Bieg Valentine Nicholas

Monuments

US Navy R38 Airship Crew Monument

US Navy R38 Airship Disaster Memorial Plaque

Name:

Valentine Nicholas Bieg

Rank:

Lieutenant Commander

Serial Number:

Unit:

U.S. Rigid Air Detachment

Date of Death:

1921-08-24

State:

Cemetery:

Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia

Plot:

Section 2

Row:

Grave:

1112-CL

Decoration:

Comments:

Valentine Nicolas Bieg was born on October 24, 1889 in Alexandria, Virginia. He was the son of Frederick Charles Bieg and Fannie Hunter French Bieg. He served as a Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy aboard R38/ZR-2 during World War I.

LCDR Bieg was killed when the experimental dirigible R-38 broke up and exploded in England on it 4th and final test flight prior to being purchased by the U.S. Navy from the British who built the airship. The intentions were for America to utilize this ship during WWI and become the main means of transportation in the future. A total of 44 men lost there lives 17 were Americans. Witnesses said it appeared to break in the middle and the front half exploded, the tail end fell in the Humber River, Hull, England, there were 4 survivors pulled from it. One being the pilot.

Cause of Explosion: Zepplins fly on hydrogen and as a result of their highly flammable lifting gas, it exploded over the river with thousands of spectators on the shore watching this amazing aircraft take off. No one on the shore-side were injured.

LCDR Bieg is now buried in the Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Arlington County, Virginia, USA. His name is commemorated on a monument located at the Western Cemetery, Hull, England but his first name's initial is inscribed as W and ranked as a Lieutenant.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com