Minnesota Spirit Quest - MnSQ: Pleasant Hills Cemetery
The cache is not located near a grave... Please be respectful and cache in, trash out. Also, please only search for cache during daylight hours.
At the posted coordinates, you should look for the grave of Marine Corps Private First Class Benton Hill. PFC Hill was an aviation radioman/gunner who served with VMSB-233 during the campaign for the Solomon Islands. On 23 January 1943, PFC Benton Hill was part of a strike force assembled to search out a pair of Japanese ships spotted in “The Slot” near New Georgia.
Hill’s pilot, TSgt. Ralph P. Ackerman, sighted in on the freighter Toa Maru 2 and pushed Dauntless #33 into a dive, twisting through a hail of 20mm anti-aircraft fire. Hits were observed on his aircraft, but Ackerman “rode it on down” for 7,000 feet before pulling the lever to release his bomb. The plane lurched immediately after the drop; onlookers surmised that Ackerman had been hit and killed, for the bomber plummeted into the sea.
The squadron’s War Diary commented that “The courage displayed by Ackerman and his gunner Hill is of a type that demands commendation.” Hope was held out for their safe return until 24 January 1944, when both Marines were declared dead. Hill was born in Eden Prairie and attended Eden Prairie High School.
On the gravestone of Benton, he was born in the year 19__. Consider this AB.
Then:
N44 49.(774 + AB)
W93 26.(050 + AB)
