Lieutenant Raymond L. Knight

Creator

Preview

Identifier

20061640

Description

Lieutenant Raymond L. Knight was a Thunderbolt pilot from Houston, Texas. He served with the 12th Air Force, 350th Fighter Group where he completed 98 combat missions. In April 1945, Lieutenant Knight destroyed 24 German planes during the Allied drive on the Po Valley in Italy. He attempted to fly his badly damaged plane, a P-47, back to base when he was caught in treacherous air conditions. He lost control of the plane and crashed in the Apennines Mountains. The 23-year-old Texan was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously by the War Department. The medal will be presented to his widow, Mrs. Johnnie Lee Knight. He was also awarded a Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross, and an Air Medal. Lieutenant Knight is shown in his military portrait photograph. He is dressed in a pilot's cap and a leather flying jacket.

Archival Date

1945-09-22

Collection Name

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection

Collection Number

AR406-6-1835

Original Format

Negatives, Black & White;Copy of Original Image

File Format

JPG

Rights

Rights held by The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, Special Collections. Any use of content downloaded or printed from this page is limited to non-commercial personal or educational use, including fair use as directed by U.S. copyright laws. For more information or for reproduction requests, please contact UTA Special Collections by emailing spcoref@uta.edu.

License

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

Subjects

Thunderbolt pilots; Fighter pilots; Purple Heart; Medal of Honor; Military decorations