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| Hellcat pilot Lt. j.g. Robert Porter was awarded the Air Medal after shooting down a Japanese plane. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67290983/robert-theryl-porter https://www.usamilitarymedals.com/products/air-medal |
Robert Theryl Porter never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on November 29, 1919 in Texas. His parents Robert and Nannie were also both born in Texas. His father worked as a farm laborer and later as a railroad laborer. Still later he was a railroad section foreman. Robert had one older sister, two younger brothers, and one younger sister. By 1940 Robert was still living at home. He had completed two years of college, where he was part of the US Naval Reserves, and worked as a bookkeeper.
He enlisted in the navy in April 1941. He became a navy pilot with the rank of lieutenant junior grade. A September 1943 newspaper mentioned he was awarded the Air Medal after shooting down a Japanese plane. By October he was back in the states and on October 6, 1943 he died when his F6F-3 Hellcat crashed near Everett Washington.
Per Guy Robbins of Accident-Report.com, navy records show it was a training flight and after making a vertical dive starting at 24,000 feet, Lt. Porter failed to pull out of the dive in time.
His grave is at Oakwood Cemetery in Waco, Texas.
Last year on this date I profiled Silver Star hero Karl Kellner, 3rd Armored Division whose action known as the Duel at the Cathedral was filmed by American journalists. It is the most popular of these profiles from 2018. You can read about Karl here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
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