Cecil's final mission began at Horanda Airfield in Papua New Guinea. The mission consisted of 4 flight members in separate aircraft: flight leader Captain Johns, flight wingman Lt. Howard, element leader Cecil Dewees, and element wingman 2nd Lt. Merle Wolfe codename "Red Flight". The goal of the mission was to intercept Japanese D3A Val Dive Bombers that were being escorted by A6M Zeros.
The Final Mission
The flight took off from the field in the morning of March 28th, 1943. At about 1130 hours, the flight was cruising at 25,000 feet when they spotted the group of 25 Val Dive bombers and their fighter escorts. The "Red Flight" was attacked by the fighters and initiated a dive to about 7/8000 feet successfully evading them. During the dive, the flight got separated into two groups: Johns and Howard, Dewees and Wolfe. Dewees and Wolfe continued their attack, then were informed of Japanese Zeros above them. They initiated another dive to about 1000 feet as an attempt to evade the enemy fighters. As the flight was pulling out of the dive, the enemy aircraft opened fire. Dewees was hit as he pulled out of the dive, causing his aircraft to enter a snap roll and inverted flat spin, ultimately impacting the water. The crash was reported by the crew to be about 20 miles northeast of Oro Bay Southeastern Australian New Guinea.
Searching for Dewees
Because no one actually saw Cecil crash, he was reported Missing in Action. When he did not return to base, he was declared dead later that day. Search missions were conducted in the area until December 18th, 1948. All remains found in the area were confirmed to not be connected to Cecil. Cecil's final resting place was that crash location, about 20 miles northeast of Oro Bay.