George Allison Whiteman, the first of 10 children born to John and Earlie Whiteman, was born Oct. 12, 1919, near Longwood, in Pettis County. He attended Smith-Cotton High School in Sedalia and the Rolla School of Mines.
Enlisting in 1939, he received orders in the spring of 1940 to report to Randolph Field, Texas, for aviator training. He was commissioned a second lieutenant Nov. 15, 1940, and volunteered for duty in Hawaii in early 1941.
On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, as the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Whiteman climbed into his P-40B Warhawk at Bellows Field. Just as he lifted off, he was struck by enemy fire which wounded him and threw his plane out of control. The plane crashed and burned just off the end of the runway. By the time rescue vehicles arrived, Whiteman had died of his injuries.
His family received word of his death later that same day. "It's hard to believe," his mother said in an interview with the Sedalia Democrat afterwards. "It might have happened anytime, anywhere. We've got to sacrifice loved ones if we want to win this war."
One of the first airmen killed that day, Whiteman is considered the first American pilot killed in aerial combat in World War II. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, the American Defense Medal with a Foreign Service clasp, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one bronze star, and the World War II Victory Medal.
Back in Missouri in early 1942, the US Army Air Corp selected a site known to locals as the "Blue Flats" to be the home of the Sedalia Army Air Field and training base for WACO glider pilots. The airfield at Sedalia Glider Base was finished and officially opened Aug. 6, 1942.
Due to many changes, the base was closed in the mid-1940s (inactivated Sept. 1, 1946) and most of the buildings abandoned. After even more changes, the base was reopened in mid-1951.
On Aug. 24, 1955, Air Force Chief of Staff General Nathan F. Twining informed Whiteman's mother the base was going to be renamed Whiteman Air Force Base in honor of her son.
The dedication and renaming ceremony took place Dec. 3, 1955.
Elizabeth Davis was born and raised in Cooper County and has written Historically Yours for the Boonville Daily News for over 10 years. In celebration of Missouri's Bicentennial, she has syndicated her column statewide and encourages readers all over the Show-Me State to submit topic suggestions for future columns to [email protected]