Leslie A. Porter Jr.
Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Force
O-693405
387th Combat Crew Training School
Born: February 9, 1921
Died: March 26, 1944
Near Floydada, Texas
Buried: Plot P-C 226
Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery
San Antonio, Texas
Introduction
Second Lieutenant Leslie A. Porter Jr.
Second Lieutenant Leslie A. Porter Jr. was born on February 9, 1921 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Leslie A. and Elsie Porter. His father worked as a clerk for the Bell Telephone Company, and the family also included a younger brother, John. He grew up in Oaklyn, New Jersey, where the family owned a home at 225 Manheim Avenue. A 1938 graduate of Collingswood High School, he took part in school plays during his junior and senior years. In his yearbook, he stated that he enjoyed bowling, dancing, and driving, and disliked “English and wise guys.”
Leslie Porter enlisted in the Army Air Corps on June 10, 1942, and was ordered to report for active duty on December 4, 1942. He was sent to the classification center at San Antonio, Texas, where he began his training, and was commissioned as a pilot and Second Lieutenant on October 1, 1943. He was then sent to Transition School at Fort Worth, Texas, where he graduated as a pilot of four-engine bombers.
On March 26th, 1944, while on a routine formation flight from Peterson Field at Colorado Springs, Colorado, to a base in Texas, the B-24 Liberator bomber he was flying in crashed near Floydada, Texas. The entire crew was lost. Besides Leslie Porter, those lost included Second Lieutenant Donald Novak, Second Lieutenant James A. Garvey, Second Lieutenant Frank Cziguth, and Staff Sergeant Pedro S. Messa, Staff Sergeant James M. Driver, and Sergeants James M. Miller, Harvie S. Vance, and George L. Thomas.
The death of Leslie Porter was reported in the March 23, 1944, evening edition of the Camden Courier-Post. On March 30, 1944, the Courier-Post reported that Leslie Porter and his crew would be buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas. On April 3rd, 1944, Leslie Porter and his crew were buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery with full military honors. Memorial services were held on April 3, 1944, at the Oaklyn Baptist Church on East Bettlewood Avenue. He was survived by his parents; his wife, the former Miss Eleanor Kipp, of Collingswood, New Jersey; and a brother, John Porter, then a private training with a parachute unit at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Photos
Leslie A. Porter Jr. — Military portrait; 1938 Collingswood High School yearbook photo; in flight gear
A Letter From Leslie Porter
Letter from Leslie A. Porter Jr.
Well, Friday I finally managed to get off the ground. We flew early in the morning and it sure did feel good to get my hands on the throttles and feel the controls once again. It has been a whole month since I have been up. It means quite a bit to a pilot to get back up there. There is something about it you can’t keep away from. After you have spent a few hundred hours up there everything changes, your thoughts and manners. Most of the hours are spent all alone and it is quite a different world than we all know down here. You have time to think and figure things out. There is nothing about you but a pure clean world that hasn’t been soiled by the corruptness of people and their ideals. All around there is an endless expanse that makes you feel good and clean down inside. You can feel a nearness to something that is a little bigger than you are. You may be all alone and yet you feel that someone is with you. I guess that is what people call God. It isn’t exactly a fear of something, it’s a close feeling to someone real. Sometimes I actually feel sorry for people who are earthbound and don’t fly, people who have never experienced such a solitary feeling. Some of the things we see are beautiful and beyond comprehension. Sometimes I feel as if I have been privileged with a glimpse into what lies after this life. Because of this feeling I have no fear of going into combat. If anything should ever happen to me I will know what to expect. These are some of my thoughts and feelings that I have when I’m sitting behind the controls high above the earth in my ship. I hope you don’t mind me saying those things but I think people who don’t fly sometimes wonder what a pilot does up there. I know I often wondered.
Oaklyn Flier Dies With 8 in Bomber
Camden Courier-Post —
Lt. Leslie A. Porter, Jr., 23, of 225 Manheim avenue, Oaklyn, was pilot of an Army plane which crashed and burned near Floydada, Tex., killing him and eight other crew members, it was disclosed last night.
The B-24 Liberator bomber was on a flight from Peterson Field, at Colorado Springs, Colo., when it crashed Sunday night.
Lt. Porter was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Leslie A. Porter, Sr. Born February 9, 1921, in Philadelphia, he grew up in Oaklyn and was graduated from Collingswood High School in 1938.
He enlisted in the Army Air Corps on June 10, 1942, and was ordered to active duty on December 4, 1942. After completing his training at the classification center at San Antonio, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and pilot on October 1, 1943. After receiving his wings, Porter was assigned to Transition School at Fort Worth, Texas, where he graduated as a pilot of four-engine bombers.
Surviving him are his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Leslie A. Porter, Sr., of Oaklyn; his wife, the former Miss Eleanor Kipp, of Collingswood; and a brother, John B. Porter.
Crew on the bomber also included Second Lts. Donald Novak, Teaneck, N.J.; James A. Garvey, New York, N.Y.; Frank Cziguth, Bethlehem, Pa.; Sgts. Pedro S. Messa, Houston, Texas; James M. Driver, Memphis, Tenn.; James M. Miller, Richland, Ga.; Harvie S. Vance, Kernersville, N.C.; and George L. Thomas, Cochranville, Pa.
Bomber Crash Claims Lives of Nine Aviators
Floyd County Hesperian (Floydada, Texas) —
Floydada and Floyd county people are just beginning to regain their poise this mid-week following the crash-explosion of an Army Air corps bomber Sunday night 2½ miles west of Floydada and the violent death of its crew members, either nine or 10 men, after a losing fight with the elements. The machine was officially listed as a B-24 Liberator bomber on a routine training cruise from Peterson field at Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Seen by scores and heard by hundreds as the gallant young airmen struggled to save their plane, the huge machine apparently developed troubles some 30 miles east of Floydada, lost a 30-foot wing tip 1½ hours west of Plainview on the Plains, and plunged to the ground violently within an area of some five acres, about 1½ miles west of town.
W. M. Dyer, member of a local flying club who was watching from the air, estimated the height of the plane when it was in trouble to be 500 feet. He looked on as the huge bomber took its fatal plunge. Others tell of the plane crashing into high voltage lines over the north-south highway near town.
Bert Massie, who lives within two miles of the crash, stated he heard the unusual noise of the plane. His first thought as it struck the earth was that it had landed.
Order Quickly Restored
Hundreds of people, possibly thousands, were made aware of the crash almost as it happened and had the same idea — to rush to the scene and render what aid they could. Shortly they were in a traffic jam that extended for miles along the highways and surrounding the Trice Farm.
Lt. Harry Mockrel was early on the scene and set up the need for control of the crowd and the need to guard the grounds. Captain Collins notified the State Guard to organize and control the crowd. By Tuesday the grounds had been cleared.
Any announcement made by the army was contained in a two-paragraph news release through press agencies from Colorado Springs, which gave the names of nine men. The list of dead as released by the station commandant at Peterson Field, Colorado Springs: Second Lt. Leslie A. Porter, Jr., Oakland, N.J.; Second Lt. Donald Novak, Teaneck, N.J.; Second Lt. James A. Garvey, New York, New York; Second Lt. Frank Cziguth, Bethlehem, Pa.; Sgt. Pedro S. Messa, Houston, Texas; Sgt. Joseph M. Miller, Richland, Ga.; Sgt. Harvie S. Vance, Kernersville, N.C.; Sgt. George L. Thomas, Cochranville, Pa.; and Sgt. James L. Driver, Memphis, Tenn.
Response and co-operation of the public when Company G took over the premises at the suggestion and with the aid of Sheriff Lee Howard and other local officials, was marvelous, said Captain T. P. Collins, commanding. The accident occurred probably at 9:10.
By 10:30 o’clock the guard had been assembled and were patrolling the area, and the crowd, although horrified and morbidly curious following the spectacular accident, were co-operative and helpful in every way. At no time was there any unruliness or panic or hesitancy in obeying orders of the guard.
Pays Boys a Compliment
Co-operation, good common sense, and promptness of the Floydada unit of the Texas State guard, came in for praise here Tuesday from Major Jack Payne, who was in Floydada from South Plains Army Air field.
He expressed to Guard members appreciation of the commendable way in which the guard company functioned. It was a bad night out but the army did not take over until the early morning of Monday, the guard members handling the situation in weather that was below freezing and with a stiff wind blowing.
Record of Deaths
Texas Bureau of Vital Statistics — Record of Deaths: Leslie A. Porter Jr.