Neel Earnest Kearby

Few fighter pilots could turn the massive Republic P-47 Thunderbolt into a weapon of surprise against lighter Japanese fighters. Colonel Neel Earnest Kearby, Medal of Honor recipient, World War II fighter ace and commander of the 348th Fighter Group, did exactly that. Fighting over New Guinea in the Southwest Pacific, Kearby developed aggressive high-altitude tactics that exploited the Thunderbolt's speed, diving ability and firepower. Credited with 22 aerial victories, he became the highest-scoring P-47 Thunderbolt pilot in the Pacific Theatre and one of the outstanding American fighter leaders of World War II.

Neel Earnest Kearby was born on 5 June 1911 in Wichita Falls, Texas, the son of John Gallatin Kearby Jr. and Bessie Lee Stone Kearby. He spent part of his childhood in Mineral Wells before his family moved to Arlington in 1924, and he graduated from Arlington High School in 1928. Kearby attended North Texas Agricultural College, now the University of Texas at Arlington, during 1930 and 1931. After several years of employment in Dallas, he studied business administration at the University of Texas at Austin and received his diploma in 1937. By then he had entered the U.S. Army Air Corps as a flying cadet. He trained at Randolph and Kelly Fields in Texas and received his pilot rating and commission in February 1938. During his years in Texas he married Virginia King Cochran, with whom he had three sons.

Kearby's early Army Air Corps career included assignments with the 94th and 40th Pursuit Squadrons at Selfridge Field, Michigan. In late 1941 he went to the Panama Canal Zone as commander of the 14th Pursuit Squadron. Returning to the United States in 1942, he took command of the newly organized 348th Fighter Group and prepared it for combat. In May 1943 he led the group into the Southwest Pacific, where it became the first P-47 unit in the Pacific Theatre. Many pilots initially considered the heavy Thunderbolt poorly suited to combat against agile Japanese aircraft, but Kearby recognized its advantages. He taught his pilots to remain high, attack at speed, dive through enemy formations and use the energy of the dive to climb away before striking again. The tactics helped transform the P-47 into a formidable fighter in the Pacific.

Kearby named his Thunderbolts Fiery Ginger after his wife Virginia. In combat, he demonstrated the tactics he expected his pilots to use. On 4 September 1943, while leading four P-47s south of Hopei in New Guinea, he attacked an enemy bomber and two fighters and destroyed two Japanese aircraft. The action brought him the first of his four Distinguished Flying Crosses. A later Distinguished Flying Cross recognized his destruction of two more enemy fighters over Wewak on 19 October, another covered sustained combat operations from September 1943 through January 1944, and his fourth recognized a fighter sweep over Wewak on 9 January 1944 in which he destroyed enemy aircraft while also going to the aid of another American pilot.

His most famous battle came on 11 October 1943. Kearby volunteered to lead a flight of four P-47s on a reconnaissance mission over the heavily defended Japanese base at Wewak, New Guinea. After observing enemy installations and reinforcements at four airfields, the Americans encountered approximately twelve Japanese bombers protected by thirty-six fighters. The reconnaissance objective had already been completed, Kearby's fuel was running low and the Americans were outnumbered twelve to one. He attacked anyway. Kearby destroyed three enemy aircraft in rapid succession, then shot down two fighters pursuing one of his comrades. By the time he broke away and gathered his flight for the return journey, he had destroyed six Japanese aircraft in a single engagement.

For that extraordinary action, Kearby received the Medal of Honor under War Department General Orders No. 3, dated 6 January 1944. The official citation praised his conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty and concluded that he had brought down six enemy aircraft with "superb daring" after his original mission was complete. General Douglas MacArthur personally presented the Medal of Honor to Kearby at Brisbane, Australia, on 23 January 1944. The decoration was presented during Kearby's lifetime and was not a posthumous award.

Kearby's courage was recognized repeatedly beyond the Medal of Honor. He received his first Silver Star for gallantry in aerial operations over Wewak on 16 October 1943. On 3 December 1943, he again led four P-47s over Wewak and attacked a formation of roughly twenty-four Japanese fighters despite being heavily outnumbered. His award citation credited him with pressing the attack through intense opposition and destroying three enemy fighters. That action resulted in a second Silver Star, represented by a bronze oak-leaf cluster, which was formally awarded posthumously. His official record also includes five Air Medals, while his four Distinguished Flying Crosses recognized both specific air battles and sustained combat operations in the Southwest Pacific.

Kearby's success brought promotion and greater responsibility, but it did not diminish his determination to fly. He was promoted to colonel on 23 September 1943 and transferred on 12 November 1943 to Headquarters V Fighter Command. Despite increasingly administrative responsibilities, he continued taking combat missions whenever possible. In February 1944 he became commander of the 309th Bombardment Wing, yet he still returned to the cockpit. His victory total continued climbing until it reached 22 confirmed aerial victories.

On 5 March 1944, Kearby flew another fighter sweep near Wewak. During the engagement, a Japanese Ki-43 "Oscar" gained a firing position on his P-47, Fiery Ginger IV. Heavy machine-gun fire struck the Thunderbolt, and Kearby went down near Wewak. He was 32 years old. His remains were recovered after the war and eventually returned to Texas. He was buried with full military honours at Hillcrest Memorial Park in Dallas in 1949.

Colonel Neel Earnest Kearby left behind far more than a remarkable tally of enemy aircraft. His officially recorded honours included the Medal of Honor, two Silver Stars, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Purple Heart and five Air Medals, while his wartime service also established his entitlement to the campaign and service medals represented in his ribbon rack. His Medal of Honor action demonstrated extraordinary personal courage, his Silver Star and Distinguished Flying Cross citations document repeated gallantry in combat, and his leadership helped prove that the P-47 Thunderbolt could dominate in a theatre where many had doubted it.

Today, Kearby's legacy remains closely associated with the 348th Fighter Group, the P-47 Thunderbolt and the air war over New Guinea. The National Museum of the United States Air Force preserves his story, displays his Medal of Honor and exhibits the surviving vertical fin of Fiery Ginger IV. His record of 22 aerial victories remains the highest achieved by a P-47 pilot in the Pacific Theatre. Kearby's career was brief, but in less than a year of Pacific combat he became a fighter ace, a Medal of Honor recipient and one of the defining Thunderbolt commanders of World War II.