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 […]
Lieutenant Commander Stanley Auslander, US Naval Reserve, a long-time Warwick resident and patrol bomber pilot, sank one German U-boat and damaged another off the coast of Brazil. He later flew patrols from England before and after D-day, and is credited with homing a British destroyer in to sink another U-boat. He earned a Distinguished Flying […]
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 […]
Col. John F . “Jack” Barrett, US Air Force, Retired (1912-1997) WWII recon, patrol and bomber pilot. Named CO of the 152nd Fighter Squadron, RI Air National Guard in 1949. Born in New Hampshire, he moved to RI in 1912 and graduated from St. Andrew’s Technical School in Barrington. After two years in the Merchant Marine, […]
Blake was born on November 8, 1897 in Westerly and graduated in 1916 from Westerly High School, he was the star center on the football team and a member of the track team. After a semester of college in Boston, he volunteered for the American Ambulance Service in January 1917 before the US entered the […]
Roger Holland Blake (1921-1952) was born October 15, 1921. His father, a World War I aviator, was attending RI State College at the time. Roger graduated from Aldrich High School in 1939. and left college after one year to enlist in the Army Air Corps on May 1, 1942. He flew with the Air Transport […]
Edward J. Bonaccorsi (1925-2015) graduated from Samuel Gorton High School in Warwick, then enlisted as an Aviation Cadet in May, 1943. Failing a pilot medical, he became a mechanic, qualifying in both the B-24 Liberator and the B-29 Stratofortress. He served with the 40th Bombardment Squadron, and spent six months on Tinian Island as the war […]
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.
LtCol Lynn Carter US Air Force, Retired (1919-2014) B-26 and B-25 bomber pilot with 69 combat missions during WWII; awarded Distinguished Flying Cross, French Croix de Guerre and seven Air Medals. A California native, he enlisted right after Pearl Harbor; after war, moved east and graduated Brown University and Harvard Business School. Recalled to active […]
Commander Richard L. Cevoli, USN (1919-1955) Born in East Greenwich in 1919, Commander Cevoli earned numerous decorations during WWII and Korea. The LaSalle Academy and URI grad was awarded the Navy Cross during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. By the end of his tour Cevoli earned a total of five Air Medals in addition to […]