Interesting...

So frequent commenter and reader Nylon12 went all off-topic on me yesterday and I'm glad he did.

(And yes, you can ignore the bit about, scratching, gassing, and the potential for the non-wearing of pants.)

The post he was referencing is here (and yes, the headline is incorrect, he was the bombardier, not the pilot - juvat also wrote about 2d Lt* Kingsley here). The 173rd Fighter Wing's website also has a good article on this aircraft and 2d Lt Kingsley, here.

Here's another view of that "Heritage" bird which Edwards painted up for the 173rd -

Pretty cool name, huh? Sandman, which was a B-17F Serial Number 42-30333, which is depicted here:

(Source)

Which led me to a couple of disconnects** with what may or may not be the truth. The Air Force says that this F-15C is named after the aircraft which 2d Lt Kingsley flew his last mission aboard. An aircraft which crashed in Romania on the 23rd of June, 1944. However, that doesn't appear to be the "real" story, which is actually a lot more interesting (and far less politically correct than the modern Air Force probably cares for) than what I read at the 173rd's website.

As I usually do, I tried to track down the serial number of the aircraft in question, a search for "B-17 Sandman" yielded the serial number 42-30333, a B-17F, so far so good. However, this aircraft (which for some reason is not listed on Joe Baugher's website) has this entry on a German website for the B-17 -

Delivered Cheyenne 14/5/43; Gore 17/5/43; Cheyenne 20/5/43; Smoky Hill 30/5/43; Tinker 19/6/43; Casper 28/6/43; Kearney 30/6/43; Greenville 7/7/43; Eglin 10/7/43; Dow Fd 12/7/43; Assigned 32BS/301BG St Donat 8/43; Oudna 6/8/43; Cerignola 7/12/43; Lucera 1/2/44; {18m} transferred 341BS/97BG Amendola, then weather aircraft 15/7/44; Salvaged 14/10/44. SANDMAN.

Hhmm, what? How could this aircraft, destroyed in Romania on 23 June be salvaged on 14 October later in 1944? Answer, it can't. Digging some more I came across this website, which has this to say about 2d Lt Kingsley's last mission-

The navigators of the 97th Bomb Group B-17s checked their maps as they approached the Danube River from the north on the morning of June 23, 1944. So far they were on course and on time for their assigned target, the Romanian city of Giurgiu on the border with Bulgaria. The Italy-based Fifteenth Air Force had that day launched hundreds of bombers against targets affiliated with Ploești and other Axis petroleum production and shipping points.

Nearly 70 miles south of Ploești, the Flying Fortresses pressed through a thick anti-aircraft barrage. During the bombing run on Giurgiu, the B-17F Opissonya was struck by flak and began losing altitude, but pilot Lieutenant Edwin Anderson was determined to put his bombardier over the target.

Lieutenant David R. Kingsley crouched over the Norden bombsight in Opissonya’s nose, seeking the aim point. He ignored attacking Messerschmitt Me-109s and dropped his bombs through thickening flak. By then the B-17 had taken a beating: Anderson pulled off target with one engine out and serious airframe damage.

More 109s pressed in, eager to finish off the straggler. One of them put a 20mm round into the tail gunner’s compartment, wounding Sergeant Michael Sullivan. Unable to call for help on the intercom, Sullivan crawled forward to the waist position. The gunners carried him to the radio compartment and summoned assistance. Now that they had dropped their bombload, Kingsley was the obvious choice to provide first aid.

A veteran airman on his 20th mission, Kingsley was not quite 26 years old. Although the lieutenant had washed out of pilot training, he excelled as a dual-rated bombardier-navigator. He was a long way from his home in Portland, Ore.

After removing Sullivan’s damaged parachute harness and jacket to expose his mangled shoulder, Kingsley managed to slow the bleeding. But the gunner had already lost too much blood; 500 miles from base, Sullivan was going into shock.

Then even more 109s arrived. During the course of a prolonged gunfight they shot the Fortress to tatters, forcing Anderson to ring the bailout bell. In the resulting confusion, Sullivan’s chute harness could not be found. Kingsley didn’t hesitate: He removed his own harness and fitted it on the gunner. Sullivan later related: “Lieutenant Kingsley took me in his arms and struggled to the bomb bay, where he told me to keep my hand on the ripcord and said to pull it when I was clear of the ship. Before I jumped, I looked up at him and the look on his face was firm and solemn. He must have known what was coming because there was no fear in his eyes at all.”

Dangling in their chutes, the crewmen watched their bomber fall to earth and burn in Bulgaria. The fliers were soon taken prisoner, and their captors later said they had found a dead airman on the crushed flight deck, perhaps having attempted a crash landing. Ten months later the Kingsley family received David’s Medal of Honor.

The 97th Group lost three more aircraft that day, while the Fifteenth wrote off five other bombers and four fighters. It was one more tragic entry in the prolonged campaign to turn off the spigot of Adolf Hitler’s Balkan oil.

Note that second paragraph, Opissonya is given as the aircraft name. A B-17F (manufactured by Lockheed-Vega) -

42-5905/5954 Lockheed/Vega B-17F-35-VE Fortress 

42-5951 (97th BG, 341th BS) lost Jun 23, 1944.  MACR 6406

The aircraft was lost on 23 June 1944 which is the day 2d Lt Kingsley was killed, so that matches. Now say that name out loud, slowly. Now does that seem like something the Air Force would paint on the nose of its aircraft in these modern times? Yeah, I didn't think so.

A Bulgarian website (of all places) actually has a couple of photos of Opissonya -

History gets very interesting when you start digging. I can understand why the Air Force chose not to paint that F-15C with the name Opissonya on the nose, but it's not correct. I can also understand why the crew of that B-17F chose that name, it's a very G.I. thing to do. A great name really.

Perhaps 2d Lt Kingsley once was a crewman on Sandman, I'm still digging on that, but really Air Force, if the name of the aircraft 2d Lt Kingsley died on bothers you, paint it in the colors of the 341st Bomb Squadron in which he served, doesn't have to have a specific aircraft name on it. Well, at least Sandman was in the same squadron.

Really cool story, but I can't stand political correctness.

While it does nothing to diminish the heroism of 2d Lt Kingsley, it ain't quite the whole story now, is it?

Any theories? Data that I missed? Am I too wrapped around the axle on this?

What say you on this matter?




* Why can't I find an Air Force publication/website on official Air Force rank abbreviations? Why do I have to use the Trade School on the Severn's data? (Not that I have a problem with that, Tuttle is a graduate.) But geez USAF, come on!
** The second disconnect was that apparently 2d Lt Kingsley's aircraft was shot down on a mission to bomb Giurgiu, not Ploiești. Same country but the two towns are some seventy miles apart, the former is north of Bucharest, the latter south of the Romanian capital.