Major Joseph R. Klein

Creator

Preview

Identifier

20031559

Description

Major Joseph R. KleinYoung man in front of a photo wall wearing a dark U.S. Army Air Forces uniform. It has a lighter shirt and a similar colored tie. He has military wings and decorations and clusters over his breast pocket, and wings insignia on his lapels and epaulettes. There is a band of braid over each cuff.Clipping:"Texan, 'Benched' on Tokio Raid, Makes Up for It on 'Coughin' Coffins' ForaysThe greatest disappointment in the 23 years of Maj. Joseph R. (Jack) Klein's life occurred that gray April morning aboard the Hornet when Doolittle's 16 bombers roared away toward Tokio and left him behind as a 'second-stringer.'Since then the leathery West Texas co-pilot of the famed 'Coughin' Coffin,' has made up for missing that trip with 40 bombing missions over North Africa, Sardinia, Sicily, the Mediterranean, Italy, and Rome itself.Holds Nine Decorations.In addition to winning the Air Medal plus seven Oak Leaf Clusters, Major Klein earned the Silver Star by sinking three Warcraft in the Bizerte harbor [Tunisia]. A native of Paradise, in Wise County, Major Klein attended high school there, NTAC [North Texas Agricultural College] in Arlington, and NTSTC [North Texas State Teachers College] in Denton before enlisting Nov. 23, 1940.'The Coughin' Coffin,' a flak riddled veteran of 50 missions from Tunisia to Sicily, brought him to Fort Worth and went on to Mobile. Saturday, Major Klein met his wife who arrived from Portland, Ore, and there are visiting his relatives here.Major Klein, a squadron commander, would rather talk about his ship, a B-26 Martin Marauder, than anything else.Prayer Penciled on Nose.A penciled prayer, scrawled on her nose by some unknown mechanic, help to bring the 'Coffin' through all the flak the Nazis could throw at her, Klein believes.The prayer says God bless the crew of this plane. I will say a prayer for your safe return.'Fifty times the Coffin carried the mail into the hell that stormed around her and 50 times she came home, limping in on one engine three times, and once with 200 flak holes. Her rudder cable, hydraulics, tail surfaces, elevators, rudder and stabilizer were shot away and she is now running on her third set of motors.Once the experts condemned the 'Coffin' to the junk pile, but the crew felt different. They found other parts and took her in the air again to rain more devastation on the enemy.Member of 'Spare' Crew.Klein was a member of the four extra crews carried by Doolittle on the Hornet as reserve fliers in the event one of the 16 other crews had to be left behind. He had trained for months for the raid then learned just before sailing that the Hornet could carry only 16 of the bombers. His plane was left behind at San Francisco.After a 20-day leave, Klein will go on tour of industrial plants with the 'Coffin' and then will take part in a war bond sales trip.He is the nephew of R. A. Bridges, 1309 West Dickson, and Mr. Bobby D. Harris, 609 Throckmorton. Hi is the grandson of Mrs. R. H. Bridges of Paradise."Stamped: Star-Telegram Morn. Nov. 14, 1943An illustration of Klein's Maurader plane can be found at http://www.markstyling.com/B26_17/B26.17bg.cu.07.jpg

Archival Date

1943-11-13

Collection Name

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection

Collection Number

AR406-6-296

Original Format

Negatives, Black & White

File Format

JPG

Rights

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License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Subjects

Military uniforms; Military decorations; Military insignia; Marauder (Bomber)