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Henry A. Podgurski - I know, not a household name. I've never met him either. He died more than 10 years before I was even born.
Podgurski went north to Canada and enlisted in the RCAF prior to America's entry into World War II, where he was trained as a pilot. He transferred back into the USAAF in May 1943 and was assigned to the 93rd Bomb Group, 409th Bomb Squadron. On the August 1st, 1943 mission to Ploesti, he was the co-pilot of the "Liberty Lad". The Liberty Lad had both engines on the starboard wing go out over the Adriatic. Him and his pilot, Ken McFarland fought with all their strength to keep the plane upright and airborne. On final approach to their base, the remaining two engines quit and they landed dead stick. Both Podgurski and McFarland had to be lifted from their cockpits. They were the last plane to return home from the mission.
No one one have said anything if Podgurski chose not to fly combat again after that mission. Instead, he finished up his tour with the 93rd. After his tour, he could have gone stateside as an instructor, but chose to remain in the European theater with the 27th Air Transport Group, flying converted B-24 cargo planes, including air drops on D-Day. When his tour ended with the 27th, again, he could have gone home, but he chose to return to combat in the B-24, this time in the Pacific with the 494th BG, where he remained until the war ended.
After the war, he stayed in the AAF and USAF, leaving in 1952 to become a pilot with Capital Airlines and to raise his family. Sadly, his luck ran out on June 22, 1957 when on a routine training flight with an instructor pilot and another trainee the DC-3 they were flying flight stalled out and spun in nose first. Henry Podgurski was 37 years old at the time of his death, leaving behind a wife, two daughters and an unborn son.
One wonders how many others out there were like Henry Podgurski: Men who felt they had a job to do and chose to see that job through to the very end.
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