Ralph P. "Red" Thompson (1914-2002), Georgetown, co-piloted the lead ship on what many consider the most daring bombing mission in U.S. history-the raid on the Nazi oilfield/refinery complex at Ploesti, Romania on August 1, 1943.
Strategists figured a "knock-out blow" would shorten the war by six months. They planned a low-level attack to gain surprise, improve accuracy and frustrate enemy fighter planes. They chose the B-24 because only it could pull off the 2,500-mile, 14-hour roundtrip from Libya.
An armada of 164 B-24s spanned the Mediterranean and hedge¬hopped across the Balkans. "We saw farmers throw rocks at us," said Capt. Thompson. "We saw the faces of anti-aircraft gunners."
The airmen, volunteers all, were met by the mightiest anti¬aircraft concentration in the world. That, plus a navigator error, cost the Americans 54 aircraft and 532 crew killed, captured or missing. The bombers left behind a sky-blackened inferno, but massive repair restored refinery capacity within a few months.
Ploesti was the 21st of 39 raids for Thompson. In 1944 he was chosen to pilot the Blue Streak, the B-24 with the most missions (110), back to the United States for an "industrial morale tour."
"It's a good feeling when you are headed in for a bombing run* to know that these engines are going to keep on turning and those wings are going to stay on," he told factory workers.
He remained Stateside as a B-24 and B-29 instructor. He continued in posts with the Strategic Air Command and the Air Research & Development Command, retiring in 1963 as a lieutenant colonel.
He and his wife Allison are the parents of daughter Kathleen Gregory of Colorado and two sons, William S. of Harrisburg, Pa., and Charles W who lives in Georgetown, and flies. "It runs in the family," said Thompson. "My father was a flight instructor in WW 1. He was taught by a fellow named Glenn Curtiss."
