World War I
Gave his life
Erwin R. Bleckley
Second Lieutenant · U.S. Army Air Forces
U.S. Army Air Corps, 130th Field Artillery, observer 50th Aero Squadron, Air Service
6 October 1918 · Binarville, France
Public domain. U.S. Air Force photo This image was released by the United States Air Force with the ID 160629-F-DW547-007 (next) . This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing . العربية ∙ বাংলা ∙ Bahasa Indonesia ∙ Bahaso Jambi ∙ Deutsch ∙ Deutsch (Sie-Form) ∙ English ∙ español ∙ euskara ∙ فارسی ∙ français ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ Source file
- Branch
- U.S. Army Air Forces
- Era
- World War I
- Home state
- Kansas
- Action
- The Lost Battalion in the Argonne
The citation
Official citation
2d Lt. Bleckley, with his pilot, 1st Lt. Harold E. Goettler, Air Service, left the airdrome late in the afternoon on their second trip to drop supplies to a battalion of the 77th Division, which had been cut off by the enemy in the Argonne Forest. Having been subjected on the first trip to violent fire from the enemy, they attempted on the second trip to come still lower in order to get the packages even more precisely on the designated spot. In the course of his mission the plane was brought down by enemy rifle and machinegun fire from the ground, resulting in fatal wounds to 2d Lt. Bleckley, who died before he could be taken to a hospital. In attempting and performing this mission 2d Lt. Bleckley showed the highest possible contempt of personal danger, devotion to duty, courage, and valor.
Sources
- U.S. Army Medal of Honor citation index
- Wikipedia. Linked only. The article text is not copied here.
