Obit of Kegelman, Charles C. (k245) - Canadian County, Oklahoma Submitted by: Mark Adkinson 14 Sep 2004 Return to Canadian County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/canadian/canadian.html ========================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ========================================================================== Surnames: Kegelman Originally posted at: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/yZB.2ACI/443.1 Col. Charles C. Kegelman, Posthumous Col. Charles "Sonny" Kegelman (OMA #34), the first member of the American Forces in Europe to be decorated for his gallantry in action against the enemy, received his wings and commission in the Army Air Corps at Randolph Field in 1936. Before his entry into the Air Corp, he attended junior college at the Oklahoma Military Academy and then the University of Oklahoma to prepare himself for a medical career. His first assignment after graduation was to Barksdale Field, Louisiana, and later he was assigned to Savannah, Georgia. Attending a bomber pilots school in Nevada, Kegelman left the transition school in May 1942 for a overseas assignment in England. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by General Dwight Eisenhower, who praised his "superior airmanship and extraordinary gallantry and coolness in saving the lives of his crew" following his first mission of the American Air Forces in Europe on July 4, 1942. With the engine of his A-20 knocked out by savage anti-aircraft fire, the fuselage ripped open, and the right wing damaged, Kegelman led his bomber formation over the target and back to its British base. General Jimmy Doolittle ordered the first Distinguished Service Cross for Kegelman's participation in this first aerial blow against Germany by the Army Air Forces. Kegelman led aerial assaults on channel ports and Nazi airfields for nine months as a squadron commander until ordered to Tunisia to support the African campaign. At that time, the only American Air Force group in Africa was Kegelman's squadron of A-20s and a P-38 fighter group. Kegelman, a native of El Reno, Oklahoma, came home in 1943 and was honored with a citywide celebration which was attended by such notables as Governor Robert S. Kerr. He remained in the U.S. training airmen for more than a year. In 1944 he was requested to return to combat and was sent to the South Pacific in September, 1944. While leading his group of B-25's on a routine bombing run over the Japanese-held island of Mindinao, in the Philippines, Kegelman's wing man lost control; the two planes collided and plunged into the jungle. At the time of his death, Kegelman was 29 years old, the El Reno VFW Post 382 was named in his honor." -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to Canadian County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/canadian/canadian.html