Paul Thomas Cullen (1901 - 1951)

Born 30 May 1901 in Ica, Peru

Ancestors

Husband of Ruth Amelia (Gravett) Cullen — married 20 Dec 1930 (to 1948) in Colorado, United States

Husband of Reva Joy (Hurwitz) Cullen — married 24 Mar 1948 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Died 23 Mar 1951 at age 49 in 50° 45′ 0″ N, 24° 3′ 0″ W, Atlantic Ocean

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Biography

Paul T. Cullen was born in Ica, Peru, May 30, 1901. He later moved to California, where he entered the service as a flying cadet in June, 1928.

A year later, after graduating from Air Force primary and advanced flying schools, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Reserve and in September, 1929, received his Regular Commission.

His first assignment was at Crissy Field, California, where he served with the 91st Observation Squadron. In September, 1930, he entered the Air Corps Technical School at Chanute Field, Illinois. Upon completing the photo course the following July he went to Mitchel Field, New York, where he served the following six years. During that time he commanded the Eighth and Fourteenth Photo Sections, and served with the 61st Service Squadron and the First, Fifth, and 99th Squadrons of the Ninth Observation Group. He was also a flight commander with the 97th Observation Squadron and operations officer in the 18th Reconnaissance Squadron.

In August, 1937, he entered the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field, Alabama. Upon graduation the following June he was assigned to Lowry Field, Colorado, as the base engineering officer for one year followed by two years as the chief instructor of the Photo Department.

In the summer of 1941, he was sent overseas as a military observer of the operations of the Royal Air Force in the Middle and Far East. Upon his return, he was assigned in November, 1941, to Headquarters of the Combat Command as Washington, D.C. In January, 1942, he was selected to head a special reconnaissance mission to Africa, and upon his return in July, was assigned as commander of the First Mapping Group, with headquarters in Washington D.C. He was relieved of this Command in June, 1943, following an aircraft accident in which he suffered a broken back.

With the removal of the cast, he was assigned to Air Force headquarters and in November, 1943, upon removal of the brace from his back, was sent overseas to command the Seventh Photo Group of the Eighth Air Force. The Seventh Photo Group, operating stripped P-38 aircraft, provided strategic photo reconnaissance for the Eighth Air Force.

In February, 1944, he was assigned on temporary duty with the U.S. Military Mission in Moscow for the purpose of setting up reconnaissance bases in the Ukraine. Upon completion of the negotiations for the establishment of these bases, he became deputy commander for operations of the Eastern Command of the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe, with station in the Ukraine. In this capacity he made the first shuttle flight into the Ukraine in an unarmed F-5 on May 26, 1944. Early September he assumed command of the Second Bomb Group of the 15 Air Force in Italy.

Immediately after V_E Day, he returned to the United States for assignment to the Continental Air Command at Bolling Field and functioned as special assistant to the deputy commander for operations in radar bomb training. In connection with this assignment, he was sent to the Marianas in late July, 1945, and was operating with the 20th Air Force on V-J Day. Upon return in October, 1945, he was transferred to Air Force headquarters as chief of the Policy Branch.

He participated in Operation Crossroads as commander of the Air Force Photo Unit from January to August, 1946. The following May he was appointed commander of the 311th Reconnaissance Wing at Strategic Air Command headquarters, Andrews Field, Maryland. He remained in command when the wing was redesignated the 311 Air Division, Reconnaissance, in April, 1948, and when it was moved to Topeka Air Force Base, Topeka, Kansas, in in July, 1948.

In March. 1949, when Major General J.H. Atkinson became commander of the 311 Division, General Cullen became his deputy. General Cullen has been awarded the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with 5 Oak Leaf Clusters, Bronze Star Medal and Commendation Medal.

He is rated a Command Pilot, Combat Observer, and Technical Observer, and has over 8,000 flying hours.

PROMOTIONS

He was promoted to first lieutenant (permanent) on March 20, 1935; and to captain (temporary) on May 18, 1935. He reverted to his permanent rank of first lieutenant on June 13, 1936, and was promoted to captain (permanent) September 4, 1939; to major (temporary) on March 15, 1941; to lieutenant colonel (temporary) on January 5, 1942; to colonel (temporary) on August 1, 1944; to major (permanent) on September 4, 1946; to colonel (permanent) on April 2, 1948; to brigadier general (temporary) on April 1, 1948.

END

Up-to-date as of 27 May 1949 ^[1]

The closest living relatives of more than 50 fliers who disappeared with their C-124 transport over the Atlantic Ocean almost 65 years ago cling to hopes they can get answers and closure some day.

These include the nieces of Brig. Gen. Paul Thomas Cullen, who had directed photography of the Operation Crossroads/Bikini Atoll atom bomb tests and was second-in-command of 2nd Air Force, then headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base. He was lost March 23, 1951, along with four Strategic Air Command senior staffers, after they boarded the transport during a layover.

Cullen and the senior staffers were enroute to England to set up the 7th Air Division, which would spearhead any air assault against the Soviet Union, during a time of increasing tensions with the Communist bloc as the Korean War intensified.

"It's not just PT, it's the 52 other guys who were on board and their families," says niece Carolyn Hurwitz of Laramie, Wyoming, using the nickname they had for their uncle. She said any information on the fate of the fliers would be welcome.

Cullen married her aunt, Denver Post military writer Reva Joy Hurwitz, around the time of the Crossroads test.

She said her aunt "said there were other (VIPs) who were on that flight. That's why she always thought it had been forced down, escorted by MiGs, or whatever, because of the personnel on board."

Carolyn Hurwitz was born several months after her uncle's disappearance but grew up hearing about him. Older sister Barbara Hurwitz, who lives in Colorado, remembers him. She was about 3 or 4 when he disappeared. Her memories stem from a visit he made to visit his wife in Laramie not long before his doomed flight. "He seemed very big to me and he was really serious," she said. "And he looked sharp in his uniform."

She, too, remembers the void his loss left in the family. "I remember my aunt anguishing over it," Barbara Hurwitz said. "She believed there was a coverup or something weird. That was something she was concerned about."

Retired Air Force Master Sgt. Keith Amsden's brother, Robert, was a flight engineer on the C-124. He is another family member with years of research into its loss under his belt and strong opinions about what happened.

"We know they ditched," said Amsden, whio lives in Florida and has asked his congressional delegation to seek answers. "There were 53 survivors, they were spotted in rafts. The next day they had disappeared. I've been stonewalled. I know theres something hidden."

He said the initial search was stopped but then resumed a day later, and he has a theory why.

"They found something," he said. "I think it was a Broken Arrow. Nobody wants to touch this thing. They're scared to death of it and I don't know why. I firmly now believe they were carrying a nuclear weapon."

Amsden is in touch with several other family members of lost airmen from the flight, who also have done research and turned up the log of the Coast Guard Cutter Casco, which was one of scores of ships and whose information did not wind up in the official report.

"When the Coast Guard cutter got to the search area they went to quarter-screws and they heard gunfire," he said. One of those family members is Chicago attorney Larry Rafferty, whose father, Capt. Lawrence Rafferty, a decorated pilot and D-Day veteran, was lost. Some of his paperwork and his burned valise were among items found during the search.

"I've got to guess there was something nuclear involved on board as well," he said.

The C-124 transport often was used to transport nuclear weapons, and Cullen's airplane was part of the Roswell-based 2nd Strategic Support Squadron. A Times story Friday detailed a July 1959 crash involving one of the type at Barksdale where several such bombs were lost. By 1951, the Air Force had at least one Broken Arrow, where nuclear weapons were lost or destroyed. That was on Nov. 10, 1950, when a B-50 jettisoned a Mark 4 bomb over the St. Lawrence River near Riviere-du-Loup, northeast of Montreal. While no plutonium core was in the weapon, its high-explosive trigger did detonate, scattering almost 100 pounds of uranium, according to published reports.

The loss such a weapon overseas just months after the Canadian incident, at a time when the Korean War was heating up and the Cold War was peaking, could have had international repercussions. While Cullen and his aides were what people today would call "high value targets," most of the other passengers and crew of the transport also were important. Most were nuclear technicians, top fliers and crew chiefs with the 509th Bomb Wing, then the nation's elite nuclear unit, sited at Walker Air Force Base in Roswell, N.M.

The Times first reported on the airplane's loss in 2011 on the 60th anniversary of its disappearance. At the time, U.S.-Russian relations were about as cordial as they had been since the fall of the Soviet Union. Since then, however, crises in places such as Estonia, Georgia and Ukraine have resulted in a chill.

Soviet submarines and surface vessels had been reported as active in the area where the C-124 ditched, with trawlers shadowing the weather ships that tracked the transport's progress and finally relayed its mayday calls.

Because of their expertise in nuclear and other defense matters, Cullen and the other men on the airplane would have been an intelligence windfall to the Soviets. Cullen alone would have been a treasure-trove of sensitive intelligence: He was the air service's leading expert on aerial reconnaissance and aerial photography and had served as commander of the 2nd Operations Group on two occasions during World War II. During the war, he also had been stationed in the Soviet Union, then an ally, and so would have been known to them.

"Relations can thaw just about as quickly as they freeze," says retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Peyton Cole, a former 2nd Bomb Wing commander. His father, George P. Cole Sr., later a general officer himself, was stationed at Barksdale in 2nd Air Force, when Cullen was its No. 2 leader.

Cole says the family members shouldn't give up in their search for answers.

"While the relations between us and the Soviets may not be that warm today, I certainly wouldn't cease any efforts to attempt to obtain information about that flight," he said. But, while there is any chance some of the younger men on the flight, people in their early 20s, could still be alive and a source of embarrassment should they be found living in Siberia, "I don't see that happening."

It might not be any easier to get answers from Washington than from Russia. Times Freedom of Information Act requests to the CIA, State Department and Air Force, all of which would have had an interest in the loss of Cullen and all the high-value personnel on the airplane, elicited a meaningful response only from the Air Force, which provided a report into the crash, which while remarkable for providing little meaningful information in more than 160 often-unreadably faded pages, still turned up a few brain-busters. "When we were growing up, she had a lot of connections" and continued to press for answers into her husband's disappearance but was stonewalled, Barbara Hurwitz recalled. "She was told at the time there were nothing left."

The C-124A, tail number 49-244, was a virtually brand-new airplane, with barely 325 flight hours on its airframe and engines and no record of mechanical issues. According to the accident report, on its last flight it carried nine six-man rafts, 56 life vets, three emergency radios, 60 parachutes and 13 cold weather suits. Additionally, a number of the men on the flight had been trained specifically for an emergency ditching in the seas expected on the flight.

The C-124 left Roswell the early afternoon of March 21, 1953, and arrived at Barksdale just before 4:40 p.m. that same day. After refueling and taking on its officer passengers, it left the base just before 10:30 p.m., after a delay caused by the crash and burning of a B-45 bomber at the base. It then headed to Limestone Air Force Base, Maine, and then flew east into oblivion.

The official inventory of debris recovered lists 81 items, mostly bits of plywood, crate pieces and paper, but also lists a mattress pillow; a sleeping bag assembly roll; a canvas bag; and the paperwork and valise belonging to Rafferty.

A radio report from the airplane picked up by a weather ship said there was an in-flight fire from one of the crates and that it was being jettisoned.

"The aircraft was evidently, more or less, intact when it hit," a summary in the report states. "This is indicated by the small number of pieces recovered, as well as the fact that two inflated aircraft tires carried as part of the cargo were never found. Also, the debris found was burned by fuel fire from fuel in the wing fuel cells, which indicates that the wing fuel cells were still attached to the fuselage.

"There is no conclusive proof that anything unusual happened before the aircraft struck the water, not that it struck the water out of control," the report ends. "There is evidence that a fire occurred on top of the water after the aircraft hit."

No bodies or body parts, or blood, were found in the water or any debris found, and nothing offers a clue as to how long after the ditching the fire occurred or what might have caused it, internal or external of the transport.

However, the accident report also includes more than a dozen pages of analysis of debris by the Douglas Aircraft Company that determined an explosion had occurred on the airplane, though it was unable to say whether this occurred in flight or on the water.

According to the flight plan, the airplane, using the call sign AF-5882, was to fly at 9,000 feet for a 13-hour flight with enough fuel to stay airborne 17-plus hours. It originally was to have stopped at Gander Field in Newfoundland, Canada, and Shannon Airfield in Ireland but in-flight changed its flight plan to fly direct from Maine to RAF Mildenhall, England.

Cargo also included several empty KB-29 bomb bay fuel tanks that took up a fair amount of the cargo hold, with chairs for the passengers bolted alongside.

The report also includes several pages reporting on analysis of chemical traces found on some of the debris consistent with a four-pound incendiary bomb body from a type used in World War II, though this was not on the cargo manifest. There also are several pages detailing an Air Force Office of Special Investigations, or OSI, investigation into an Irish journalist, Arthur Quinlan, who wrote an article several weeks after the ditching and the end of the search suggesting that the airplane had been lost due to sabotage. The word sabotage also is prominently a heading on numerous pages in the report.

Attorney Rafferty believes the incendiary device, said to be an M50, felled the airplane.

"That's what we believe started the fire that forced them to ditch, and that device was really only used by the intelligence agencies as best we could find out," he said.

He also points to the book "Cleared for Disaster: Ireland's Most Horrific Air Crashes," by Irish aviation writer Michael O'Toole, published posthumously in 2006. It has an entire chapter on the C-124's loss and includes an account of a farmer, John Faherty, who found a sealed metal tin can on a beach on the west coast of Ireland in County Galwaya month after the crash.

Inside the tin was a note, the book relates.

"Cullen is worried when 300 miles west of Ireland, Globemaster alters course for no apparent reason" the note read. "We are going north. Have to be careful. We are under surveillance. Pieces of wreckage will be found but are not of G-Master. A terrible drama is being enacted on this liner."

The note was turned over to the authorities, and has since disappeared.

"They've been hiding stuff 60-plus years," Rafferty said.

As for Soviet submarines in the Atlantic, Cole doesn't think that was general military knowledge at the time.

"I don't think we knew at that point," he said. "We were still trying to build our own submarine force. It's a mystery. I don't know what to tell you."^[2]

Name Paul T Cullen Age 18 Birth Year 1902 Birthplace Peru Home in 1920 Los Angeles Assembly District 75, Los Angeles, California Street West Adams Street Residence Date 1920 Race White Gender Male Relation to Head of House Son Marital Status Single Mother's Name Ina Cullen Native Tongue English Able to Speak English Yes Occupation Student Attended School yes Able to read Yes Able to Write Yes Neighbors View others on page Members in Household Ina Cullen (52 yrs) James G King (38 yrs) Lucille King (36 yrs) Vada Thompson (35 yrs) Frank Hildreth (33 yrs) Louis T Henshaw (31 yrs) William H Eaton (27 yrs) Chester Foreman (26 yrs) Donald A Tuttur (24 yrs) Alma Eaton (23 yrs) Monica Foreman (22 yrs) Clair E Smith (22 yrs) Wallace N Pack (19 yrs) Alexander Rieder (18 yrs) Phillip Cullen (14 yrs) Cecelia Thompson (13 yrs) ^[3]

Name Paul T Cullen Age 39 Estimated Birth Year abt 1901 Gender Male Race White Birthplace Pennsylvania Marital Status Married Relation to Head of House Head Home in 1940 Denver, Denver, Colorado Map of Home in 1940 Street Olive House Number 703 Farm No Inferred Residence in 1935 Mitchel, Filld, New York Residence in 1935 Mitchel, Filld, New York Resident on farm in 1935 No Citizenship Naturalized Sheet Number 12A Number of Household in Order of Visitation 236 Occupation Captain House Owned or Rented Owned Value of Home or Monthly Rental if Rented 6000 Attended School or College No Highest Grade Completed College, 2nd year Hours Worked Week Prior to Census 60 Class of Worker Wage or salary worker in Government work Weeks Worked in 1939 52 Income 4000 Income Other Sources No Neighbors Household Members (Name) Age Relationship Paul T Cullen 39 Head Ruth G Cullen 44 Wife^[4]

Name Paul T Cullen Age 49 Birth Date abt 1901 Gender Male Race White Birth Place Peru Marital Status Married Relation to Head of House Head Residence Date 1950 Home in 1950 Bossier, Louisiana, USA Street Name Avenue A West House Number 200 Dwelling Number 54 Farm No Acres No Inferred Previous Residence Place Occupation Armed Forces Father Birth Place Scotland Mother Birth Place USA Citizenship Yes Occupation Category Working Hours Worked 70 Same House No Previously on Farm No Same County No School Completed C3 Grade Completed No School Attendance 30 or over Weeks Worked 52 Income 13 Other Income None Supplemental Income 13 Relative Income None Relative Other Income None World War II Veteran Yes World War I Veteran No Veteran Yes Institution Name Barksdale Air Force Base Institution Type Military Installation Household Members (Name) Age Relationship Paul T Cullen 49 Head Reva J Cullen 30 Wife^[5]

Name: Paul Thomas Cullen Birth Date: abt 1901 Age at event: 25 Court District: California Date of Action: 19 Nov 1926^[6]

Name: Paul T Cullen Age: 39 Estimated Birth Year: abt 1901 Gender: Male Race: White Birthplace: Pennsylvania Marital Status: Married Relation to Head of House: Head Home in 1940: Denver, Denver, Colorado Map of Home in 1940: Street: Olive House Number: 703 Farm: No Inferred Residence in 1935: Mitchel, Filld, New York Residence in 1935: Mitchel, Filld, New York Resident on farm in 1935: No Citizenship: Naturalized Sheet Number: 12A Number of Household in Order of Visitation: 236 Occupation: Captain House Owned or Rented: Owned Value of Home or Monthly Rental if Rented: 6000 Attended School or College: No Highest Grade Completed: College, 2nd year Hours Worked Week Prior to Census: 60 Class of Worker: Wage or salary worker in Government work Weeks Worked in 1939: 52 Income: 4000 Income Other Sources: No Neighbors: Household Members Age Relationship Paul T Cullen 39 Head Ruth G Cullen 44 Wife ^[7]

Name: Paul T. Cullen Gender: Male Birthdate: 1902 Age: 40 Arrival Date: 8 May 1942 Port of Arrival: Baltimore, Maryland, USA Airline and Flight Number: PAN AMERICAN AIRWAYS SYSTEM^[8] aboard Pan Am N18609 with Elliot Roosevelt^[9]

Name Paul T Cullen Gender Male Spouse's Name Ruth Cullen Divorce Date 1948 Divorce Place Pasco, Florida, USA Certificate Number 4008 Members in Household Ruth Cullen ^[10]

Lt Col Carl C Hughes 311th photo recon AND KEN MUNFORD!!!^[11]

Name: Paul Thomas Cullen Birth Date: 10 May 1901 Death Date: 23 Mar 1951 Age at Death: 50 Burial Plot: 11-21-XX Burial Place: Denver, Colorado, United States Other Surnames: Hurwitz Comments: Brig. Gen. US Air Force WWII; In memory Reva Joy HURWITZ CULLEN 19-Oct-1915 -- 26-Jul-1989 Cemetery: Emanuel at Fairmount Cemetery Address: 430 South Quebec Street Cemetery Burials: 4164 Cemetery Comments: Cemetery administered by Temple Emanuel contact Janet Burnitsky 303 388-4013^[12]

Airmen on B-17B 39-5^[13] during Operation Rusty:
Cullen, Paul T ~ Lt. Col., San Gabriel, California
Cohen, Edgar M ~ Lt, Altoona, Pennsylvania
Nelson, Benjamin E ~ Lt, Granite Falls, Minnesota
Randall, Charles T ~ Lt, New Castle, Pennsylvania
Roosevelt, Elliot ~ Col., Son of FDR
Teague, William H ~ Lt, Weatherford, Texas
Wilburn, Donald E ~ Capt, D.C.

Airmen on B-17F (F-9C) 42-29753
2nd Lt. R. J. Borben of Walla Walla Wash. “cuts and bruises”
T/Sgt John F. Buecker of Bolling Field “cuts and bruises”
1st Lt. Manner C. Clements of Bolling Field fractured shoulder and hip
Cullen, Paul T ~ Pilot of Bolling Field “cuts and bruises”
S/Sgt Raymond C Hedrick of Bolling Field head injury (died)
Sgt A. B. Jenemore of Walla Walla Wash. “cuts and bruises”
2nd Lt. M. D. Lee Co-Pilot of Bolling Field “cuts and bruises”
2nd Lt. H. E. Oberg of Walla Walla Wash. “cuts and bruises”

Sources

1. ↑ https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/1676829/brigadier-general-paul-t-cullen/
2. ↑ https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/2015/07/05/mystery-flight-survivors-seek-answers/29738807/
3. ↑ 1920 U.S. Federal Population Census
4. ↑ https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/40380080:2442 Paul T Cullen in the 1940 United States Federal Census
5. ↑ https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/74918636:62308 Paul T Cullen in the 1950 United States Federal Census
6. ↑ National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Naturalization Index Cards of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, Central Division (Los Angeles), 1915-1976 (M1525); Microfilm Serial: M1525; Microfilm Roll: 39
7. ↑ 1940 U.S. Federal Population Census
8. ↑ The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Passenger & Crew Manifests of Airplanes Arriving at Baltimore, Maryland; NAI Number: 2642537; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85
9. ↑ https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/imageviewer/collections/8679/images/42821_335324-00234?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&usePUBJs=true&pId=2266640
10. ↑ Florida State Divorce Records
11. ↑ The Tampa Tribune Tampa, Florida 15 Oct 1944, Sun • Page 10
12. ↑ JewishGen, comp. JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) [database on-line. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.]
13. ↑ http://www.americanairmuseum.com/aircraft/49

• 1951 Atlantic C-124 disappearance
• http://www.wafbmuseum.org/alumni-stories/last-flight-the-missing-airmen-march-1951/