Born June 11, 1917 Pittsburgh, PA

Graduated 1938 BS in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Institute of Technology

Ben Hargrave went through the Army Engineer Corps ROTC program while at Carnegie and upon graduating earned a commission in the US Marine Corps as a 2nd Lieutenant.

While aboard the USS San Francisco, alter observing the aviators on his ship, he applied for flight training. He earned his wings in May 1941. He began his aviation career training in N3N1 and NS-1 (Stearman Bi-planes with an open cockpit) at Pensacola, FL. Then he worked for a year as a flight instructor (IB Squadron) at Corry Field, Pensacola, flying VULT Vibrators and OS2N3s. He flew a diverse range of airplanes: F4F-3P Grumman Wildcat flying off carriers (Attu, AK), SB3C Curtis Divebomber (Anacostia NAS), F2F Grumman, F3F Grumman, F4U Corsairs (South Pacific) and more. At the end of his military career he was flying jets from Cherry Point NAS; F9F, F2H, F3H and Douglas Transport (DC-3). He retired in June I960 after 22 years of service, having earned two distinguished flying crosses for two confirmed Zeroes shot down, and seven air medals.

As a member of the Marine Corps VMF 216 and VMF 215 squadrons, his service in WWII stands out in Marine Corps aviation history. VMF 216 was the first fighter squadron to land on the newly completed strip, Torokina, on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. This was a strategic airfield in the offense to move the Japanese out of the Solomon Islands. He served two tours with VMF 216 the first was as Executive Officer under Rivers Morrell, June 23, 1943 to Jan 22, 1944; and the second tour as commanding officer, Jan 22 to May 4, 1944. He served as commanding officer of VMF 215 June 8 - August 30, 1944.

Following his distinguished military service Ben went onto his second career in aviation. He worked in Seattle at Boeing for nineteen years, first as an Administrative Engineer, then after earning his BS EE from the University of Washington (1972), doing both mechanical and electrical engineering for Boeing's KC135, AW ACS and SST projects. He currently resides in Bellevue, WA