Dominic Salvatore Gentile
|
Dominic Salvatore Gentile
|
|
|---|---|
'Don' Gentile on the wing of his P-51B, 'Shangri-La'
|
|
| Nickname(s) | "Don" |
| Born | December 6, 1920 Piqua, Ohio |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Forestville, Maryland |
| Allegiance |  Canada
 United States |
| Service/ |
Royal Canadian Air Force
 United States Air Force |
| Rank | Major |
| Unit | 133 Squadron RAF, 4th Fighter Group USAAF (336th Fighter Squadron) |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards | Distinguished Service Cross Silver Star Distinguished Flying Cross Distinguished Flying Cross (U.K.) Air Medal |
Major Dominic Salvatore "Don" Gentile (December 6, 1920 - January 28, 1951) was a World War II USAAF pilot who surpassed Eddie Rickenbacker's World War I record of 26 downed aircraft.[1] He later served in the post-war U.S. Air Force.
Biography
Gentile was born in Piqua, Ohio,[2] the son of southern Italian immigrants[3] Patsy and Josephina Gentile, who immigrated in 1907.[4] After a fascination with flying as a child, his father provided him with his own plane, an Aerosport Biplane. He managed to log over 300 hours flying time by July 1941, when he attempted to join the Army Air Forces.
The U.S. military required two years of college for its pilots, which Gentile did not have, so he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and was posted to the UK in 1941. Gentile flew the Supermarine Spitfire Mark V with No. 133 Squadron, one of the famed "Eagle Squadron" during 1942. His first kills (a Ju 88 and Fw 190) were on August 19, 1942,[5] during Operation Jubilee.[6]
In September 1942, the Eagle squadrons transferred to the USAAF, becoming the 4th Fighter Group. Gentile became a flight commander in September 1943, now flying the P-47 Thunderbolt. Having been Spitfire pilots, Gentile and the other pilots of the 4th were displeased when they transitioned to the heavy P-47. On 16 December 1943 Gentile claimed a third-share destroyed Ju-88, and a Fw-190 west of Tours on 5 January 1944. Two Fw-190s were claimed on 14 January and another on 25 February.
By late 1943, Group Commander Col. Don Blakeslee pushed for re-equipment with the lighter, more maneuverable P-51 Mustang. Conversion to the P-51B at the end of February 1944 allowed Gentile to build a tally of 15.5 additional aircraft destroyed between March 3 and April 8, 1944.[7]
His first victory flying the P-51 was on 3 March, when he claimed a Do 217 in the Wittemburg area.
After downing 3 Fw-190s on April 8,[8] he was the top scoring 8th Air Force ace when he crashed his personal P-51, named "Shangri La", on April 13, 1944 while stunting over the 4th FG's airfield at Debden for a group of assembled press reporters and movie cameras. Blakeslee immediately grounded Gentile as a result, and he was sent back to the US for a tour selling war bonds. In 1944, Gentile co-wrote with well-known war correspondent Ira Wolfert One Man Air Force, an autobiography and account of his combat missions.
His final tally of credits was 19.83 aerial victories and 3 damaged,[7] with 6 ground kills, in 350 combat hours flown. He also claimed two victories while with the RAF.
After the war, he stayed with the Air Force, as a test pilot at Wright Field, as a Training Officer in the Fighter Gunnery Program, and as a student officer at the Air Tactical School. In June 1949, Gentile enrolled as an undergraduate studying military science at the University of Maryland.
On January 28, 1951, he was killed when he crashed in a T-33A-1-LO Shooting Star trainer, AF Ser. No. 49-0905, in Forestville, Maryland, leaving behind his wife Isabella Masdea Gentile Beitman (deceased October 2008), and sons Don Jr., Joseph and Pasquale.
Gentile Air Force Station in Kettering, Ohio was named in his honor in 1962. The installation closed in 1996.
Winston Churchill called Gentile and his wingman, Captain John T. Godfrey, Damon and Pythias, after the legendary characters from Greek mythology. He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1995.[9]
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Salvatore John LaGumina, The Humble and the Heroic: Wartime Italian Americans (2006) p.182
- ↑ Philip Kaplan, Two-Man Air Force: Don Gentile & John Godfrey World War Two Flying Aces (2006) p.7
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (transcribed by Johnson, p. 4)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 USAF Historical Study No. 85: USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, World War II, Air Force Historical Research Agency, p. 70.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. 4 volumes–I: Terror from the Sky (pages 1–168), II: Tragic Victories (pages 1–192), III: Outraged Skies (pages 1–136), IV: Wings of Fire (pages 1–218)
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
- 1920 births
- 1951 deaths
- Accidental deaths in Maryland
- American people of Italian descent
- American World War II flying aces
- Aviators from Ohio
- Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States
- National Aviation Hall of Fame inductees
- People from Dayton, Ohio
- People from Piqua, Ohio
- Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)
- Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United States)
- Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom)
- Recipients of the Silver Star
- Recipients of the Air Medal
- United States Air Force officers
- United States Army Air Forces officers
- United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II
