From St. Paul Pioneer Press;
Posted on Fri, Feb. 24, 2006
Kinsey was WWII 'flying sergeant'From news servicesClaude R. Kinsey Jr., 86, a "flying sergeant" who became one of the earliest U.S. aces of World War II and who escaped a prisoner-of-war camp by walking 100 miles through Italy across German lines, died Feb. 4 of cancer in Springfield, Va.
Kinsey, who entered the Army Air Forces as an enlisted man and trained to fly while still a buck private, was credited with shooting down seven enemy planes over North Africa between Jan. 29 and April 5, 1943, when he was shot down by his own inexperienced wing man. He bailed out of his burning P-38 Lightning fighter, landing in three feet of water near Tunis, blinded from swollen eyes and temporarily paralyzed below the waist. He was captured by residents who turned him over to the Italian military.
The 23-year-old second lieutenant, after recovering from severe burns, ended up in a large POW camp near Chieti, Italy, where he stayed until the end of September 1943, when the Italian guards fled and were replaced by Germans.
The Germans moved the prisoners to a camp near Sulmona, Italy, where, on the first night, the young pilot slipped out, evaded machine-gun fire and began his 30-day start-and-stop escape down the Apennine Mountains toward Bari, near Campobasso, according to a 40-page excerpt of his unpublished biography.
He hid in a hut that prison guards used to store tools. He traded three days' labor in an Italian family's vineyard for food, shelter and peasant clothes, including shoes that were two sizes too big. Trying to avoid towns, he hiked a mile and a half through a pitch-black train tunnel that was big enough only for a train.
Days later, he came down with severe diarrhea and was taken in by a shepherd who nursed him back to health, and whose cloak he used for warmth and disguise as he resumed his journey. He shared a meal with gypsies and twice dodged German patrols.
When he found the front lines, he had lost 35 pounds from his 150-pound frame. Avoiding live artillery emplacements, he walked through what he later learned was a German minefield, then crossed paths with a squad of Canadian soldiers, who took him to their headquarters.
He discovered that his own unit, the 82nd Fighter Group, 96th Fighter Squadron, was based nearby.
He retired from the military in 1965 as a squadron commander.
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Yes we loose another one of a generation we will never know the likes of again. May he rest in peace.
Robbie
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