FReeper Canteen ~ Hall of Heroes: David R Kingsley ~ 21 October 2019

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[Kathy in Alaska]

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David Kingsley

Info from this website.

           

KINGSLEY, DAVID R. (Air Mission)

Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Corps, 97th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force.
Place and date: Ploesti Raid, Rumania, 23 June 1944.
Entered service at. Portland, Oregon.
Birth: Oregon. G.O. No.: 26, 9 April 1945.

Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty, 23 June 1944 near Ploesti, Rumania, while flying as bombardier of a B17 type aircraft.

On the bomb run 2d Lt. Kingsley's aircraft was severely damaged by intense flak and forced to drop out of formation but the pilot proceeded over the target and 2d Lt. Kingsley successfully dropped his bombs, causing severe damage to vital installations. The damaged aircraft, forced to lose altitude and to lag behind the formation, was aggressively attacked by 3 ME-109 aircraft, causing more damage to the aircraft and severely wounding the tail gunner in the upper arm. The radio operator and engineer notified 2d Lt. Kingsley that the tail gunner had been wounded and that assistance was needed to check the bleeding. 2d Lt. Kingsley made his way back to the radio room, skillfully applied first aid to the wound, and succeeded in checking the bleeding. The tail gunner's parachute harness and heavy clothes were removed and he was covered with blankets, making him as comfortable as possible. Eight ME-109 aircraft again aggressively attacked 2d Lt. Kingsley's aircraft and the ball turret gunner was wounded by 20mm. shell fragments. He went forward to the radio room to have 2d Lt. Kingsley administer first aid. A few minutes later when the pilot gave the order to prepare to bail out, 2d Lt. Kingsley immediately began to assist the wounded gunners in putting on their parachute harness. In the confusion the tail gunner's harness, believed to have been damaged, could not be located in the bundle of blankets and flying clothes which had been removed from the wounded men. With utter disregard for his own means of escape, 2d Lt. Kingsley unhesitatingly removed his parachute harness and adjusted it to the wounded tail gunner. Due to the extensive damage caused by the accurate and concentrated 20mm. fire by the enemy aircraft the pilot gave the order to bail out, as it appeared that the aircraft would disintegrate at any moment. 2d Lt. Kingsley aided the wounded men in bailing out and when last seen by the crewmembers he was standing on the bomb bay catwalk. The aircraft continued to fly on automatic pilot for a short distance, then crashed and burned. His body was later found in the wreckage. 2d Lt. Kingsley by his gallant heroic action was directly responsible for saving the life of the wounded gunner.

Friday, October 22, 2004
The gift of life
  By Todd Kepple
Courtesy of the Herald and the News of Oregon

 Phyllis Kingsley Rolison, sister of Second Lieutenant David Kingsley, touches a section of the plane in which her brother died 60 years ago  in Bulgaria. Rolison paid her first visit to the site where Kingsley's  B-17 bomber crashed in 1944. Debris from the plane was used in
construction of a memorial in Suhozem, Bulgaria.



'Second Lieutenant Kingsley made his way back to the radio room, skillfully applied first aid to the wound, and succeeded in checking the bleeding. ...

A few minutes later when the pilot gave the order to prepare to bail out, Second Lieutenant Kingsley immediately began to assist the wounded gunners.'

The Opissonya was struggling to maintain altitude as it flew away from its bombing target at Ploesti, Romania.

The B-17 Flying Fortress carrying Second Lieutenant David Kingsley and eight other members of the U.S. Army Air Force had dropped its payload on an oil storage facility, but had sustained damage from an anti-aircraft shell.

Its number 1 engine was out, and the plane had become separated from the formation of other bombers, leaving it vulnerable to enemy fighters. At some point, cables giving the pilot control over the tail section of the plane were severed.

Making matters worse, German ME-109 fighter planes scrambled from an air field at Karlovo, Bulgaria, and pursued the crippled Opissonya.

As the fighters attacked from the rear, 20-millimeter cannon fire hit tail gunner Mike Sullivan, injuring his head and shoulder, and damaging his parachute harness.

Sullivan crawled from the tail to the mid-section of the plane. Kingsley was asked to dress his wounds.

Kingsley removed the damaged parachute from Sullivan, and managed to stem the flow of blood from his wounded arm.

Kingsley's bomber, the Opissonya, sits at a base before its fateful final mission.

In an effort to keep the faltering plane aloft, the crew began throwing out unnecessary equipment, but the damage was too severe. The pilot struggled to maintain control, but knew that if the plane began a nosedive, it would be increasingly difficult for its crew to escape.

He signaled for the crew to bail out.

With Sullivan's parachute damaged, and perhaps lost in the confusion, Kingsley took his own parachute off and strapped it on Sullivan. He then helped Sullivan to the bomb bay, and made sure Sullivan jumped safely.

"Carrying me in his arms, Lieutenant Kingsley struggled to get me through the door into the bomb bay," Sullivan told the Oregonian newspaper the following year, when Kingsley was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

"He told me to be sure and pull the rip cord after I had cleared the ship," Sullivan continued.

"I did and as I was floating down I saw the Fort fall off and go into a spin. It crashed, exploded and burned.

"The last time I saw Lieutenant Kingsley, he was standing on the catwalk over the open bomb bay doors."

All eight crewmen who jumped from the plane made it to the ground safely. Seven were captured and held as prisoners of war, while one was hidden by Bulgarians sympathetic to the allied cause.

Sullivan, circa 1995 'Carrying me in his arms, Lieutenant Kingsley struggled to get me through the door into the bomb bay. ... The last time I saw Lieutenant Kingsley, he was standing on the catwalk over the open bomb bay doors.'

The B-17 crashed near the village of Suhozem, a tiny remote village.

A Bulgarian air commander on the ground watched the plane go down and went to the crash site. He found Kingsley's body in the cockpit.

Witnesses on the ground said the plane circled before coming down, indicating Kingsley may have tried to save his own life by making a crash landing in a field.

Bulgarian villagers buried Kingsley in a makeshift grave. He was later reinterred at Arlington National Cemetery.

Two months after the crash of the Opissonya, Russian forces captured the heavily damaged oil field at Ploesti. The captured members of the Opissonya were held as prisoners until being released on September 10, 1944.

Kingsley was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on May 4, 1945. The award was presented to his brother, Navy Pharmacist's Mate First Class Thomas Kingsley, in a ceremony at St. Michael's Catholic Church in Portland. The ceremony was followed by a high mass.

The Klamath Falls municipal airport, which had served as a naval air station during World War II, was taken over by the Air Force in 1957. It was named Kingsley Field on July 3 of that year.

The U.S. Department of Defense closed its base at Kingsley Field in 1978, but the Oregon Air National Guard reopened the facility in 1980.

Three members of the Opissonya crew gathered for a reunion at Kingsley Field in June 1995. They were pilot Edwin "Andy" Anderson, ball turret gunner Stanley Kmiec, and tail gunner Mike Sullivan, whose life was saved by Kingsley.

Kmiec is the only member of the crew still living.

Over the past 60 years, the Kingsley family cherished fond memories of a brother and the military honored him as a hero.

But there was also mourning in Bulgaria, which became a satellite nation of the Soviet Union. While the story of Kingsley's sacrifice was memorialized in America, it's rarely mentioned that the crash killed members of a Bulgarian family on the ground.

Villagers who knew the family are expected to be among those attending the dedication of a memorial Saturday at the tiny village of Suhozem, Bulgaria.

More about David Kingsley at Home of the Heroes.

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[The Mayor]

Freep mail me to be on or off the Daily Bread ping list

October 21

A Feast of Love

Bible in a Year:

• Isaiah 62–64
• 1 Timothy 1

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. John 6:51 In the Danish film Babette’s Feast, a French refugee appears in a coastal village. Two elderly sisters, leaders of the community’s religious life, take her in, and for fourteen years Babette works as their housekeeper. When Babette comes into a large sum of money, she invites the congregation of twelve to join her for an extravagant French meal of caviar, quail in puff pastry, and more.

As they move from one course to the next, the guests relax; some find forgiveness, some find love rekindled, and some begin recalling miracles they’d witnessed and truths they’d learned in childhood. “Remember what we were taught?” they say. “Little children, love one another.” When the meal ends, Babette reveals to the sisters that she spent all she had on the food. She gave everything—including any chance of returning to her old life as an acclaimed chef in Paris—so that her friends, eating, might feel their hearts open.

Jesus appeared on earth as a stranger and servant, and He gave everything so that our spiritual hunger might be satisfied. In John’s gospel, He reminds His listeners that when their ancestors wandered hungry in the wilderness, God provided quail and bread (Exodus 16). That food satisfied for a time, but Jesus promises that those who accept Him as the “bread of life” will “live forever” (John 6:48, 51). His sacrifice satisfies our spiritual cravings.

By:  Amy Peterson

Reflect & Pray

How has God satisfied your hunger? What might it look like for you to give sacrificially?

Jesus, thank You for giving Your body and blood for us.

[left that other site]

Hi Everybody!

I’m Back!

(((HUGS)))

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, ML...((HUGS))...did you have a terrific mini vacation? Nice weather?

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Mayor, and thank you for today’s sustenance for body and soul.

All rested and ready to take on the new week?

[MarvinStinson]

Thank you for that, Kathy.

[SkyDancer]

~ Good Evening ~

~ Just Hanging ~

~ Good Evening ~

~ Welcome To My World ~

I’m Down There Somewhere

[left that other site]

The weather was MAGNIFICENT. Add to that the fall color and the almost-deserted beaches of Cape Cod in the off-season, and we had a great time. We went to visit our parents’ final resting place at the National Cemetery in Bourne, which was very touching and emotional for both of us. Then we proceeded down to Dennisport, where we stayed in a “tiny house” which made my trailer look like a palace :-) It was cute and clean and efficient, and had everything we needed, but for two women and a large dog was a wee bit cramped.

Fortunately, some restaurants and pubs were still open, and a few antique shops, but we mostly hiked. Penny LOVED it. But she is not fond of the ocean, and when my sister took off her shoes and rolled up her pant-legs to wade in the surf, Penny went into panic mode, and tried to “rescue” her from the water. She tugged on her sleeve and attempted to drag sis out of the surf, and wouldn’t give up until my sister relented and came back up onto the sand. Perhaps Penny knew that there had been many shark reports in the area or maybe she could sense them. or maybe she just doesn’t like salt water. Who knows? But now I know that penny is very protective, not only of me , but of my sister as well.

Good Girl!

[Roccus]

Welcome home Maj. James Blair White

\http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/3787727/posts

[The Mayor]

Yes, long day yesterday. Wedding at 4PM an hour and a half away. Didn’t get home until 12:15

Slept in this morning for a little while and heven’t done anything today

[Kathy in Alaska]

~ Hall of Heroes: David Kingsley ~

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[mylife]

musical interlude...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=115&v=TQrUDrwKoHE

[luvie]

Saluting a great hero...
🇺🇸 David Kingsley 🇺🇸

[Kathy in Alaska]

Welcome to the Canteen, MarvinStinson...glad you enjoyed this week’s Hall of Heroes, David Kingsley.

[luvie]

TORNADO IN NORTHWEST DALLAS NEAR LOVE FIELD. TAKE COVER IF YOU ARE NEAR THERE.

[radu]

Greetings to all at the Canteen!

To all our military men and women, past and present,

THANK YOU
for your service!

Witnesses on the ground said the plane circled before coming down, indicating Kingsley may have tried to save his own life by making a crash landing in a field.

As selfless as he was, he was also probably doing his utmost to keep the plane from crashing in the middle of the village.

[WildHighlander57]

Thank you!

Am in n.e. corner of the metroplex.

Prayers UP!!!

[luvie]

Be careful!!

[luvie]

it’s north of 635..south of Medula.

[radu]

Looks like a bad one. One of our storm chasers is at a shopping center that’s heavily damaged. A mess all over the parking lot. :-( Several people there and he didn’t see anyone who was injured and that’s a good thing. He can’t get out of the parking lot due to debris so is helping people who work in one of the restaurants.