In command of the 89th Troop Carrier Squadron (TCS) aircraft was 28-year-old 1st Lieutenant Mercer Wilson Avent, in civilian life a shipping clerk, from the town of Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
He entered the army in July 1941 at Fort Bragg NC, and by May 1943 had become a pilot. On December 24, 1943, at the Post Chapel, Fort Bragg, he married Lillian Bell, who was also from Rocky Mount, and after whom the aircraft was named.
Assigned to 89TCS, 438TCG, 9AF USAAF. On mission to France his plane went into an inverted dive and crashed into the ground at Jacobs Well, Guildford, in southern England. It seemed the 5,000 lbs of cargo had shifted, disrupting the aircraft's Centre of Gravity. 25-Oct-44. Killed in Action (KIA).