On a ferrying troops mission on October 12,1945, a combination of 34 passengers and 7 crew boarded a C-46 type aircraft with three first lieutenants. One of the passengers included John H. Crouch, but he was not a part of the crew. The plane was sighted by Capt. R.V. Hamilton and Sgt. Harmon Walker flying normally in the sky as if there was not a problem with the plane. However, when the crew did not arrive to their destination of Iwo Jima, the entire crew was reported missing. The aircraft had not been contacted with by radio since it was three hours and 45 minutes away from Naha, Okinawa. The military sent out the 7th Air Sea Rescus lead by 1st Lieutenant James E. Hennigan on October 12, 1945. After 13 days of searching by the rescue team as well as five transient Navy PV Aircraft, on October the search was ended and concluded as unsuccessful. All the passengers and crew on the aircraft that were initially labeled missing in action, were declared dead. John Henry Crouch's death date is October 13, 1945. John Henry Crouch III and Lucy Ryals Crouch were listed as John Henry Crouch Henry Crouch's beneficiaries. His mother Lucy, was the first to be notified of his death, and chose to have him memorialized at the Honolulu Memorial. Crouch can be located at the Courts of the Missing, in Court 7.