GEORGE McGOVERN (B-24 Pilot) - United States Senator
(July 19, 1922 - )
Inducted into the USAAF in 1943, sent to Europe as a B-24 Pilot (flying 35 missions). May have been on YO-YO (455th BG / 741st BS), and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross.
http://www.b24bestweb.com/Pics-Y-YOA-YOU_B.htm
http://www.15thaf.org/304th_BW/455th_BG/Book/PDFs/455thBGHistory_Squadrons.pdf
Defeated by Richard M. Nixon in the 1972 presidential election.
GEORGE McGOVERN Book:
Vietnam : Four American Perspectives : Lectures
GEORGE McGOVERN Featured in:
The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany
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United States Senator
from South Dakota
In office
January 3, 1963 â?? January 3, 1981
Preceded by Joseph H. Bottum
Succeeded by James Abdnor
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from South Dakota's 1st district
In office
January 3, 1957 â?? January 3, 1961
Preceded by Harold O. Lovre
Succeeded by Ben Reifel
Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs
In office
July 30, 1968 â?? December 31, 1977
Born July 19, 1922 (age 87)
Avon, South Dakota
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) Eleanor McGovern (1943 - 2007)
Children Ann (1945â??)
Susan (1946â??)
Teresa (1949â??1994)
Steven (1952â??)
Mary (1955â??)
Residence Mitchell, South Dakota
Profession historian, professor, politician
Religion Methodism
Signature
Death: Oct. 21, 2012
Sioux Falls
Minnehaha County
South Dakota, USA
US Senator, US Congressman, US Presidential Candidate, Author. During his lengthy career in public service, he will probably be best remembered for his unsuccessful bid as the Democratic nominee for President of the United States against the incumbent Richard Nixon in 1972. The son of a Methodist minister, he was an exceptional student who relished debating and it would be this attribute which earned him a scholarship to Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, South Dakota. Following the United States' entry into World War II, he enlisted with the United States Army Air Corps as a bomber pilot of a B-24 and flew roughly 35 combat missions which earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross. Upon returning home, he received his Master of Arts degree and PhD in American History and Government from Northwestern University, prior to his return to Dakota Wesleyan where he served as a professor of History and Political Science. His interests in the Democratic Party led to his political career and he was elected to and served South Dakota's 1st Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives from 1957 to 1961. After losing his bid for reelection, President John F. Kennedy appointed McGovern director of the Food for Peace Program in 1961. He remained at that capacity until his election to the United States Senate (1963 to 1981). During his tenure, the liberal senator from South Dakota served on the Agriculture, Nutrition, Forestry and Foreign Relations Committees, in addition to the Joint Economics Committee. He was known as an opposing voice of the Vietnam War, which was the platform for his presidential candidacy in 1972. After securing the nomination for the Democratic Party, his campaign suffered a setback when it was revealed that his chosen running mate Senator Thomas Eagleton suffered from bouts of depression which resulted in shock-therapy treatment. Ultimately, this led to his withdrawal and his being replaced on the ticket by Sargent Shriver. During the course of the 1972 election the infamous break-in at the Watergate Democratic Headquarters occurred which was the catalyst for the "Watergate Scandal". President Richard Nixon won reelection by a landslide, however over the next two years when details of the break-in which was orchestrated by members within the administration emerged, this would lead to the president's downfall. After leaving the Senate, McGovern remained active as a lecturer and continued champion to end world hunger. He also penned numerous books. In 2000, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Clinton and was appointed United Nations Global Ambassador in 2001. He died in a hospice care facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota at the age of 90. (bio by: C.S.)
Family links:
Spouse:
Eleanor Fay Stegeberg McGovern (1921 - 2007)
Children:
Teresa Jane McGovern (1949 - 1994)*
Steven McGovern (1952 - 2012)*
Other Comments:
From wikipedia:
Military service
Soon thereafter McGovern was sworn in as a private at Fort Snelling in Minnesota. He spent a month at Jefferson Barracks Military Post in Missouri and then five months at Southern Illinois Normal University in Carbondale, Illinois for ground school training; both the academic work and physical training would be the toughest he would ever experience. He spent two months at a base in San Antonio, Texas and then went to Hatbox Field in Muskogee, Oklahoma for basic flying school in a single-engined PT-19. Lonely and in love, McGovern married Eleanor Stegeberg on October 31, 1943, while on three-day leave in a ceremony at the small Methodist church in Woonsocket with his father presiding, as the couple decided not to wait any further.After three months in Muskogee, McGovern went to Coffeyville Army Airfield in Kansas for three months of training on the BT-13] Around April 1944, McGovern went on to advanced flying school at Pampa Army Airfield in Texas for twin-engine training on the AT-17 and AT-9. Throughout, Air Cadet McGovern showed skill as a pilot, with his exceptionally good depth perception aiding him. Eleanor McGovern followed him to these different stops and was there when he got his wings and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant.
McGovern was assigned to Liberal Army Airfield in Kansas to transition school to learn to fly the B-24 Liberator, an assignment he was pleased with. McGovern recalled later: "Learning how to fly the B-24 was the toughest part of the training. It was a difficult airplane to fly, physically, because in the early part of the war, they didn't have hydraulic controls. If you can imagine driving a Mack truck without any power steering or power brakes, that's about what it was like at the controls. It was the biggest bomber we had at the time.Eleanor was constantly afraid of her husband suffering an accident while training, which claimed a huge toll of airmen during the entire war.This was followed by a stint at Lincoln Army Airfield in Nebraska, where McGovern met his B-24 crew.The traveling around the country and mixing with people from different backgrounds was a broadening experience for McGovern and others of his generation.The USAAF sped up training times for McGovern and others due to the heavy losses that bombing missions were suffering over Europe. Despite, and partly because of, the risk that McGovern might not come back from combat, the McGoverns decided to have a child and Eleanor became pregnant.In June 1944, McGovern's crew received final training at Mountain Home Army Air Field in Idaho.They then shipped out via Camp Patrick Henry in Virginia, where McGovern found history books to fill downtime, and overseas on a slow troopship.
A B-24 Liberator of the Fifteenth Air Force's 451st Bombardment Group (not McGovern's group, but also stationed in Italy), on a March 1945 mission over Germany
In September 1944, McGovern joined the 741st Squadron of the 455th Bombardment Group of the Fifteenth Air Force, stationed at San Giovanni Airfield nearby Cerignola in the Apulia region of Italy. There he and his crew found a starving, disease-ridden local population wracked by the ill fortunes of war and far worse off than anything they had seen back home during the Depression.Starting on November 11, 1944, McGovern flew 35 missions over enemy territory from there, the first five as co-pilot for an experienced crew and the rest as pilot for his own plane, known as the Dakota Queen after his wife Eleanor.His targets were in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and northern, German-controlled Italy, and were often either oil refinery complexes or rail marshalling yards, all as part of the U.S. strategic bombing campaign in Europe. The eight- or nine-hour missions were grueling tests of endurance for pilots, and while German fighter aircraft were a diminished threat by then, his missions often faced heavy anti-aircraft artillery fire that filled the sky with flak bursts.
On McGovern's December 15 mission over Linz, his second as pilot, a piece of shrapnel from flak came through the windshield and missed killing him by only a few inches.The following day on a mission to Brüx he nearly collided with another bomber during close-formation flying in complete cloud cover. The day after that he was recommended for a medal after surviving a blown wheel on the always-dangerous B-24 take-off, completing a mission over Germany, and then landing without further damage to the plane.On a December 20 mission against the Škoda Works at Pilsen, McGovern's plane had one engine out and another in flames after being hit by flak. Unable to return to Italy, McGovern was able to land his plane on a British airfield on Vis, a small island off the Yugoslav coast controlled by Tito's Partisans. The short field, normally used by small fighter planes, killed many of the bomber crews who tried to make emergency landings there, but McGovern successfully landed, saving his crew and earning him the Distinguished Flying Cross.
In January 1945, McGovern used R&R time to see every sight he could in Rome and participate in an audience with the Pope.Bad weather prevented many missions from happening during the winter, and during downtime McGovern spent much time reading and discussing how the war had come about. He resolved that if he survived it, he would become a history professor. In February, McGovern was promoted to First Lieutenant.On March 14, McGovern had an incident over Austria when he accidentally bombed a family farm when a jammed bomb accidentally released above it and destroyed it, which McGovern felt guilty about.(Decades later, after a public appearance in that country, the owner of that farm came to the media to let the Senator know that he was the victim of that incident, but no one was hurt and felt it was worth the price if that event helped achieve the defeat of Nazi Germany in some small way.On return from the flight, McGovern was told his first child Ann had been born four days earlier.April 25 saw McGovern's 35th mission, to fulfill the USAAF limit for combat, against heavily defended Linz. The sky turned black and red with flak â?? McGovern later said "Hell can't be any worse than that" â?? the Dakota Queen was hit multiple times (producing 110 holes in its fuselage and wings) and the hydraulic system was knocked out. McGovern's waist gunner was injured and his flight engineer so terrified that he would be hospitalized with battle fatigue, but McGovern managed to bring back the plane safely with the assistance of an improvised landing technique.
In May and June 1945, following the end of the European war, McGovern flew food relief flights to northern Italy, then flew back to the United States with his crew.McGovern was discharged from the Army Air Forces in July 1945, with the rank of first lieutenant.He was also awarded the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters,[3] one instance of which was for the safe landing on his final mission.
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Writings
McGovern, George S., War Against Want: America's Food for Peace Program, Walker & Co., 1964.
McGovern, George S., Agricultural Thought in the Twentieth Century, Bobbs-Merrill, 1966.
McGovern, George S., A Time of War! A Time of Peace, Vintage Books, 1968. ISBN 0-394-70481-9.
McGovern, George S., Guttridge, Leonard F. The Great Coalfield War, Houghton Mifflin, 1972.
McGovern, George S., Grassroots: The Autobiography of George McGovern, Random House, 1977. ISBN 0-394-41941-3.
McGovern, George S., Terry: My Daughter's Life-And-Death Struggle With Alcoholism, New York: Villard, 1996. ISBN 0-679-44797-0.
McGovern, George S., The Third Freedom: Ending Hunger in Our Time, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002. ISBN 0-7425-2125-7.
McGovern, George S., The Essential America: Our Founders and the Liberal Tradition, Simon & Schuster, 2004. ISBN 0-7432-6927-6.
McGovern, George S., Social Security and the Golden Age: An Essay on the New American Demographic, Speaker's Corner Books, 2005. ISBN 1555915892.
McGovern, George S. and Polk, William R., Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now, Simon & Schuster, 2006.
McGovern, George S., Donald C. Simmons, Jr. and Daniel Gaken. Leadership and Service: An Introduction, Kendall/Hunt Publishers, 2008. ISBN 978-0-7575-5109-3.
McGovern, George S., Abraham Lincoln, Times Books, 2008. ISBN 978-0805083453.
Bibliography
Ambrose, Stephen, The Wild Blue : The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany 1944â??45, Simon & Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0-7432-0339-9.
Anson, Robert Sam, McGovern: A Biography, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972. ISBN 0-03-091345-4.
Clinton, Bill, My Life, Vintage, 2005. ISBN 1-4000-3003-X.
Dougherty, Richard, Goodbye, Mr. Christian: A Personal Account of McGovern's Rise and Fall, Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1973. ISBN 0-385-01546-1.
Hart, Gary, Right from the Start: A Chronicle of the McGovern Campaign, New York: Quadrangle, 1973. ISBN 0-8129-0372-2.
Mann, Robert, A Grand Delusion: America's Descent Into Vietnam, New York: Basic Books, 2001. ISBN 0-465-04369-0.
Marano, Richard Michael, Vote Your Conscience: The Last Campaign of George McGovern, Praeger Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0-275-97189-9.
McGovern, Eleanor, Uphill: A Personal Story, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974. ISBN 0-395-19414-8.
Miroff, Bruce, The Liberals' Moment: The McGovern Insurgency and the Identity Crisis of the Democratic Party, University Press of Kansas, 2007. ISBN 0-7006-1546-9.
Moritz, Charles (ed.), Current Biography Yearbook 1967, H. W. Wilson Company, 1968.
Schlesinger Jr., Arthur M., A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House, Houghton Mifflin, 1965. ISBN 0618219277.
Thompson, Hunter S., Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, Warner Books, 1973. ISBN 0-446-31364-5.
Watson, Robert P. (ed.), George McGovern: A Political Life, A Political Legacy, South Dakota State Historical Society Press, 2004. ISBN 0971517169.
Weil, Gordon L., The Long Shot: George McGovern Runs for President, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1973. ISBN 0-393-05498-5.
White, Theodore H., The Making of the President 1968, Antheneum Publishers, 1969.
White, Theodore H., The Making of the President 1972, Antheneum Publishers, 1973. ISBN 0-689-10553-3.
"What Might Have Been", article from The Washington Post by Thomas Leahy, February 20, 2005.
"Come Home, America: Liberals need another George McGovernâ??and perhaps conservatives do too.", article from The American Conservative by Bill Kauffman, January 30, 2006.
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