12 April 1933

Aviation, , , , , ,
Bill Lancaster with his Avro 616 Avian IV, G-ABLK, “Southern Cross Minor.”

12 April 1933: William Newton Lancaster took off from Lympne Aerodrome at 5:38 a.m. He was attempting to fly from England to Australia and to break the record time set several months before by Amy Mollison.

He flew non stop across  the English Channel, France, and the Mediterranean Sea, and landed at Oran, Algeria, at 9:00 p.m. After a delay,  then flew on to Reggane, Adrar Province, Algeria.

Lancaster  departed Reggane on the evening of 12 April, enroute to Gao, French Sudan. His intended route was to follow a road across the desert. The estimated time of arrival at Gao was 0230.

The Daily Telegraph reported:

The aircraft was reported to have made a bad takeoff and to have headed away on the wrong course for Gao. When Capt. Lancaster filed to arrive, search planes and vehicles were sent out from Gao and Reggan. They failed to find any trace of the aircraft.

—The Daily Telegraph, 19 February 1962

After approximately one hour of flight, the airplane crashed in the Tanezrouft region, approximately 170 miles south of Reggane. Lancaster kept a diary until 20 April, when it is believed he died from dehydration and heat exposure.

The body of William Lancaster was discovered 12 February 1962 by a patrol of the Légion étrangère (French Foreign Legion) when they found the crash site. The airplanes was located about 45 miles west of Lancaster’s planned route.

Wreckage of Avro 616 Avian IV, G_ABLK,

The Avro 616 Sports Avian was a two-place, single-engine, single-bay biplane, produced by A.V. Roe from 1926 to 1928. 405 were built. Bill Lancaster’s airplane was a specially constructed variant, the Avro 616 Avian Mk.IV M, serial number 523, which had been ordered by Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith, M.C., A.F.C., and named Southern Cross Minor. It was shipped to Australia and re-registered VH-UQG. Sold to Lancaster’s father, Edward William Lancaster for £700 and sent back to England and re-registered G-ABLK Blue

While previous Avians had been constructed of wood-braced plywood panels, forming a tapered box, the Mk.IV M was built of steel tubing. The sides and bottom were flat and the upper deck arched. The wings were built of two wooden spars with wood ribs, covered in doped fabric. The standard airplane was designed so that the wings could be folded alongside the fuselage.

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith’s specially built Avro Avian Mk.IV A Gipsy II, G-ABCF. It is  not known whether G-ABLK was built to the same specifications.

The Avian Mk.IV M was 24 feet, 3 inches (7.391 meters) long. Its wing span was 28 feet, 0 inches (8.534 meters). The overall height was 8 feet, 6 inches (2.591 meters). The wings had a total area of 245 square feet (22.76 square meters). The wings are slightly staggered. Both upper and lower wings had a chord of 4 feet, 9 inches (1.448 meters), with a vertical gap of 5 feet, 0 inches (1.524 meters). The standard airplane had an empty weight of 1,005 pounds (456 kilograms) and gross weight of 1,523 pounds (691 kilograms).

The standard Avian Mk.IV M was equipped with a Cirrus Hermes 4-cylinder engine. G-ABLK was built with an air-cooled, normally-aspirated, 349.89-cubic-inch-displacement (5.734 liter) de Havilland Gipsy II inline 4-cylinder direct-drive engine, rated at 112.5 horsepower at 2,000 r.p.m., and122.5 horsepower at 2,200 r.p.m. The engine turned a two-bladed, fixed-pitch propeller with a diameter of 6 feet, 2 inches (1.880 meters). The Gipsy II weighed 295 pounds (134 kilograms).

The standard production Mk.IV M had a cruise speed of 90 miles per hour (145 kilometers per hour) and maximum speed of 105 miles per hour (169 kilometers per hour). Its range was 360 miles (579 kilometers). (Increased fuel capacity in G-ABLK gave it a range of 1,600 miles (2,575 kilometers). The service ceiling was 12,500 feet (3,810 meters).

William Newton Lancaster

William Newton Lancaster was born 14 February 1898 at King’s Norton, Birmingham, England. He was the son of Edward William Lancaster and Maud Lucas Lancaster.

Lancaster joined a regiment of the Australian Light Horse in 1914. He served in the Middle East.

He enlisted First Australian Imperial Force, 10 July 1916. Records show that he had a medium complexion, that he was 5 feet, 6 inches (1.68 meters) tall, weighed 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms), and had brown hair and  hazel eyes. He was assigned to a  Field Engineer Company.

The White Star Liner, S.S. Suevic. (State Library of Victoria, Allan C. Green Collection)

Sailing froma Australia, Lancaster embarked aboard S.S. Suevic at Sydney, New South Wales, 11 November 1916, with an initial destination of Cape Town, Union of South Africa. He was taken off the ship and placed in a hospital there, 14 December 1916. (The nature of his illness is not known.)

On12 January 1917, went aboard S.S. Ursova to continue to the war zone.

The Orient Steam Navigation Company liner S.S. Orsova at Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. (John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.

Lancaster was next transferred to Australian Flying Corps as a mechanic. He volunteered for flight training and was sent to an officers training corps in England.

On 1 November 1917 William Lancaster was commissioned as a second lieutenant, Australian Flying Corps. He was discharged 14 October 1918 for medical reasons, described in his military records as “debility, nervous instability.” Medical officers wrote that he had a “decreasing tendency to frontal headaches—Has a slight nervous hesitation in speech, tremors of hands, resulting from airplane crash. . .”

Following his discharge from the A.F.C., Lancaster was commissioned  a second lieutenant in the Royal Air Force. For his service during World War I. Lieutenant Lancaster was awarded the 1914–195 Star, the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal.

In April 1919, Lieutenant Lancaster married Mrs. Annie Maud Mervyn-Colomb, a war widow, at Kensington, just west of Central London. They would have two daughters, Patricia Maud Lancaster and Nina Ann Lancaster.

Following the War, Lieutenant Lancaster served with No. 31 Squadron at Peshawar, on the North-West Frontier of British India (now, Pakistan).

Flying Officer William Newton Lancaster, Royal Air Force. Lancaster is wearing the 1914–1915 Star, the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal. (Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Lancaster returned to England and on 21 April 1921 received at short-service commission as a Flying Officer, assigned to No. 25 Squadron at Folkestone, a port city on the English Channel, in southeast England.

On 30 April 1926, Flying Officer Lancaster relinquished his officer’s commission, have completed his term of service. He was transferred to the Reserve, Class A.

Keith-Miller and William Lancaster with the Avro Avian, Red Rose, at Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, 1928.

In 1927, Lancaster, along with Mrs. Jessie Maude Keith-Miller, flew an Avro Avian, Red Rose, from England to Australia. Keith-Miller had insisted on obtaining the permission of Mrs. Lancaster for her to accompany Lancaster. They would become friends.

In 1928, Lancaster and Keith-Miller emigrated to the United States, leaving Mrs Lancaster and the children in England.

In 1932, Lancaster was accused of murdering Charles Haden Clarke, another lover of his lover, Mrs. Keith-Miller. Mrs. Keith-Miller, another Australian, had previously accompanied Lancaster on a flight from England to Australia in 1927. The flight inspired her to become a pilot herself. Mrs. Keith-Miller became a friend of Mrs. Lancaster. A murder trial was held in Miami, Florida in August 1932. Lancaster was acquitted after jury deliberated for five hours.

Following the trial both Lancaster and Keith-Miller sailed from the United States from England.

The wreckage of the Southern Cross Minor has been in the collection of the Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Australia, since 1980.

Wreckage of the Southern Cross Minor on display at the Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. (Queensland Museum)

© 2023, Bryan R. Swopes

 

12 April 1918

Aviation, , , , , , , , , , , ,
Malcolm and Allan Loughead in cockpit of their F-1 flying boat, 1918. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)

12 April  1918: Allan and Malcolm Loughead, owners of the Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company of Santa Barbara, California, set speed and distance records as they flew their twin-engine, ten-place F-1 flying boat from Santa Barbara to San Diego. The F-1 traveled 211 miles (340 kilometers) in 3 hours, 1 minute.¹

The F-1 took off from the waters off West Beach at Santa Barbara at 9:21 a.m., passed Point Fermin at 10:40 a.m., Oceanside at 11:55 a.m., and arrived at North Island at 12:23 p.m.² The airplane was flown by the two Loughead Brothers and carried two passengers.

The Southern California shorline from Santa Barbara, at the upper left, to San Diego, at the lower right. (Google Maps)

GREAT SEAPLANE MAKES RECORD ON FLIGHT

     SAN DIEGO, April 12.—The big seaplane F-1, piloted by Malcolm Loughead and carrying three passengers, arrived here at 12:23 this afternoon.

     The F-1 left Santa Barbara at 9:21 this morning and the estimated distance of 190 miles between that city and San Diego was therefore covered in exactly three hours and two minutes, a speed of approximately 63 1-3 miles an hour. The big seaplane was first sighted over Point Loma and within a few minutes alighted on the surface of San Diego Bay a short distance from the United States army aviation station at North Island. At 12:23 the seaplane reached the North Island landing and was hauled ashore by army men in waiting. According to Pilot Loughead, the trip was made without incident, although during the latter part of the trip headwinds were met with which retarded the speed of the aircraft.

————

     Three hours and two minutes by air flight to San Diego from Santa Barbara—that’s the record established today by Allan and Malcolm Loughead, in their big hydroplane, F-1, carrying as passengers Alfred Holt and Carl Christopherson, employees of the Loughead Aeroplane Manufacturing Company.

     The distance of 190 miles, by airplane, was made without mishap. The start from Santa Barbara gathered quite a group of citizens, among them being a number of stockholders in the Loughead company, and thousands would have been there to witness the notable start had it been known at what hour the flight would start.

     During the morning the Lougheads received a dispatch from government officials at the aviation headquarters on North Island, San Diego, informing them that air and ocean conditions were perfect all the way south, and asking that the flight be made today.

     The Lougheads were even at that moment getting ready for the departure, and arrangements were hastened. The bay was ruffled by a breeze, and the combers sparkled in the warm sunlight, as the hydroplane motors were started, and the big fans began to whirr. There were hasty farewells, and every man waved his hat and every woman present shook a kerchief, while the cheers broke forth from all as the big plane sped down the ways, and went skidding into the sea.

     At the wheels were Allan and Malcolm Loughead, while Christopherson and Holt occupied places in the passengers’ quarters at the head of the big plane. The machine was guided in a half circle, taking a southwesterly course at first, until beyond the pleasure pier, where it rose from the bosom of the sea, and rapidly ascended to an altitude of about 500 feet, when it took a southeasterly course, and heading down the channel toward Oxnard.

     It was a perfect get-away, and no bird ever took to the air more gracefully than the big plane rose above the sea and soared away, easily, the very hypothesis of graceful motion, and the speed at which it was travelling soon took it out of sight to the south.

     From Ventura and Hueneme the flight was witnessed by a large number of citizens, and at Point Fermin, near San Pedro, the passing of the plane attracted great interest. In fact, all the way south, great crowds watched eagerly and it was a continuous ovation that greeted the airmen from the land.

     At San Diego the fliers were met by a big crowd, and their stay in the southern city is being made one prolonged reception. From many points along the coast today telephone and telegraph messages have flashed, reporting the passing of the machine, whose eventful trip is the biggest sensation of the day in aviation circles.

     It is stated that the flight establishes a long distance record for a passenger-carrying hydroplane. The plane will be tested out by the government aviation officials, and it is expected that within a very few days the announcement will be made of a contract awarded the Loughead Brothers by the government for other machines.

     Experts who have examined the F-1 state that it is perfectly built, and the finest machine of its class afloat.     

—The Santa Barbara Daily News and the Independent, Friday, 12 April 1918, Page 1, Column 6

Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company F-1. (Lockheed Martin).

Designed by friend and employee John Knudson (“Jack”) Northrop, and built in a garage on State Street, the F-1 was launched on a wooden ramp at West Beach.

The airplane was intended for the U.S. Navy, but the end of World War I ended the requirement for new airplanes.

The Loughead F-1 was a twin-engine, three-bay biplane flying boat operated by a crew of 2. It could carry 8–10 passengers. The airplane was 35 feet (10.668 meters) long. The span of the upper wing was 74 feet (22.555 meters) and the lower wing was 47 feet (14.326 meters). The height was 12 feet (3.658 meters). The F-1 had an empty weight of 4,200 pounds (1,905 kilograms) and gross weight of 7,300 pounds (3,311 kilograms).

Loughead F-1 at Santa Barbara, 1918. (San Diego Air and Space Museum)
Loughead F-1 at Santa Barbara, 1918. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)

The F-1 was powered by two right-hand tractor, water-cooled, normally-aspirated 909.22-cubic-inch-displacement (14.899 liters) Hall-Scott A-5-engines. These were inline six-cylinder single-overhead-camshaft (SOHC) engines with a compression ratio of 4.6:1. It was rated at 150 horsepower and produced 165 horsepower at 1,475 r.p.m. The engines were mounted on steel struts between the upper and lower wings. The engines were direct-drive and turned two-bladed, fixed pitch propellers with a diameter of 8 feet, 8 inches (2.642 meters). The Hall-Scott A-5-a was 5 feet, 2.5 inches (1.588 meters) long, 2 feet, 0 inches (0.610 meters) wide and 3 feet, 7.875 inches (1.114 meters) high. It weighed 595 pounds (270 kilograms).

The F-1 had a cruise speed of 70 miles per hour (113 kilometers per hour) and maximum speed of 84 miles per hour (135 kilometers per hour).

The F-1 was converted to a land plane with tricycle undercarriage and redesignated F-1A. During an attempted transcontinental flight, it twice suffered engine failure and was damaged. Reconfigured as a flying boat, the airplane was used for sight-seeing before being sold. It was abandoned on a beach at Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of Southern California, and was eventually destroyed.

Loughead F-1, 1918. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)

The Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company would go on to become one of the world’s leading aerospace corporations.

¹ The certifying source for this “record” is not known. The distance flown and elapsed time for the flight cited here are from Wikipedia. The Great Circle distance from today’s Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) to NAS North Island (NZY) is 193 statute miles (311 kilometers). However, contemporary news reports suggest that the Loughead brothers flew the F-1 along California’s southern coastline, rather than making a direct flight across the Santa Barbara Channel, Santa Monica Bay, the Catalina Channel, and on to San Diego Bay. At the time of this flight, the governing body for aviation in the United States was the Aero Club of America, while official flight records were certified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, which was based in France. The ACA ceased to exist in 1923, replaced by today’s National Aeronautic Association. The FAI online records database list only two world records set in 1918, both altitude records set by Major Rudolph Schroeder, 18 September 1918, at Dayton, Ohio.

² The Los Angeles Times, the Oakland Tribune and the San Bernardino Daily Sun state that the time of the takeoff was 9:23 a.m. The Tribune cites the arrival time as 12:24 p.m., while the Daily Sun reported the time as both 12:32 and 12:24. Various newspapers reported the distance flown by the F-1 as 190 miles (306 kilometers), while The Salt Lake Herald-Republican-Telegram printed that it was 200 miles (322 kilometers).

© 2023, Bryan R. Swopes

11 April 1975

Aviation, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
A formation of NASA's five Lockheed F-104 Starfighters, 11 April 1975. (NASA/Bob Rhine)
A formation of NASA’s five Lockheed F-104 Starfighters, 11 April 1975. (NASA/Bob Rhine)

11 April 1975: “The only time the five ship fleet of NASA Dryden’s F-104 Starfighters was ever airborne at the same time. Pilots were: F-104N #811-Bill Dana; F-104N #812-Tom McMurtry; F-104A #818-Einar Enevoldson; F-104A #820-Gary Krier; and F-104B #819-Fitz Fulton and Ray Young. Photo taken from T-38 #821 flown by Don Mallick.”

11 April 1970, 19:13:00.65 UTC, Range Zero + 000:00:00.65

Space Flight, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Apollo 13 (AS-508) lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, 19:13:00 UTC, 11 April 1970. (NASA)
Apollo 13 (AS-508) lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, 19:13:00 UTC, 11 April 1970. (NASA)

11 April 1970: At 2:13:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, Apollo 13 was launched from Launch Complex 39A at  the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida. This mission was planned to be the third manned lunar landing. The destination was the Fra Mauro Highlands. In command was Captain James A. Lovell, Jr., United States Navy. The Command Module Pilot was John L. “Jack” Swigert, Jr. (who was originally scheduled as the backup CSM pilot, but had replaced Lieutenant Commander T. Kenneth Mattingly II, USN, just three days before launch). and the Lunar Module Pilot was Fred W. Haise, Jr., A NASA astronaut (formerly a U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, test pilot and instructor).

Apollo 13 flight crew, left to right: James A. Lovell, Jr., John L. Swigert, Jr., Fred W. Haise, Jr. (NASA)

The crew change had been made because it was believed that Ken Mattingly had been exposed to measles and NASA administrators did not want to risk that he might become ill during the flight.

The F-1 engines of the S-IC first stage shut down at 2 minutes, 43.6 seconds. After being jettisoned, the first stage continued on a ballistic trajectory and fell into the Atlantic Ocean at 000:09:52.64, 355.3 nautical miles (408.9 statute miles/658.0 kilometers) from the launch site.

At T + 000:05:30.64, while accelerating toward Earth orbit, the center J-2 engine on the Saturn S-II second stage shut down 2 minutes, 12.36 seconds early, which required the other four engines to increase their burn by 34.53 seconds, and the S-IVB third stage engine had to burn 9 seconds seconds longer than planned to achieve the necessary velocity for orbital insertion. The second stage traveled 2,452.6 nautical miles (2,822.4 statute miles/4,542.2 kilometers) before hitting the Atlantic’s surface at T + 20 minutes, 58.1 seconds.

Following the Trans Lunar Injection maneuver, Apollo 13’s S-IVB third stage was intentionally crashed into the lunar surface. The impact took place at 00:09:41 UTC, 15 April. The stage was traveling at 5,600 miles per hour (9,012 kilometers per hour). The energy at impact was equivalent to the explosion 7.7 tons of TNT.

The Apollo 13 mission did not go as planned. An explosion inside the service module was a very near disaster, and the lunar landing had to be aborted. Returning the three astronauts safely to Earth became the primary task.

Damage to Apollo 13’s Service Module, photographed just after separation. (NASA)

The Saturn V rocket was a three-stage, liquid-fueled heavy launch vehicle. Fully assembled with the Apollo Command and Service Module, it stood 363 feet (110.642 meters) tall. The first and second stages were 33 feet (10.058 meters) in diameter. Fully loaded and fueled the rocket weighed 6,200,000 pounds (2,948,350 kilograms). It could lift a payload of 260,000 pounds (117,934 kilograms) to Low Earth Orbit.

Apollo 13/Saturn V (AS-508) during rollout, 16 December 1969. (NASA 69-HC-1269)

The first stage was designated S-IC. It was designed to lift the entire rocket to an altitude of 220,000 feet (67,056 meters) and accelerate to a speed of more than 5,100 miles per hour (8,280 kilometers per hour). The S-IC stage was built by Boeing at the Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, Louisiana. It was 138 feet (42.062 meters) tall and had an empty weight of 290,000 pounds (131,542 kilograms). Fully fueled with 203,400 gallons (770,000 liters) of RP-1 and 318,065 gallons (1,204,000 liters) of liquid oxygen, the stage weighed 5,100,000 pounds (2,131,322 kilograms). It was propelled by five Rocketdyne F-1 engines, producing 1,522,000 pounds of thrust, each, for a total of 7,610,000 pounds of thrust at Sea Level. These engines were ignited seven seconds prior to lift off and the outer four burned for 168 seconds. The center engine was shut down after 142 seconds to reduce the rate of acceleration. The F-1 engines were built by the Rocketdyne Division of North American Aviation at Canoga Park, California.

Saturn V first stage Rocketdyne F-1 engines running, producing 7.5 million pounds of thrust. Ice falls from the rocket. The hold-down arms have not yet been released. (NASA)

The S-II second stage was built by North American Aviation at Seal Beach, California. It was 81 feet, 7 inches (24.87 meters) tall and had the same diameter as the first stage. The second stage weighed 80,000 pounds (36,000 kilograms) empty and 1,060,000 pounds loaded. The propellant for the S-II was liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The stage was powered by five Rocketdyne J-2 engines, also built at Canoga Park. Each engine produced 232,250 pounds of thrust, and combined, 1,161,250 pounds of thrust.

The Saturn V third stage was designated S-IVB. It was built by McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company at Huntington Beach, California. The S-IVB was 58 feet, 7 inches (17.86 meters) tall with a diameter of 21 feet, 8 inches (6.604 meters). It had a dry weight of 23,000 pounds (10,000 kilograms) and fully fueled weighed 262,000 pounds. The third stage had one J-2 engine and also used liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for propellant. The S-IVB would place the Command and Service Module into Low Earth Orbit, then, when all was ready, the J-2 would be restarted for the Trans Lunar Injection.

Eighteen Saturn V rockets were built. They were the most powerful machines ever built by man.

© 2019, Bryan R. Swopes

Medal of Honor, Airman 1st Class William Hart Pitsenbarger, United States Air Force

Aviation, , , , , , , ,
Airman 1st Class William Hart Pitsenbarger, United States Air Force

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, March 3, 1863 has awarded in the name of the Congress the Medal of Honor posthumously to:

A1C WILLIAM H. PITSENBARGER
UNITED STATES AIR FORCE
for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty Near Cam My, 11 April 1966:

Rank and organization: Airman First Class, U.S. Air Force, Detachment 6, 38th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron, Bien Hoa Air Base, Republic of Vietnam.

Place and date: Near Cam My, 11 April 1966

Entered service at: Piqua, Ohio

Born: 8 July 1944, Piqua, Ohio

Citation: Airman First Class Pitsenbarger distinguished himself by extreme valor on 11 April 1966 near Cam My, Republic of Vietnam, while assigned as a Pararescue Crew Member, Detachment 6, 38th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron. On that date, Airman Pitsenbarger was aboard a rescue helicopter responding to a call for evacuation of casualties incurred in an on-going firefight between elements of the United States Army’s 1st Infantry Division and a sizable enemy force approximately 35 miles east of Saigon. With complete disregard for personal safety, Airman Pitsenbarger volunteered to ride a hoist more than one hundred feet through the jungle, to the ground. On the ground, he organized and coordinated rescue efforts, cared for the wounded, prepared casualties for evacuation, and insured that the recovery operation continued in a smooth and orderly fashion. Through his personal efforts, the evacuation of the wounded was greatly expedited. As each of the nine casualties evacuated that day were recovered, Pitsenbarger refused evacuation in order to get one more wounded soldier to safety. After several pick-ups, one of the two rescue helicopters involved in the evacuation was struck by heavy enemy ground fire and was forced to leave the scene for an emergency landing. Airman Pitsenbarger stayed behind, on the ground, to perform medical duties. Shortly thereafter, the area came under sniper and mortar fire. During a subsequent attempt to evacuate the site, American forces came under heavy assault by a large Viet Cong force. When the enemy launched the assault, the evacuation was called off and Airman Pitsenbarger took up arms with the besieged infantrymen. He courageously resisted the enemy, braving intense gunfire to gather and distribute vital ammunition to American defenders. As the battle raged on, he repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire to care for the wounded, pull them out of the line of fire, and return fire whenever he could, during which time, he was wounded three times. Despite his wounds, he valiantly fought on, simultaneously treating as many wounded as possible. In the vicious fighting which followed, the American forces suffered 80 percent casualties as their perimeter was breached, and airman Pitsenbarger was finally fatally wounded. Airman Pitsenbarger exposed himself to almost certain death by staying on the ground, and perished while saving the lives of wounded infantrymen. His bravery and determination exemplify the highest professional standards and traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Air Force.

Airman 1st Class William Hart Pitsenbarger, United States Air Force, with his Colt M-16 rifle and Kaman HH-43 Huskie rescue helicopter. (U.S. Air force)
Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor

© 2017, Bryan R. Swopes