John Riley Kane

John “Killer” Kane (1907 – 1996) proved his mettle numerous times throughout the Second World War, but it was on August 1, 1943 – above the blackened skies of the Ploesti oil refineries in Romania, that the brass caps of the U.S. Ninth Air Force sat up and truly took notice of his polished skills as a pilot of a B-24 bomber. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for the admirable mixture of confidence and ability that showed so clearly that day.

The bombardment of Ploesti is remembered as “a battle, not a raid”; it was one of the largest Allied bombing campaigns of the war – and certainly the most costly undertaking for the U.S. Army Air Force (suffering a loss of 53 bombers and 660 men).

This article heaps high praise on Colonel Kane for as many as nine pages – celebrating his enormous personality as much as his sang-froid under fire.

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