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Lt-Col Harold George Knecht, B-24 Pilot, 778th Bomb Squadron, WWII-Korea-Vietnam


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Here is the group of Lieutenant-Colonel Harold George "Hardy/Hal" Knecht 17073873/A0706206. Born 11th June 1918 in Granite City, Illinois, Died 15th May 2007 Rescue, California (just outside Placerville, El Dorado County - His daughter Kimberly Gay designed the county flag).

This group came from an abandoned storage locker (close to where Knecht lived) and was no doubt saved from being scattered. He was predeceased by his daughter and wife but I did manage to track down his family (not too easy with female lines), although they were not interested in recovering the group.

 

Only the Commendation Medal is named.

 

The Air Medal was awarded by GO 819 of 21st February 1945 (I've not yet located that.)

 

Hal completed 25 combat missions during World War II as a pilot of a B-24 of the 778th Bomb Squadron, 464th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force.

 

He enlisted in the USAAF on 30th July 1942, before transferring to the Reserve and returning to full time USAF service until 1969.

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I have been trying to research Harold Knecht, finding some bits of information easier than other bits.

 

Here is the picture from his 1944 Graduation Annual from Bruce Field, Ballinger, Texas.

 

I also found a bit of info on an air incident he had;

 

DATE: February 13, 1955
AIRCRAFT: C-97A 49-2590
CREWMEMBER OR PILOT: Harold G Knecht
LOCATION: Midaway NAS, Midway Island
REMARKS: Aircraft hit bird during landing approach

 

C-97A 49-2590 had previously been converted to and from a KC-97A.

 

He married Phoebe Frances Ferguson in 1940 and they had a three daughters - Here is the family listed on travel documentation from 15th May 1956 (before Kim was born), whilst Knecht was a Captain in the 1502nd Air Transport Wing.

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An article on his transfer to Vietnam from the Edwardsville Intelligencer of 14th January 1964.

 

He is buried at Lakeside Memorial Lawn Cemetery, Folsom, California.

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Minnesota Commendation Medal.

 

I always try to keep groups together but it is impossible. I have reunited hundreds if not thousands of pieces over the years but that's just a drop in the ocean.

 

This group sold for a pitiful amount, which is the main reason as to how I was able to save it.

 

There is a list he compiled of all the aircraft he flew, I'll retrieve and post it soon.

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Here is a SB-29, one of only sixteen produced. I don't know if this one was flown by Knecht (it has a different paintjob to the picture he shows in the video).

 

Flying one of these round and round a bombing run will certainly have added to his 10,000+ flight hours.

 

2,500+ hours in a simulator?!?

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Great grouping!

 

The two silver OLCs on the AFCM would be a stretch considering the AFCM wasn't authorized until March 1959, retroactive to March1958. Two bronze OLCs is more probable.

 

The gold hourglass device is for 30 years of Reserve service on the Armed Forces Reserve Medal, but the Air Force Longevity Service Award reflects 20 years of service with the ribbon and four devices.

 

If he flew the SB-29, you might be able to locate some data on him through the Air Rescue Association.

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Unfortunately the Air-Rescue Association have nothing on Knecht.

All the awards, devices etc. are exactly as they came. So many awards of the Commendation Medal in only a decade does seem a little out of the ordinary, not impossible but not normal. It's just a shame the files aren't more available to check. From the interview he states that he went into the reserve before the Korean War only to return to the regulars, this may explain why the long service awards don't line up perfectly. I know he joined the USAAF on 30th July 1942, transferred to the reserve between the end of the war and Korea, returning to the USAF and leaving in 1969 - although I don't know if he continued in the reserve beyond 1969.

 

Also going by the criteria of the Air Medal, at his time and place of service on bombing runs, no oakleaf clusters makes it a little bit naked - but it lines up with the General Orders.

 

The Minnesota Commendation Medal is a bit of a curve ball too....

 

Here is a list of aircraft he piloted;

 

Aeronica 65 (Model unknown)
Piper J-5 Cub Cruiser
Fairchild PT-19
Vultee BT-13 Valiant
Beechcraft AT-7 Navigator
Cessna AT-17 Bobcat
Beechcraft AT-11 Kansan
Curtiss C-46 Commando
Douglas C-54 Skymaster
Douglas C-47 Gooney Bird
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
Consolidated B-24 Liberator
Boeing B-29 Superfortress
Boeing SB-29 Superfortress
Fairchild C-123 Provider
Boeing C-97 Stratocruiser

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  • 7 months later...

This is my grandfather! We called him "Pop Pop". I haven't seen his medals for a long time. Thank you for posting this and honoring him!

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  • 4 years later...

     You've indicated that the family was "not interested in recovering the group" of PopPop's medals.

     As the oldest of lt. Col. Harold George Knecht's surviving grandchildren, I'd like to officially correct that.  Following a fallout between my mom, Kathy Jordan (nee Knecht) and her sister Carolyn, PopPop's stuff had "disappeared."  (Apparently it went to a storage unit which was eventually ignored and forgotten.  Along with any other of his historical documents and memorabilia.)-:
     She also mentioned that I (well, perhaps my brothers and I collectively) had been willed his medals; I recall sitting on his lap while he regaled us with the tales that led to some of those awards.  The fact that they're on a red velvet field just assures me that that is indeed a photo of the ones he was holding at the time; they hung in a frame on the wall for as long as I can remember.

     Noticing he hadn't told us about all of them, I asked about the one with white and blue stripes, which he said he'd been presented after his service in Korea (I hadn't realized they didn't all have specific incidents behind them.)  I only distantly recall the story about a birdstrike during a landing, but I remember another award he received when one of the aircraft on the tarmac caught fire; he directed someone to call in the emergency, and then clambered aboard another aircraft for its fire extinguisher, and began to fight the fire in the aircraft that was aflame.
     I knew he had flown B-17s (he was working on a scale model kit of one, too; painting and applying decals) for some time) and a Douglas cargo plane (though I had forgotten which,) and flown air rescue (though I didn't know that was one of the reasons why he'd gotten to fly the B-29 (or the SB-29).  I had not known he flew B-24s in Italy; I thought they were B-17s.  (My wife even bought me a flight on a B-17 for my birthday.)

     When he retired, I know he was an O-5, but that grave marker photo indicates his rank as "Major."  I think my mom told us that if he'd stayed in for another year, he'd have gotten out as a "full bird," but he had been let down too many times.  Each new posting promised that he'd get to fly jets, but he never did; he finally walked away.

 

     Do you still have those medals in that frame?  Or anything else of his?  It's awfully noble of you to have saved what you did; I saved as much as I could of Becky Stone, USN - one of my wife's bridesmaids - when she'd had a stroke and was about to be evicted from her apartment...and then she died.  (Becky also happens to have been born in the same hospital as my mom: Granite City, Illinois, where PopPop was working at the steel mill until WWII got to needing him.  It was employed at that mill - Granite City Steel (now owned by US Steel) - that he spent his brief interregnum after returning from Italy, and before joining up again.)But she had no heirs, and no siblings, so I'm not quite sure what to do with it.

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36 minutes ago, SHJordan said:

     You've indicated that the family was "not interested in recovering the group" of PopPop's medals.

     As the oldest of lt. Col. Harold George Knecht's surviving grandchildren, I'd like to officially correct that.  Following a fallout between my mom, Kathy Jordan (nee Knecht) and her sister Carolyn, PopPop's stuff had "disappeared."  (Apparently it went to a storage unit which was eventually ignored and forgotten.  Along with any other of his historical documents and memorabilia.)-:
     She also mentioned that I (well, perhaps my brothers and I collectively) had been willed his medals; I recall sitting on his lap while he regaled us with the tales that led to some of those awards.  The fact that they're on a red velvet field just assures me that that is indeed a photo of the ones he was holding at the time; they hung in a frame on the wall for as long as I can remember.

     Noticing he hadn't told us about all of them, I asked about the one with white and blue stripes, which he said he'd been presented after his service in Korea (I hadn't realized they didn't all have specific incidents behind them.)  I only distantly recall the story about a birdstrike during a landing, but I remember another award he received when one of the aircraft on the tarmac caught fire; he directed someone to call in the emergency, and then clambered aboard another aircraft for its fire extinguisher, and began to fight the fire in the aircraft that was aflame.
     I knew he had flown B-17s (he was working on a scale model kit of one, too; painting and applying decals) for some time) and a Douglas cargo plane (though I had forgotten which,) and flown air rescue (though I didn't know that was one of the reasons why he'd gotten to fly the B-29 (or the SB-29).  I had not known he flew B-24s in Italy; I thought they were B-17s.  (My wife even bought me a flight on a B-17 for my birthday.)

     When he retired, I know he was an O-5, but that grave marker photo indicates his rank as "Major."  I think my mom told us that if he'd stayed in for another year, he'd have gotten out as a "full bird," but he had been let down too many times.  Each new posting promised that he'd get to fly jets, but he never did; he finally walked away.

 

     Do you still have those medals in that frame?  Or anything else of his?  It's awfully noble of you to have saved what you did; I saved as much as I could of Becky Stone, USN - one of my wife's bridesmaids - when she'd had a stroke and was about to be evicted from her apartment...and then she died.  (Becky also happens to have been born in the same hospital as my mom: Granite City, Illinois, where PopPop was working at the steel mill until WWII got to needing him.  It was employed at that mill - Granite City Steel (now owned by US Steel) - that he spent his brief interregnum after returning from Italy, and before joining up again.)But she had no heirs, and no siblings, so I'm not quite sure what to do with it.

The originator of this thread has not been on the forum since 2017.

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