Each year, we highlight a China service candidate for recognition. The selection for 2019 is 1/LT Sidney R. Amylon, who served in the China-Burma-India Theater as a B-25 bomber pilot from the autumn of 1944 through mid-1945. Born and raised in Warwick’s Hillsgrove neighborhood, he graduated from Aldrich High School at the top of his […]
William P. Armstrong (1924- 1945) was a Tuskegee Airman/Fighter Pilot, shot down in action on April 1, 1945.
Captain Karl W Augenstein USAF (1924-1954) was a German immigrant from Cranston who, as a teenager, made the decision to fight for his adopted country. He became a WWII B-24 bomber pilot, flying 11 combat missions before German capitulation in May 1945. As a civilian, he was the corporate pilot for Bulova Watch Company. He […]
Raymond W. Barnes (1915-1992) was a radioman/gunner whose B-17 was shot down over Germany in November, 1943. Seven crew members perished and three survived as POWs, including Barnes, who lost an eye during the fight. He was liberated in June 1945. His son Ron Barnes is going to Germany in 2026 to dedicate a memorial […]
Lieutenant Colonel Horace LeRoy Borden, US Air Force (1892-1951), was a World War I Aerial Observer, WWII Training Squadron Commander, & Cold War Support Squadron Commander. He was born April 25, 1892 in Portsmouth, attended Moses Brown School and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1914. He enlisted in the Army, and earned his commission in […]
First Lieutenant Horace LeRoy Borden, Jr. US Army Air Forces (1921-1944) was a World War II fighter pilot killed in action in the Phillipines in 1944. Horace LeRoy Borden, Jr. was born in 1921 to Horace LeRoy Borden, Sr. of Portsmouth, RI and Margaret Hayden of Fall River. MA. The family moved to Springfield, MA […]
Paul Broadnax, the child of two well-known and influential Boston-area classical musicians, played with the Tuskegee Airmen military band and dance band.
BG Christopher Callahan, USA now serves as the 44th Adjutant General of the State of RI. Previously, he served as the Director of Aviation and Safety at Quonset. He also served in Iraq as CO of 1st Battalion, 126th Aviation Regiment.
Carpenter earned seven Air Medals flying light observation aircraft in Vietnam. He joined the RI Army National Guard in 1969, serving for the next 35 years. By retirement he had flown some 3700 flight hours, 800 of which were combat hours. His lifetime of service to Army Aviation resulted in the award of the order […]
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 […]
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 […]
Staff Sergeant Anthony J De Fusco (1923-1944) MIA, China was a radio operator / gunner on a B-25 based in China. On August 23, 1944, his plane took off on a combat mission; they were not seen nor heard from again. He was one of six sons of Pasquale and Eileen De Fusco; five of […]
Mark is a RI Army National Guard helicopter and fixed wing pilot who has flown almost 10,000 hours for the RI Army National Guard. He has deployed three times to Iraq, once to Kuwait, and once to Colombia; and has flown numerous Army aircraft in 38 countries and territories.