Capt. Colin P. Kelly, Jr., Air Power Gallery at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, painted by Deane Keller of Yale University. (U.S. Air Force photo, via Wikipedia).

Today would have been the 100th birthday of U.S. pilot Colin Kelly, Jr., who was killed in action in the early days of World War 2. On December 10, 1941, his B-17C took off from Clark Field in the Phillipine Islands in a bombing run, in which his flight inflicted damage on the Japanese cruiser Natori. On its return flight, the plane was engaged by Japanese fighters who attacked it, followed it, and attacked again. When the plane began to burn near Clark Field, Kelly ordered the crew to bail out. After the crew was safely out of the plane, it blew up, killing Kelly.

Kelly was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. President Roosevelt wrote a letter to “The President of the United States of America in 1956” asking for an appointment for Kelly’s infant son. In 1959, President Eisenhower honored the request and appointed Colin Kelly III to West Point.
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