery - Gainesville, TX
N 33° 38.028 W 097° 07.507
14S E 673893 N 3723129
A cenotaph for First Lieutenant A.L. Scoggin, Jr. in historic Fairview Cemetery, Gainesville, TX, notes that he was a dive bomber pilot who was lost off Efate Island in the New Hebrides, but the inscriber got the name of the island wrong.
Waymark Code: WM127XA
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 03/23/2020
Views: 2
Below Lieutenant Scoggin's pilot wings is this memorial text:
In Loving Memory
First Lieut.
A.L. Scoggin Jr.
United States Marine Corps
Dive Bomber Pilot
July 11, 1919
May 28, 1943
Lost off Eufate Island in the New Hebrides
We must believe that wisely God has willed it so
------
On the reverse is "First Lieut." and "A.L. Scoggin Jr." Mr. Scoggin's parents, Archie L. Scoggin, Sr. and Ella Scoggin, are buried here with the cenotaph for their son.
There is a typographical error on the monument, as the island's name is "Efate" and not "Eufate", and while it was originally dubbed "Sandwich Island" by James Cook, there is no documentation to show any variants of "Efate" having been used. Today, the island is part of Vanuatu.
Lieutenant Scoggin is listed by the American Battle Monuments Commission as "Missing in Action", and he is commemorated in the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial in Hawaii. A contemporary article on his Findagrave page (see Website, below) indicates that he hailed from Gainesville, but finished his education in Teague after his family moved there. He attended the University of Texas, majoring in pharmacy and pre-medical courses, and even had his eye on a seat in the state legislature. He left behind a wife when he went off to war, seeing combat in the Guadalcanal campaign, but was killed with his co-pilot in a crash after taking off on a patrol flight. Their bodies were not recovered.