Obituaries (1 Viewer)

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Lincoln F. "Babe" Broyhill died Nov. 21 of congestive heart failure at his home in Oakton. He was 83.

He initially served with the 8th Air Force, based in England. He later was assigned to the 15th Air Force, 840th Bomb Squadron, before joining the 483rd Bombardment Group, based in Foggia, Italy.

From the Washington Times:
On a March day in 1945, 20-year-old Babe Broyhill found himself sitting exposed as the tail gunner on "Big Yank," a B-17 Flying Fortress in the skies over Berlin.

The plane was in the tail-end Charlie position, bringing up the rear in a 28-plane formation. Near the mission target, the Daimler-Benz tank works, young Mr. Broyhill watched Luftwaffe ME-262 jet fighters swarm like hornets toward Big Yank's tail.

"They were about 1,000 yards away when I started cutting loose with my guns," he recalled for a military history. "The first made a pass at 200 yards, and my tracers were going right into its fuselage. Suddenly it went down in flames. The second came into my sights after the first had dropped. I kept shooting away, because he was getting into my hair. Suddenly it also spiraled down."

The Big Yank crew set a record for the number of German ME-262 jets destroyed by one crew on one mission -- three -- and Mr. Broyhill individually set two records that day over Berlin: most German jets destroyed by a single gunner in one mission (two) and most German jets destroyed by a single gunner during the entire war (two).

The 483rd Bombardment Group received a Distinguished Unit Citation for its exploits, due in no small part to the achievements of Mr. Broyhill and his fellow Big Yank crew members.
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washingtonpost.com - obituaries

Thanks to RedBeard for the headsup.

* Also wanted to add a link to some good history regarding "Big Yank" and Broyhill's buddies:
warbirdsresourcegroup - Big Yank
 
Another Doolittle Raider has passed:
Edwin Weston Horton Jr., 6139178, Master Sergeant
Gunner Crew 10

Graduated from High School in 1934 and entered service on September 30, 1935 at Providence, Rhode Island. Served overseas with Field Artillery as Schofield Barracks, Hawaii from 1935 to 1938 before re-enlisting and serving with the 95th Bomb Squadron at March Field, California. Completed Gun Turret-Maintenance School, Aircraft Armorer and Aircraft Mechanics Schools. Remained in China-Burma-India Theater after Tokyo Raid until July, 1943. Held various Stateside assignments in Oklahoma and Florida. Served overseas at Wheelus Field, Tripoli, Libya and retired from the service in 1960. Decorations include Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Chinese Army, Navy, and Air Corps Medal, Class A, 1st Grade.

Born March 28, 1916, North Eastham, Massachusetts
Died November 26th, 2008, Ft. Walton Beach, Florida
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:salute:
 
Lt. Gen. William Pitts, war hero

Lt. Gen. William Pitts, war hero | Inland News | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California

OBITUARY: He was born at March Air Force Base and later commanded the 15th Air Force from there. He was 89.

10:00 PM PST on Wednesday, December 31, 2008

By DAVID OLSON
The Press-Enterprise

Lt. Gen. William Pitts, a World War II hero who was born at March Air Force Base and later commanded the 15th Air Force from the base, died Tuesday at his Riverside home.

Lt. Gen. Pitts was 89. He died from cancer and complications from a broken pelvis suffered in a September fall, said his daughter, Dale Cowgill.

"If there is one word to sum him up, it was that he was a patriot," said Paul Gill, a former wing commander at March and close friend of Lt. Gen. Pitts. "He loved his country and put that love into action."
Story continues below

Longtime friend Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, said Lt. Gen. Pitts was an institution in the Inland area.

"People trusted him and a lot of people looked up to him, as I did," Calvert said. "He was a great man and a great friend, and he did great service to our country."

Lt. Gen. Pitts had deep family roots in both the military and the Riverside area.

Lt. Gen. Pitts' father was a career military officer, and Lt. Gen. Pitts was born at March Field Hospital on Thanksgiving Day 1919, a year after the March base opened. The Pittses lived on Larchwood Street in Riverside until they became the first family to live in newly built base housing.

In a 2005 oral history recorded at March, Lt. Gen. Pitts recalled how he delivered newspapers and sold magazines on the base as a kid. When he was 10, he took his first airplane ride. When the plane landed, he vowed to become an Air Force pilot.

Lt. Gen. Pitts graduated from West Point in 1943. He flew 25 World War II missions against Japan in a B-29 Superfortress.

In his last mission in the bomber, then-Capt. Pitts was shot down off the Japanese coast. He parachuted seconds before the plane exploded and was rescued by a submarine.

In the decades that followed, Lt. Gen. Pitts rose up the ranks and earned three stars. He served a tour of duty as a NATO commander in Turkey, four tours at the Pentagon, and stints as a diplomat in Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, England and Taiwan.

In 1972, he returned to his birthplace as commander of the 15th Air Force.

"For him to come back as March Air Force commander was the ultimate thrill," Gill said. "It was home like no place was home."

After retirement in 1975, Lt. Gen. Pitts and his wife, Doris, moved to Washington, D.C. In the early 1990s, they bought a home in Riverside, where he lived until his death.

Lt. Gen. Pitts continued his close relationship with March during retirement, helping to keep the base open. It was closed as an Air Force base in 1993 and is now an air reserve base. A stone post honors Lt. Gen. Pitts at March's parade grounds.

In 2000, Lt. Gen. Pitts hammered a pair of his copper wings on the Famous Fliers Wall of the Mission Inn in Riverside, joining famous aviators such as Amelia Earhart, Chuck Yeager and Charles Lindbergh.

While raising money as a board member of the March Field Air Museum, Lt. Gen. Pitts met donor Dick Alden, former CEO of Bloomington-based Empire Oil Co.

The two became friends and golfed regularly at Riverside's Victoria Club.

"I was a lowly enlisted man, but he always said to me, 'You're a 5-star corporal,' " Alden, an Air Force veteran, recalled.

"We've got colonels at the Victoria Club who swagger around and are rather obnoxious," Alden, 77, said. "But he was never one to be boastful. He was a grand old man."

Cowgill, 62, said her father never looked down on people. He empathized with and cared about those he led, she said.

"He loved people and loved the men he worked with," Cowgill said. "He would never have asked people to do something he wouldn't do himself. He never had to earn respect. It was something given freely. He just had that magnetism."

Although Lt. Gen. Pitts was well-loved, he was stern when he needed to be, both to his three daughters and to his men, Cowgill said.

"He believed in discipline, but discipline with a great deal of love," Cowgill said.

Lt. Gen. Pitts celebrated his 60th anniversary with Doris on Dec. 22. Theirs was a love that never waned, Cowgill said.

"My mother was the great love of his life," she said. "They were together for 60 years and in love. That's how he died: holding my mother's hand."

Lt. Gen. Pitts is survived by wife, Doris; daughters Cowgill, of Oak Park; Alisha Pitts, of Encino, and Linda Terrie, of the Sacramento area; sister Nanetta Atkinson, of Oklahoma City; and four grandchildren.

There will be no services, Cowgill said. The family is planning a memorial service at West Point, she said.
 
Elzbieta Zawacka, Poland's top WWII female messenger, army general, dies at 99 :salute:

Elzbieta Zawacka, known also by her war-time nom de guerre Zo, (March
19, 1909 - January 10, 2009) was a Polish university professor,
scouting instructor, and a freedom fighter during World War II. She
was also a Brigadier General of the Polish Army (the second and last
in the history), promoted by President Lech Kaczynski on May 3, 2006.
The only woman among the Cichociemni, she served as a courier for the
Home Army, carrying letters and other documents from Nazi-occupied
Poland to the Polish government in exile and back. Her regular route
ran from Warsaw through Berlin and Sweden to London. She was also
responsible for organizing routes for other couriers of the Home Army.

Awards for Zawacka include: Virtuti Militari, Order of the White Eagle
and Krzyz Walecznych.

Biography
Zawacka was born in Thorn (Toruń), West Prussia and graduated from
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznañ with a major in mathematics. In
the late 1930s she worked as a teacher at several high schools,
simultaneously working as an instructor for the paramilitary
organization Przysposobienie Wojskowe Kobiet (Female Military
Training). During the Polish September Campaign, she was the
commandant of the Silesian District of Przysposobienie Wojskowe
Kobiet, participating in the defence of Lwów.

In October 1939 she joined the Silesian branch of Zwiazek Walki
Zbrojnej under the nom de guerre "Zelma", which later was changed to
"Zo". In late 1940 she was moved to Warsaw and began her courier
trips. She was also a deputy of Zagroda--the Department of Foreign
Communication of the Home Army. In February of 1943 she traveled
across Germany, France and Spain to Gibraltar, where she was
transported by air to London. In Great Britain she went through
parachute training, and on September 10, 1943, dropped into Poland, as
the only woman in the history of the Cichociemni.

In 1944 Zawacka fought in the Warsaw Uprising, after its collapse
moved to Kraków, where she continued her underground activities. In
1945 she joined the anti-Communist organization Freedom and
Independence (WiN), but quit soon afterwards and took up the job of a
teacher.

In 1951 she was arrested and tortured by Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa
(Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs). She was
sentenced to 10 years in prison for treason and espionage, but her
sentence was shortened and she was released in 1955. After her release
from prison, she earned a doctorate degree from Gdansk University. She
was a tenured professor at the Institute of Pedagogy at Mikolaj
Kopernik University in Torun where she established department of
Andragogy. She retired from teaching in 1978 after Sluzba
Bezpieczeñstwa repressively closed that department. She was active
member of the World Union of Home Army Soldiers and cooperated with
Solidarnosc in the 1980s.

:salute:
 

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