John R. Kane

Born: January 5, 1907, MacGregor, Texas
Died: May 29, 1996, (age 89), Coatesville, Pennsylvania

Colonel John Riley Kane was a Colonel in the United States Army Air Forces and later the United States Air Force and a World War II Medal of Honor recipient.

What do you know about Colonel John R. Kane. Take this Quick World War II and Medal of Honor Quiz.

1. He attend Baylor University in Waco, Texas where he was a star basketball and baseball player. He was fortunate to be one of the survivors of the January 1927 collision between the bus carrying the basketball team and a train in Round Rock, Texas. The ten students killed would become known as the Immortal Ten, a homecoming ceremony recognizing those killed would become a Baylor tradition.

• True or False?

2. Upon graduation in 1928, Kane moved to Shreveport, Louisiana and later joined the Army Air Corps. When did he join?

• June 1931
• June 1934
• June 1939

3. By July 1942 Kane was a Major and was assigned to the 98th Bomb Group flying missions in Africa. What was the group's nickname?

4. While there he flew 43 combat missions and eventually was promoted to full Colonel and assumed command of the 98th. What was his nickname?

• Buck Kane
• Slaughter Kane
• Killer Kane

5. On the August 1, 1943 Ploesti Raid, what was the name of his B-24?

• Hail Columbia
• America the Beautiful
• Star-Spangled Banner

6. Following their briefed path the 98th, flanked by the 44th Bomb Group led by Colonel Leon W. Johnson flew alongside the railroad yard they led into the refineries. It was there that they were engaged by flak batteries that were hidden inside box cars on a moving train.

• True or False?

7. Colonel Kane engaged the enemy flak pieces with a group of fixed .50 caliber machine guns that he had mounted in the nose of his B-24. When he had exhausted the weapons ammunition he ordered his gunners to destroy the train’s engine.

• True or False?

8. Once they reached the target his group released their bombs on the Asta Romana and Columbia Aquila refineries before heading back to their base.

• True or False?

9. It was there that the heavily damaged B-24 would crash land and be written off as a total loss. They plane would be unceremoniously dumped off a cliff the next day.

• True or False?

10. When did Colonel John R. Kane retire from the Air Force?

• 1946
• 1956
• 1966

11. Where is John R. Kane buried?

• Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia
• Elizabethtown City Cemetery, Elizabethtown, Kentucky
• Llano Cemetery, Amarillo, Texas

John R. Kane Answers

1. True
2. June 1931
3. Pyramiders
4. Killer Kane
5. Hail Columbia
6. True
7. True
8. True
9. True
10. 1956
11. Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia
    Plot: Section 7A, Grave 47, Map Grid U-23/24

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