I never really knew my dad; he was killed in a B-47 jet bomber crash in 1956 when I was only 18 months old. But my family and his friends have filled me in on the details of his life.

He was born on January 1, 1918 in Hendersonville, NC. He played football in college at the East Carolina Teachers' College (now ECU) before going into the war as a pilot.



He flew about 15 combat missions with the 446th BG out of Bungay, England before the entire crew transferred into the 482nd BG doing training and some combat missions. This unit did a lot of pioneer work with radar and bomb through cloud operations, as well as night solo sorties to radar "scope" targets that would be hit by the entire force a few days later. He was deployed in England from December 1943 until June 1945.



He subsequently flew B-29s in Korea and then B-47s out of Whiteman AFB in Missouri, where he met his untimely demise along with three other crewmembers as the aircraft came apart shortly after takeoff on a training mission. By all accounts, he was loved by many who knew him, besides his family.