Thomas C. Cartwright served as the pilot of the B-24 bomber, Lonesome Lady, in the 494th Bombardment Group, 7th Air Force. His plane was shot down over Japan at the end of July 1945. Cartwright and one other member of the bomber crew were transported elsewhere, while the majority of the crew was interred in prison in Hiroshima, Japan. All those crewmen were killed when the US dropped the atomic bomb on that city.