October 22, 1915 - March 9, 1945
Undoubtedly the most famous of the 44 men we are honoring is Colonel Charles Clark “Sonny” Kegelman. His accolades are extensive and his love for El Reno was real.
A graduate of El Reno High School in the Class of 1932, Kegelman is perhaps best known for the amazing story that led to his being awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. (It was, in fact, the very first DSC awarded in the European Theater of Operations and in the Eighth Air Force.)
Meriting the award, Kegelman led the American contingency of airmen on the very first U.S. raid on Nazi targets in the European Theater of Operations--but it was given him not just for that fact. This mission is famously known as the 4th of July Raid (or similar) and the First Raid of the Mighty Eighth Air Force. It was truly an incredible mission during which then Captain Kegelman’s aircraft was hit by a flak burst while attacking the target. This flak blew off the propeller of one engine on his plane and caught that same engine on fire. The raid was being done at extremely low altitude, and this incident caused the aircraft to collide hard with the ground. Kegelman and his crew literally survived bouncing their twin-engine A-20 Havoc / Boston type aircraft off the ground; the collision knocked a large hole in the bottom of the fuselage of the aircraft. Captain Kegelman skillfully righted the plane and somehow extinguished the fire in the engine, after which he shot out a Nazi anti-aircraft tower then safely limped his battered aircraft back to base. They had a “wheels-up” landing back at base, and while the aircraft was so badly damaged that it was irreparable, Kegelman and his entire crew survived. For his gallantry in action and coolness under extreme circumstances, he was awarded the DSC, while the rest of his crew members each received the DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross).
(Coincidentally, at that time Sonny Kegelman was based out of R.A.F. Molesworth air base in England--the exact same air base that S/Sgt. Merlyn Dale Rukes, another one of our 44 honorees, was based at just a few months later in the 303rd Bombardment Group.)
Kegelman’s actions on that first U.S. raid were so well known and reported that at least three major artists’ renditions of the mission have since been made, and at the time they even ran a quite respectful comic book type version of it in publications. Kegelman’s name--and the name of his truly beloved hometown, El Reno, OK--made the front page of newspapers across the United States and even in places around the world.
Kegelman came home on leave to a hero’s welcome and was given a special celebratory assembly at his alma mater, El Reno High School. (We have a scan of the program for that assembly, at least two of which exist in private collections.)
Kegelman went on to fly what were basically P-51 Mustang fighter planes in the war, eventually being transferred to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. After that, for about a year he trained other pilots stateside at Will Rogers Field in Oklahoma City, but he desperately wanted to get back in the action, and his request was granted. He then took command of a B-25 Mitchell medium bomb group in the Pacific Theater of Operations. It was there on a routine mission that his wingman lost control of his aircraft, sheared off part of Kegelman’s wing, and ultimately caused Kegelman and his entire crew to perish in a crash in the Philippine jungle.
Charles Clark Kegelman was married to Marian Eleanor Dale, who was the niece of Etta Dale, long-time El Reno educator for whom Etta Dale Junior High School in El Reno is named. The couple had no children.
After his death, Charles Clark “Sonny” Kegelman was inducted into the Oklahoma Military Academy Hall of Fame, had the Auxiliary Field for Vance Air Force Base named in his honor, and had the local VFW Post #382 in El Reno also named in his honor. The Douglas A-26 Invader aircraft that sits in front of the El Reno VFW Post was nicknamed “Sonny” in Kegelman’s honor. That particular aircraft is similar in design (a follow-up model, if you will) to the twin-engine Douglas A-20 Havoc / Boston that Kegelman flew that famed July 4, 1942 raid in.

Athletics

WORLD WAR II BIOGRAPHIES

Hubert Austin Ables

Wade Hampton Allison

Ralph Everett Bell

Wilmot Donald Bolinger

Harry Eugene Bradly

Edward Roy Burton

George William Crume

Marvin Earl Crump

Emmett Wilson Burns Davis

James Rene Duffield

Lawrence Wilburn Dyche

Gordon Arthur Eichor

Billy Jack Evans

James Roby Ferguson

Leonard L. Flagler

Russell B. Flippen

Warren Vernon Frazier

Gustavus DeLana "Gus" Funk

James Alfred Hinds

Julius Olsen Hodges

Melvin Wayne "Rookie" Jacks

Thomas Gordon Jackson

Charles Clark "Sonny" Kegelman

William Roberts "Billy" Laird

John Leon Lucus

John Richard Matthews

Ernest Wilfred Miller

William Arthur Miller

Robert Edgar Monday, Jr.

Thomas Howard Morgan

John Forrest "Pat" Moseley

Harry J. Moss

Robert Eugene Mowry

Clarence Arthur Pearce, Jr.

Forrest Dunfee “Jack” Ridenour

Clarence Thomas Rider

Merlyn Dale Rukes

Luther Hendrix "Buddy" Smith, Jr.

John Allen Stewart

Bion Leigh Taylor

Robert "Bobby" King Townsend

Roy Whitlock

Offa Lee Wilson

Homer Don Wright