Major William Leaverette

 

Source **

 

Ok, folks, this post is a little bit different than most of my post lately.  If you look closely at the picture above, you'll see something missing.  Very good eyes if you notice no Medal of Honor ribbon on him.  Nope, his highest medal was the Distinguished Service Cross.  I'll add to this comment a bit later in the post.

Source

 

 

In any case, Major Leaverette was flying P-38's in the Mediterranean Theater in WWII.  His mission on this day was to provide Air Cover for a Convoy sailing near Rhodes Greece.  He had taken off with 9 airplanes, but two had engine problems and returned to base.  He arrived overhead the convoy about noon and noticed that a formation of 25 Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers were approaching.  The convoy had already been attacked before their arrival and there were some damaged ships.  

Major Leaverette split his formation sending 4 of the aircraft to maintain air cover for the convoy while he attacked the bomber formation;.

In the space of  15 minutes of combat, Major Leaverette shot down 7 Stukas with a probable 8th.  This site has an excellent set of drawings showing the flow of the battle.  The picture below is just one of many.

Yes, Beans, I've spent a lot of time on that site. 

Source

 

In any case, he got to paint several Nazi flags on the nose of his Lightning.  Yes, Beans, he got an additional kill a couple of days later. 

 

A kill's a Kill!

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 For the mission detailed above,  he received the Distinguished Service Cross.  In his career, he also received a Distinguished Flying Cross with one oak leave cluster and an Air Medal with 19 oak leaf clusters.  Interestingly, another pilot shortly afterward had a very similar mission with similar victories and received the Medal of Honor, more to follow on that one.

I thought that interesting. 

Peace out all y'all! 

** This guy was a REAL fighter pilot.  How do I know.  Look at his "official' photograph, look at the marks on the side of his mouth.  Those are Oxygen Mask marks.  He went to take his official photograph almost immediately after flying a mission wearing his Oxygen mask. Gotta' love him!

juvat 

Sources:

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_L._Leverette

https://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient/recipient-22923/ 

https://grokipedia.com/page/william_l_leverette 

https://warhistory.org/article/william-leverette 

Excellent air to air diagram:  https://www.ww2wrecks.com/portfolio/dogfight-over-the-aegean-the-leverette-report-illustrated-p-38-lightnings-against-ju-87-stukas-on-9-october-1943/ 

Picture  URL https://acceptance.historynet.com/slaughter-of-the-stukas-ace-in-a-day-p-38-pilot/standing by P-38 

https://www.valka.czattachments/35946/2693339_9eb8a548f708f3ce1af26cbbdc562e10.jpg 

8 victories https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/PKgAAOSwvNhoCREx/s-l400.jpg 

 

Neel Kearby MOH

Col Neel Kearby

Source

OK, this is another Medal of Honor recipient, Neel Kearby. We've been reading about Bomber crews lately and that's also an extreme exhibition of courage. However, this time the hero was a fighter pilot and did combat in WWII in the Pacific. In addition, he's a Texan born and raised. The only down tic in his record is he attended one of the University of Texas campuses. Boo! A&M or Tech, Yay! Ahh Well! He joined the Army Air Corps in 1937 and earned his wings at Randolph AFB and Kelly AFB both in the San Antonio area. So...He's a Texan!

When WWII broke out, he was in command of a fighter squadron (called Pursuit Squadrons at the time) to protect the Panama Canal using P-39 Airacobras. Not an overly good aircraft, better ones would be coming soon. In October 1942 he took command of the 348th fighter group and trained them to fly the P-47 Thunderbolt.

The group was deployed to Australia and then further deployed to New Guinea where they started fighting the Japanese.

Source

On October 11 1943, Col Kearby lead a 4 ship of P-47 and overflew Wewak Airfield on the north side of New Guinea. Some 40 Japanese fighters were airborne. He and his flight engaged the fighters. The video below will describe some of their tactics. He and his wingmen used their advantage against the Japanese disadvantage. He was higher than the Japanese could fly. His flight would dive from above, shooting from above ,then pull up and climb out and do it again. Kearby himself shot down 6 aircraft on this flight, making him an Ace. In all a total of 9 Japanese were shot down in this engagement. General George Kenney recommended Col Kirby for the Medal of Honor.

On March 5, 1944 he is on a Combat Air Patrol (AKA looking for bad guy aircraft and shooting them down). He has 21 Japanese airplanes that he had shot down on his record. Again they're in the vicinity of the Japanese held airfield at Wewak. He spots 3 Japanese fighter and attacks them. Shooting at one he doesn't get enough hits to bring it down, so reattacks. On doing so, other Japanese fighters attack him and shot him down. According to the local population, he successfully bailed out, got tangled up in his parachute in a tree and died from bullet wounds from the attack.

His remains were recovered and identified in 1947 and were transferred to the United States and he was reburied at Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in 1949.

Source

Rest in Peace, Warrior!

A gift from the Citizens of Arlington TX

Victory	Date	Location	Aircraft	Notes on claim
1	09/04/43	Hopoi	Betty	First aerial victory claim.
2	09/04/43	Hopoi	Oscar	Second aerial victory claim.
3	09/14/43	Malahang	Dinah	Third aerial victory claim.
4	10/11/43	Boram Airfield	Zeke [sic Oscar]	Fourth aerial victory claim.
5	10/11/43	Boram	Zeke [sic Oscar]	Fifth aerial victory claim, became an "ace"
6	10/11/43	Boram	Hap [sic Oscar]	Sixth aerial victory claim.
7	10/11/43	Boram	Hap [sic Oscar]	Seventh aerial victory claim.
8	10/11/43	Boram	Ki-61 Tony	Eighth aerial victory claim.
9	10/11/43	Boram	Ki-61 Tony	Ninth aerial victory claim.
10	10/16/43	Wewak	Zeke	Tenth aerial victory claim.
11	10/19/43	Wewak	F1M2 Pete	Eleventh aerial victory claim.
12	10/19/43	Wewak	F1M2 Pete	Twelfth aerial victory claim.
13	12/03/43	Wewak	Zeke [sic Oscar]	Thirteenth aerial victory claim.
14	12/03/43	Wewak	Zeke [sic Oscar]	Fourteenth aerial victory claim.
15	12/03/43	Wewak	Zeke [sic Oscar]	Fifteenth aerial victory claim.
	12/07/43	Boram Airfield	Ki-61 Tony	Claimed as damaged.
16	12/22/43	Wewak	Zeke [sic Oscar]	Sixteenth aerial victory claim.
17	12/23/43	Dagua Airfield	Ki-61 Tony	Seventeenth aerial victory claim.
18	01/03/44	Wewak	Ki-21 Sally [sic]	Eighteenth aerial victory claim.
19	01/03/44	Wewak	Zeke [sic Oscar]	Nineteenth aerial victory claim.
20	01/09/44	Wewak Harbor	Ki-61 Tony	Twenty aerial victory claim.
21	01/09/44	Wewak Harbor	Ki-61 Tony	Twenty-first aerial victory claim.
	02/27/44	Cape Hoskins	Ki-21 Sally	Claimed as damaged.
22	03/05/44	Wewak	Nell [sic Ki-48 Lily]	Twenty-second aerial victory claim.

P-47 from LtCol Kirby's Group

Source

Col Kearby's Citation

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy, Col. Kearby volunteered to lead a flight of 4 fighters to reconnoiter the strongly defended enemy base at Wewak. Having observed enemy installations and reinforcements at 4 airfields, and secured important tactical information, he saw an enemy fighter below him, made a diving attack and shot it down in flames. The small formation then sighted approximately 12 enemy bombers accompanied by 36 fighters. Although his mission had been completed, his fuel was running low, and the numerical odds were 12 to 1, he gave the signal to attack. Diving into the midst of the enemy airplanes he shot down 3 in quick succession. Observing 1 of his comrades with 2 enemy fighters in pursuit, he destroyed both enemy aircraft. The enemy broke off in large numbers to make a multiple attack on his airplane but despite his peril he made one more pass before seeking cloud protection. Coming into the clear, he called his flight together and led them to a friendly base. Col. Kearby brought down 6 enemy aircraft in this action, undertaken with superb daring after his mission was completed

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neel_E._Kearby

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196209/col-neel-e-kearby-pacific-thunderbolt-ace/

Pics https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9805/neel-ernest-kearby#view-photo=25749823

Aerial Victories https://pacificwrecks.com/people/veterans/kearby/index.html

Home town celebration. https://www.arlingtontx.gov/News-Articles/2025/November/A-Look-Back-Remembering-Local-Medal-of-Honor-Recipient-Neel-Kearby