Cpl. Jesse Murdoch
also known as Jesse; tail end Charlie
He was tail gunner of Robert Earl Wildermuth’s B-24 — the rearmost position in the aircraft, sitting in the tail turret with twin .50-caliber machine guns covering the rear quarter sphere. The position was nicknamed “tail end Charlie” through the WWII Army Air Corps.
From Tyler, Texas.
His more lasting role in the family record: crew photographer. Per Robert Earl’s memoir:
“Cpl. Jesse Murdoch from Tyler, Texas was tail end Charlie, the tail gunner. Jesse also became our unofficial photographer in the jungles of the South Pacific.”
The crew’s Pacific photographs — whatever survives in the Wildermuth wartime photo set — were most plausibly Jesse’s work. He was the documentary eye of the ten-man crew in 1944–45, the man who pointed the camera at the others.
He is named in Robert Earl’s combat log The Big One. His pre-war Texas life, his post-war return, and what happened to his photographic record (and whether any of his shots beyond what’s in the family archive survive elsewhere) are open research.
Sources: Robert Earl Wildermuth’s 1989 memoir; The Big One.