World War II Honoree

Fletcher S. Porter

Branch of Service

U.S. Army Air Force

Hometown

Georgetown, Kentucky

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Second Lieutenant. Inducted into the United States Army March 20, 1942 at Lexington, Kentucky. Upon his graduation from recruit training, he was designated to attend the Flight Aviation Training Program. As a graduate of the Aviation Cadet program, he accepted his commission with the Rank of Second Lieutenant and Pilot Wings. He served as a B-24 ‘Liberator’ Bomber Copilot, assigned to the 718th Bomber Squadron, 449th Bomber Group, Forty-Seventh Bomber Air Wing, an element of the U.S. Fifteenth Army Air Forces. His unit was based at the Grottaglie Airfield Taranto, Italy. Sunday, January 30, 1944 he was killed in action, when his group was dispatched for a bombing mission on the Luftwaffe Airfield Udine, Italy. As the formation approached the target, his bomber was shot down by German Fighters. Succeeding hostilities, personnel from a Graves Registration Company buried him in the Mirandola Battlefield Cemetery Location: Mirandola, Italy. In the post-war era, this Airman’s family requested that he be buried with Military Honors at the Georgetown Cemetery Georgetown, Kentucky. This American Patriot received the following decorations posthumously: Air Medal and the Purple Heart. The Air Medal was awarded to the Lieutenant for meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight, and the Purple Heart for his Heroism and ultimate sacrifice.