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On September 1, 1944, a B-24J Liberator (serial number 42-73453) took off from Wakde Airfield, Palau Islands, carrying a crew of eleven men on a bombing mission against enemy targets in the Palau Islands. During the mission, the aircraft was hit by Japanese anti-aircraft fire in the left wing, causing an engine to catch fire and the automatic release of the plane’s bombs. The B-24 went into an uncontrolled spin that broke its fuselage into two pieces. The wreckage crashed into the sea between the Koror and Babeldaub Islands. Searches for the missing crew was unsuccessful, and all eleven men were reported lost. In 2004, the independent investigative organization Bent Prop Project discovered aircraft wreckage on the ocean floor near the suspected crash site of this Liberator and contacted JPAC. A joint JPAC/U.S. Navy investigative dive team recovered human remains from this crash site from which eight of this Liberator's crew members were eventually identified.

Sergeant Alexander R. Vick, who joined the U.S. Army Air Forces from California, was a member of the 424th Bombardment Squadron, 307th Bombardment Group (Heavy). He was a gunner aboard this B-24J at the time of its loss on September 1, 1944, and attempts to locate him following the incident were unsuccessful. Today, Staff Sergeant Vick is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Based on all information available, DPAA assessed the individual's case to be in the analytical category of Deferred.

Alexander R Vick