LT John Crouchley is the WWII B-24 pilot whose remains were found in Bulgaria and repatriated back for burial in RI in May of 2017. He was flying a B-24 bombing mission on June 28, 1944 against the Titan Oil Refineries in Romania. After completing the bomb run, his plane was attacked by a number […]
COL Ted Crouchley enlisted in the Army Air Corps in July 1941 and earned his wings on Feb. 4, 1942, shortly after Pearl Harbor. Fresh out of B-24 qualification training, he volunteered for a highly dangerous secret mission: a backup plan to bomb Japan in case the April 18, 1942 Doolittle raid — B-25 bombers […]
Edward “Ted” Cunningham is a Rumford native and a 1949 graduate of St. Raphael High School in Pawtucket. Ted enlisted in the Navy to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a carrier pilot. During the early days of the Vietnam War, he flew numerous highly classified ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) missions shadowing and photographing Soviet missiles. After […]
Henry D’Amico (1921-2009) was born and raised in East Providence to Italian immigrant parents. A graduate of East Providence High School, he was a WWII fighter pilot who flew 75 combat missions over Europe in his P-47 Thunderbolt, affectionately named Li’l-Rhody. As part of the 9th Air Force, 1st Lieutenant D’Amico flew escort flights, dive […]
CDR John B. Dana, US Navy, Retired (1932-1988) Naval Aviator, Patrol and Early Warning Pilot. Operations Officer, XO and CO of Quonset squadron VXE-6 supporting Operation DeepFreeze in Antarctica. Thailand-based test pilot for USAF infrared recon missions over Ho Chi Minh Trail. First manager of the Quonset Industrial Park, 1974-1985.
Captain Frederick E. Dick, US Army Air Corps (1920-2005) was a WWII fighter ace was a long-time Barrington resident.
Captain Archibald H. Douglas, USN (1885-1978) Captain Douglas graduated from the Naval Academy in 1908. He was designated as a Naval Aviator in June of 1918, and saw combat duty in France with the Northern Bombing Group. His aviation career included actions in two World Wars and command of three different aircraft carriers. He first […]
Born in Providence, Parker S. Dupouy (1917–1994) was one of the 57 combat pilots serving as the Flying Tigers in China in the early days of World War II. A Central High School grad, he enrolled as an Aviation Cadet after graduating from Brown University in 1939. In May, 1941 he resigned his Army Air […]
Omar Duquette, a Warwick native who was a “Doolittle Raider”, one of the 80 volunteers who manned sixteen B-25 aircraft launched from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet to bomb Tokyo in April of 1942. He joined the Army in February, 1938 at Providence and served at Fort Slocum, New York before being assigned […]
Lawson “Topper” Durfee (1945—), an Army helicopter pilot with almost 1000 Vietnam combat hours, he earned the coveted Master Army Aviator designation. He retired from the RI Army National Guard after 26 years of service accruing some 7000 total flight hours. Durfee has been a South Kingstown Reserve Police Officer for 25 years, and a […]
BG (Retired) John L. Enright Sr., USA (1947—) General Enright is the former Deputy Commanding General and Assistant Adjutant General-Army for the State of RI. As an Army helicopter pilot in Vietnam he accrued close to 1000 combat flight hours. A Master Army Aviator, he he retired from the RI Army National Guard after forty […]
Over the past 22 years, long-time Warwick resident and Navy Korean War veteran Stanley R. Essex, Jr., has virtually single-handedly restored two wrecked warbirds to magnificent display condition: a WWII-era Navy Hellcat fighter for the Quonset Air Museum, and the F9F Panther jet known as the “Ted Williams Airplane” for the Rhode Island Aviation Hall […]