After dropping his bombs on the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania, 2nd Lt. David R. Kingsley’s Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, which had been damaged in the raid, is attacked by three German Bf-109 pilots. The bombardier administers first aid to the wounded, and once the bailout bell rings, he helps his wounded crew mates put on their parachutes. However, the tail gunner’s harness can’t be located and Kingsley willingly gives up his harness. The B-17 continues to fly for several minutes on automatic pilot, then crashes and burns. For his gallant, heroic action in saving the life of the tail gunner and his own self sacrifice, Kingsley is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
The future U.S. bomber force could provide a way for the Pentagon to simultaneously deter conflict with peer adversaries in two geographically disparate theaters, said Mark Gunzinger, the director of future concepts and capability assessments at AFA's Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, during a March 21 event. But doing so…