08/17/2026
1Lt Philip Schlamberg went Missing over the Pacific Ocean returning from a mission over Japan on V-J Day, August 14, 1945, he was 21 years oldโฆ
Born on May 13, 1924 to Sol and Mollie Schlamberg on May 13, 1924, Philip Felix Schlamberg had seven siblings.
Their father left when he was young, forcing his mother to raise all eight children alone.
According to his family, Schlamberg scored in the 99th/100th percentile on his Regents exams while at Abraham Lincoln High School.
He enlisted in the USAAF in 1942 and attended flight school where his nickname was "Einstein".
By August 1945, Schlamberg was flying P-51s with the 15th Fighter Group, 78th Fighter Squadron, based at Iwo Jima.
On August 14, 1945 he flying P-51D Mustang 44-63505 on a mission to es**rt B-29s to Japan.
On the return trip, his wingman Captain Jerry Yellin communicated with Schlamberg through hand signals and he gave the thumbs up.
They flew into cloud cover and Schlambergโs P-51 vanished, after Yellin and the other P-51s landed they found out the war had been over for three hoursโฆ
No trace of 1Lt Philip Schlamberg or his P-51 was ever found and he is Memorialized with the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial in Hawaii.
The Final MissionOn August 14, 1945, Schlamberg flew as the wingman to Captain Jerry Yellin on a strafing and es**rt mission over Japan.Before takeoff, Schlamberg expressed a strong premonition to Yellin that he would not survive the flight.The mission took off despite rumors of a Japanese surrender; the pilots were supposed to abort if they heard the code word "Utah," which never reached them.While entering a thick bank of clouds on the return flight to Iwo Jima, Schlamberg vanished from view.When Yellin and his unit landed, they learned that the war had officially ended hours prior.
