Sixty years ago yesterday, the Korean Armistice Agreement
was signed insuring a cessation of hostilities ending the Korean War. Almost
1.8 million Americans served during the Korean War. How many SigEp Patriots
served? The SigEp Patriots Project (SPP) has information showing that at least 68
Brothers served in the Korea War, but we believe we are missing many names. If
you are or know of a Brother who served in Korea, we hope you will pass him our
way.
22 JUL 1940
CA Alpha Brother William E. Turpen began his service with
the U.S. Army on this date.
23 JUL 1943
On this date, World
War II Veteran and IL Alpha Brother Corporal Willard Harold Lindeman, U.S. Army Air Corps made the ultimate
sacrifice during action in New Guinea while serving as a gunner with the
408th Bomber Squadron, 22nd Bomber Group (Heavy). Willard was born in 1920, and enlisted in the Army Air
Corps in JAN 1941. After a year at the University of Illinois, Brother Lindeman
left for service in the Pacific.
Respect can be paid to Brother Lindeman at National
Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii, Plot Q, Row 0, Site 73.
26 JUL 1945
26 JUL 1958
Korean War Veteran and Ace, American test pilot, SigEp Citation Recipient
and IN Alpha Brother Captain Iven Carl "Kinch" Kincheloe, Jr.,
U.S. Air Force died on
this date when his F-104 Starfighter crashed near Rosamond Dry Lake in
California. Brother Kincheloe earned fame for piloting the Bell X-2 research
rocket plane to a world's record of 126,200 feet on 07 SEP 1956. He was nicknamed
“America’s No. 1 Spaceman.”
Born in Detroit in 1928, Iven was interested in aircraft
from a very young age. At just four years of age, he took his first airplane
ride with a barnstormer, and obtained his pilot’s license when he was 16 years
old.
Brother Kincheloe graduated from Purdue University with
degrees in mechanical and aeronautical engineering, and entered the Air Force through
the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). He took pilot training at Randolph
Air Force Base, Arizona and earned his wings in 1950. Later that year, Kinch
began flying mission over Korea. Before the conclusion of hostilities, he had
flown more than 130 missions, and shot down 10 communist planes – making him
one of 12 Air Force pilots with 10 or more jet victories. For his exemplary wartime
service, Iven was awarded the Silver Star, three Distinguished Flying Crosses
and four Air Medals.
As a test pilot, Brother Kincheloe piloted 70 different
types of U.S. and foreign aircraft before being selected as a pilot for the X-2
and taking it to its record altitude. For this achievement Kinch was presented
with the Mackay Trophy, as well as another Distinguished Flying Cross, and
nicknamed.
Brother Kincheloe was selected as one of the first three
pilots in the next rocket-powered aircraft program, the X-15, and would have been part of the Man In Space Soonest Project if not for
his crash in 1958. Later that year, the Society of Experimental Test Pilots established the Iven C.
Kincheloe Award to recognize outstanding
professional accomplishment in the conduct of flight testing, and his
accomplishments and memory live on each year the award presented.
In SEP 1959, Kinross Air Force Base, Michigan, was renamed
Kincheloe Air Force Base in his honor, and remained in service until SEP 1977.
He posthumously received a number of awards including the Air Force Association
David C. Shilling Award, the Astronautic Award from the American Rocket
Society, and the Legion of Merit from the Air Force. A monument also
stands a few miles east of his hometown of Cassopolis, Michigan. It is an angular
stone slab twelve feet high bearing a silver model of the X-2 pointed skyward.
In 1992, he was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor in Lancaster, CA,
and in 2011, Iven was inducted into
the National Aviation Hall of Fame at the National Museum of the United States
Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Respect can be paid to Brother Kincheloe at Section 2,
Site 4872-1 at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia.
