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2nd Lt David A. Hothem graduated from New Philadelphia High School with the class of 1938. He was employed by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation in Buffalo, New York for three years.

He enlisted in the Air Corps on 19 February 1943. He received basic training at Keesler Field, Mississippi and graduated from the advance pilot school at Pecos, Texas on 23 May 1944. He was sent overseas in October 1944.

Statement from 2nd lt. Bernard H. Kessier, Co-Pilot on plane 44-6551:
"We were on the briefed bomb run with the bomb bay doors open and I noticed that plane #736 dropped one bomb, then two more and then one more last one before it was struck by a direct hit of flak. It looked to me as though it was hit in the aft of the bomb bay, and I saw a red flash followed immediately by smoke. The plane seemed to perform a violent rudder and aileron exercise, and then a sudden climb and a shallow turn to the right. It then fell back to three o’clock and went into a shallow left bank before dropping into a steep dive toward two o’clock. My last view of the plane showed it still in that steep dive."

Report of the Field Police, Garrison Command I/455, Banovce:
"According to order I made together with techn/sgt. of the field police Hecht an exploration on 4 Feb. 1945 for the crashed American bomber (four engine) – crashed on 1 Feb. 1945 at about 1330 about 1 km west of Vel. Hoste and stated the followings: The airplane exploded in the air and was completely destroyed. The airplane had still four bombs; 5 exploded when they touched the ground, the fourth – a 250 kg bomb – was found without fuse and was blown up by demolition detachment of the pioneer battl. 591. The destroyed parts of the airplane are lying scattered about. The machine guns are spoiled by bending. According to statements of the Slova police short after crash of the airplane partisans have been at the crash point. Presumable they have taken off still suitable objects. Four men of the crew have been recovered dead, on of which was completely teared and burnt. According to statement of an eyewitness one man of the crew shall be descended by parachute and escaped (presumable to the partisans).

Six crew members survived. According to the records in the MACR, one of them managed to evade capture. Four men were killed.

2nd Lt. Hothem was not injured in the plane. Surviving crew members saw him bail out. Because his reamins were found in the vicinity of the crashed plane on 4 February wit his parachute partially burned, it is possible that he might have got stuck on some part, causing him to go down with the plane.