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Any idea who this USAF Colonel is?


DutchInfid3l
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Sure looks like Dorothy Lamour standing with the Col. or has someone already mentioned that?

 

There wasn't anything written on the back of the photo, the Hawaiian lady one or the lady walking with the Col. with the men saluting.

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  • 10 months later...
DutchInfid3l

is THIS the same guy? I ran across this photo while looking up something else and immediately remembered this unknown photo from this thread


Then Colonel Richard T. Kight


Based on a study completed by Lieutenant General Hoyt S. Vandenberg after the end of hostilities in WWII, the Air Rescue Service(ARS) was stood up under Air Transport Command (ATC) on 13 March 1946 and based at Washington National Airport. In December of the year, Colonel Richard T. Kight took over command of ARS. Colonel Kight had been tasked to either build up ARS or shut it down. He became an avid supporter of the organization and implemented plans and programs that pushed for the improvement and expansion of the service and its rescue culture. He wrote the rescue code and motto, created its emblem, and fought hard for more resources. In 1947, Colonel Kight also initiated the formal founding of USAF pararescue based on heroic precedents in WWII and soon medical parachute jumpers were added to ARS.

His USAF bio

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DutchInfid3l
Looks like the man! The photos were likely taken at the same sitting, one with the hat and one without.

 

Great! So my eyes aren't playing tricks on me!

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...Great! So my eyes aren't playing tricks on me!

Good work tracking this one down, Sarah.

 

p.s. You own the better picture of Col. Kight, too (w/o hat).

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DutchInfid3l

 

 

Good work tracking this one down, Sarah.

p.s. You own the better picture of Col. Kight, too (w/o hat).


Completely by accident! I was merely looking at random squadron patches of the Air Rescue Service on a site, and THERE he was.

Now that I know his name here's another I've found regarding his DFC.

Four in Plane-Ferrying Crew
Honored for Flight to Java

Four of a crew of eight members of the United States Army Air Force Ferrying Command, Foreign Branch, yesterday learned belatedly that they had been awarded Distinguished Flying Crosses about a week ago.
The news came when an employee of the Miramar Hotel, Santa Monica, where the quartet has been stopping while on official business at the Douglas Aircraft Co., congratulated them.
The award was made for completing a hazardous flight of 12,000 miles to Java and return, delivering a load of vital equipment.
En route during a storm off the coast of Africa the radio antenna was struck by lightning and numerous holes were burned in the plane. They were attacked by Japs off Palembang, Sumatra, and were in the midst of bombings in Java, which they left about three weeks before its fall.
The four members of the crew in Santa Monica are Capt. Richard Kight, Lieut. Charles Allen Jr., Sergt. James Cooper and Sergt. Richard Barrett.
The other four members of the crew who are now on duty elsewhere are Lieut. K. L. Akins, Lieut. Joseph M. Moe, Technical Sergeant Harry Smith and Staff Sergeant R. Wyncoop.

Source:

Unknown, "Four in Plane-Ferrying Crew Honored for Flight to Java," Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Thursday, 14 May, 1942, p. 3.

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DutchInfid3l

The New York Times, New York, Thursday, 7 May 1942

 

WASHINGTON, May 6 (AP)--The award of the Distinguished Flying Cross to eight officers and enlisted men of the Air Corps for a hazardous and technically difficult flight "on an urgent and vital mission" to the Netherlands Indies was announced today by the War Department.

The men formed the crew of an Army bomber, which was subjected to a bombing raid at Palembang, Java. It also was struck by lightning during a severe electrical storm and burned in several places, but nevertheless returned to Washington with its mission successfully completed.

The members of the crew were First Lieutenant Richard T. Kight of Lubbock, Texas, the pilot; First Lieutenant Kenneth L. Akins, Sacramento, Calif., co-pilot; Second Lieutenant Charles T. Allen, Birmingham, Ala., first navigator; Second Lieutenant John G. Moe, Philadelphia, second navigator; Technical Sergeant James M. Cooper, Philadelphia, first engineer; Technical Sergeant Harry Smith, Brooklyn, N. Y., second engineer; Sergeant Richard J. Barrett Jr., Philadelphia, first radio operator, and Staff Sergeant Errol W. Wynkoop, Pottsville, Pa., second radio operator.

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DutchInfid3l

Originally titled "The Code of the Air Rescueman", it was penned by the first commander of the Air Rescue Service, (then) Lt. Col. Richard T. Kight and is also still used by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC).

 

It is my duty as a Pararescueman to save life and to aid the injured. I will be prepared at all times to perform my assigned duties quickly and efficiently, placing these duties before personal desires and comforts. These things I do, that others may live.

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  • 3 months later...

Found more!Unmistakenly him. In these he's actually getting awarded the DFC! :D
Bolling Field, May 16, 1942

Third from left...

Third from left, enhanced...

Left...

Same photo, enhanced...

On right...

Getting it pinned on...

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Brig. Gen. Harold L. George, Commander of the Ferrying Command, presents the DFC to Air Force Officers and men for Ferrying Command Flights.

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  • 3 years later...

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