Legend says that Colin Kelley sank a Japanese battleship and received the Medal of Honor. Neither assertion is factual. However, Capt. Colin P. Kelley Jr., was a genuine hero. Three days after Pearl Harbor, Kelly’s B-17-lightly armed and without fighter escort-attacked a Japanese landing force in northern Luzon. With the B-17 hit by enemy fighters and burning, Kelly ordered the crew to bail out but the aircraft went down before he could escape himself. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously.
In a nighttime ceremony contrived to continue concealment of many of its features, the new B-21 bomber rolled out of Northrop Grumman's Palmdale, Calif. plant Dec. 2. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the aircraft's advanced technology represents "deterrence, the American way."