Kelly, Oakley George, Col

Deceased
 
 Service Photo   Service Details
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Final Rank
Colonel
Last MOS
AAF MOS 770-Airplane Pilot
Last MOS Group
Pilot (Enlisted)
Primary Unit
1941-1947, United States Army Air Forces (USAAF)
Service Years
1917 - 1948
Colonel

 Last Photo   Personal Details 

34 kb


Home State
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
Year of Birth
1891
 
This Military Service Page was created/owned by SSgt Robert Bruce McClelland, Jr. to remember Kelly, Oakley George, Col USAF(Ret).

If you knew or served with this Airman and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
 
Contact Info
Last Address
El Cajon, California
Date of Passing
Jun 05, 1966
 
Location of Interment
Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery (VA) - San Diego, California
Wall/Plot Coordinates
Setion X, Site 1351

 Official Badges 

Air Force Retired


 Unofficial Badges 

Cold War Medal


 Military Associations and Other Affiliations
Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery (VA)
  1966, National Cemetery Administration (NCA), Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery (VA) (San Diego, California)


 Additional Information
Last Known Activity:

Almost nothing is known about his military career, except for his most famous flight, which was when he and Lt. John A. Macready flew the 1st non-stop cross-country flight.
He won the prestiguous Mackay Trophy 2 years in a row in 1922 and 1923, both times with Lt. Macready. 
He served in the USAF and 5 of its 6 predecessors!
(In lower photo, he is on the right, Macready is on the left.)

His DFC citation:

Awarded for actions during Peace Time Awards

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to First Lieutenant (Air Service) Oakley G. Kelly, U.S. Army Air Service, for extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight. Lieutenant Kelly, with First Lieutenant John A. MaCready, departed from Michel Field, Long Island, New York at 12:36 p.m. on 2 May 1923 in the Army transport Airplane T-2, on a nonstop transcontinental flight. They encountered practically every hazard of flying and displayed remarkable ingenuity, skill, and perseverance in over coming the many handicaps imposed upon them by the elements and the mechanical equipment used by them. They arrived at Rockwell Field, Coronado, California. At 12:26 p.m. on 3 May 1923, thus successfully completing the first transcontinental nonstop flight in the history of aviation.

General Orders: War Department, General Orders No. 4 (1928)

Action Date: May 2 - 3, 1923

Service: Army Air Forces

Rank: First Lieutenant

   
Other Comments:

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakley_G._Kelly
http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=7778
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=3411038
http://www.dmairfield.com/people/kelly_og/index.htm
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=740

   


World War II
From Month/Year
December / 1941
To Month/Year
December / 1946

Description
Overview of World War II 

World War II killed more people, involved more nations, and cost more money than any other war in history. Altogether, 70 million people served in the armed forces during the war, and 17 million combatants died. Civilian deaths were ever greater. At least 19 million Soviet civilians, 10 million Chinese, and 6 million European Jews lost their lives during the war.

World War II was truly a global war. Some 70 nations took part in the conflict, and fighting took place on the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe, as well as on the high seas. Entire societies participated as soldiers or as war workers, while others were persecuted as victims of occupation and mass murder.

World War II cost the United States a million causalities and nearly 400,000 deaths. In both domestic and foreign affairs, its consequences were far-reaching. It ended the Depression, brought millions of married women into the workforce, initiated sweeping changes in the lives of the nation's minority groups, and dramatically expanded government's presence in American life.

The War at Home & Abroad

On September 1, 1939, World War II started when Germany invaded Poland. By November 1942, the Axis powers controlled territory from Norway to North Africa and from France to the Soviet Union. After defeating the Axis in North Africa in May 1941, the United States and its Allies invaded Sicily in July 1943 and forced Italy to surrender in September. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allies landed in Northern France. In December, a German counteroffensive (the Battle of the Bulge) failed. Germany surrendered in May 1945.

The United States entered the war following a surprise attack by Japan on the U.S. Pacific fleet in Hawaii. The United States and its Allies halted Japanese expansion at the Battle of Midway in June 1942 and in other campaigns in the South Pacific. From 1943 to August 1945, the Allies hopped from island to island across the Central Pacific and also battled the Japanese in China, Burma, and India. Japan agreed to surrender on August 14, 1945 after the United States dropped the first atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Consequences:

1. The war ended Depression unemployment and dramatically expanded government's presence in American life. It led the federal government to create a War Production Board to oversee conversion to a wartime economy and the Office of Price Administration to set prices on many items and to supervise a rationing system.

2. During the war, African Americans, women, and Mexican Americans founded new opportunities in industry. But Japanese Americans living on the Pacific coast were relocated from their homes and placed in internment camps.

The Dawn of the Atomic Age

In 1939, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt, warning him that the Nazis might be able to build an atomic bomb. On December 2, 1942, Enrico Fermi, an Italian refugee, produced the first self-sustained, controlled nuclear chain reaction in Chicago.

To ensure that the United States developed a bomb before Nazi Germany did, the federal government started the secret $2 billion Manhattan Project. On July 16, 1945, in the New Mexico desert near Alamogordo, the Manhattan Project's scientists exploded the first atomic bomb.

It was during the Potsdam negotiations that President Harry Truman learned that American scientists had tested the first atomic bomb. On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay, a B-29 Superfortress, released an atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan. Between 80,000 and 140,000 people were killed or fatally wounded. Three days later, a second bomb fell on Nagasaki. About 35,000 people were killed. The following day Japan sued for peace.

President Truman's defenders argued that the bombs ended the war quickly, avoiding the necessity of a costly invasion and the probable loss of tens of thousands of American lives and hundreds of thousands of Japanese lives. His critics argued that the war might have ended even without the atomic bombings. They maintained that the Japanese economy would have been strangled by a continued naval blockade, and that Japan could have been forced to surrender by conventional firebombing or by a demonstration of the atomic bomb's power.

The unleashing of nuclear power during World War II generated hope of a cheap and abundant source of energy, but it also produced anxiety among large numbers of people in the United States and around the world.
   
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
December / 1941
To Month/Year
September / 1945
 
Last Updated:
Mar 16, 2020
   
Personal Memories
   
My Photos From This Battle or Operation
No Available Photos

  7575 Also There at This Battle:
  • Adair, William, Sgt, (1943-1946)
  • Adcock, David, 1st Lt, (1942-1945)
  • Agin, Thomas, SSgt, (1942-1949)
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