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SSgt Robert Bruce McClelland, Jr.
to remember
Coira, Louis Edward, Maj Gen USAF(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania
Last Address San Antonio, Texas
Date of Passing Oct 11, 2009
Location of Interment Holy Cross Cemetery - San Antonio, Texas
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
General Coira was born in 1916 in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Lock Haven High School, Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, in June 1933 and entered the Engineering School of Notre Dame University. He won a competitive appointment to the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York, and graduated in 1938 with a commission as second lieutenant, Field Artillery.
His first assignment was to the Air Corps Flying Schools at Randolph and Kelly Fields, Texas. He received his pilot wings in October 1939 and was retained at Kelly Field as an instructor until April 1941.
When the United States entered World War II, General Coira was in the Panama Canal Zone. In January 1942, he was in command of the 25th Bombardment Squadron where it established operations at Salinas, Ecuador. He then commanded the 6th Bombardment Group. He returned to the United States in June 1943. He was with the 40th Bombardment Group which then was re-equipped with the new B-29 aircraft. As deputy commander he left for India with the group, the first B-29 unit overseas during the war. Later, he became a planning staff officer in the XX Bomber Command Headquarters.
Following a brief period as director of training and operations at Stewart Field, New York, General Coira attended the Air Command and Staff School at Maxwell Field, Alabama. From 1947 to 1950, he was assigned to the Training Division of Headquarters U.S. Air Force.
From August 1950 to April 1951, he participated in the establishment of the B-29 Combat Crew School at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas; and upon the introduction of B-47 aircraft into the Air Force inventory, he was sent to Wichita, Kansas, to start a similar school for Strategic Air Command B-47 crews. He commanded the 3520th Flying Training Group and the 3520th Flying Training Wing at McConnell Air Force Base during this three year assignment. He next attended the National War College.
From 1955 to 1958, General Coira was stationed at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, as commander of the 5039th Air Base Wing and also commander of the 10th Air Division. In addition, he served as deputy chief of staff for operations of the Alaskan Air Command. His second tour of duty in the Pentagon began in June 1958 with assignment to the Organization Division, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, and in September 1959 he assumed duties as deputy director, Manpower Requirements and Utilization, Office of the Secretary of Defense.
In September 1962 General Coira was reassigned to Kelly Air Force Base, Texas, as deputy commander of the U.S. Air Force Security Service and in October 1965 became commander. In August 1969 he went to Japan and was assigned as vice commander, Fifth Air Force at Fuchu Air Station.
General Coira retired in 1 July 1971.
He was interred in the Holy Cross Mausoleum in San Antonio, Texas.
Other Comments:
See Notes
1943-1944, AAF MOS 1060, 40th Bombardment Group, Very Heavy
They were formed as a combat unit in the spring of 1941. From all parts of the United States they came �?? young, fearless and thirsty for adventure. Well-trained and highly qualified, they fiew the powerful Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the biggest and deadliest bomber of World War II. With it, they bombed the Japanese from their base on Tinian Island in the Marianas. They were the crews of the 40th Bomb Group.
In the realm of World War II historical accounts, the 40th Bomb Group's accomplishments might seem rather small, for they did not receive the headlines accorded to Paul Tibbet's 509th Composite Group, which dropped the first atomic bomb. However, like many other groups that fiew out of the three Mariana bases on Tinian, Guam and Saipan in the months before the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb attacks, the 40th helped to lay the groundwork for ending the war.
The airmen gawked in awe at their first glimpse of the B-29. It was the largest and heaviest mass-produced airplane up to that time. Its wingspan was a seemingly endless 141 feet. It had pressurized compartments for its crew of 11, remotely controlled gun turrets, four 18-cylinder Wright Cyclone engines (capable of producing more than 2,000 hp each, the most powerful in aviation), and carried the largest propellers of any aircraft at more than 16 1/2 feet in diameter. The B-29 could carry up to 20,000 pounds of bombs and, supposedly, could hit targets from an altitude of 31,000 feet.
April 1944 saw the first of 38 B-29s and 60 40th Group fiight crews land at Chakulia, India, where the heat was unbearable for both the men and the planes. The 100-degree-plus temperatures made work impossible during the period between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
In April 1945, the 40th was ordered to its new base on Tinian, where year-round temperatures held steady in the low 80s �?? a welcome relief from the searing heat of India and the bitter cold of China. By now the 40th was part of the Twentieth Air Force, which was composed of five combat wings spread around several airfields and using 8,500-foot runways on the three tropical islands of Guam, Saipan and Tinian.
The long fiights from the Mariana Islands to Japan were tests of endurance �?? a round trip of 3,000 miles over the Pacific took about 15 hours.
The life of Eddie Allen, one of the most famous B-29s, came to an abrupt halt on the second Tokyo mission. Named after the Boeing test pilot who died in the crash of a B-29 prototype, Eddie Allen had bombed targets in seven countries before meeting its demise.
By the end of the month, 56 square miles of the Japanese capital had ceased to exist. Because the losses were so heavy that month, LeMay ordered another change of tactics. It was back to daylight high-level attacks. The first of these raids was against Yokohama on May 29. A large force of 459 B-29s was escorted by P-51 Mustangs. In a series of grueling dogfights, the Mustangs shot down 26 Japanese fighters. Three Mustangs and four B-29s were lost.
It seemed only fitting that the 40th fiy in the first B-29 raid of the war and the last one. On August 14, it helped bomb the naval arsenal at Hikari. That same day Japan capitulated. The 40th had made an impressive showing in the Pacific fight, joining in 70 combat missions, dropping 9,200 tons of bombs on enemy targets, and losing 32 B-29s to enemy action. Fifty-three crew members were killed, 26 were wounded and 134 were reported missing. The group's gunners were credited with 46 1/2 enemy planes shot down, 92 probably destroyed and 64 others damaged.
Calamity Jane" (40th Bomb Group)
''EDDIE ALLEN''
''Black Magic II''
DRAGGIN' LADY
Eight Ball Charlie
Deacons Disciples II
Ditched enroute Nagoya Mission
Copilot only one rescued. 10 MIA