J. Kemp McLaughlin was all of 23
years old when he flew his first combat mission during World
War II.
McLaughlin, a B-17 co-pilot, and his fellow crew members had
just bombed an airfield in Lille, France, when they encountered
heavy anti-aircraft fire and took a direct hit to the number
two fuel tank in their left wing. While flames streamed well
beyond the tail of the plane, another burst sent shrapnel through
the center of the aircraft, wounding the radio operator.
The waist gunner
bailed out. Unnerved, the pilot left the cockpit, strapped on
a parachute, and camped out on the escape hatch, ready to jump
before the plane exploded. It was up to Second Lieutenant McLaughlin
to return the plane and its crew to safety at the base, Bovingdon
Aerodrome north of London, England. This he managed to do while
under heavy fire from German aircraft.
The campaign over France that cool morning in October 1942 was
a prelude to further dangers the recent West Virginia University
graduate would face while flying with the U.S. 8th Air Force
as part of the Allied effort to break the Axis grip on Europe.
With the type of resolve and fortitude that ultimately earned
McLaughlin and his peers their nation's respect as "The
Greatest Generation," McLaughlin would survive the war and
go on to organize the West Virginia Air National Guard, raise
a family, and retire from the service as a brigadier general.
If you believe in signs and omens, it might seem that Kemp McLaughlin
was destined for a military career. The boy who would become
a World War II bomber pilot was born on December 7, 1918, in
Braxton County. December 7—a date that, after 1941, would
forever be etched in American consciousness.
McLaughlin's childhood was spent in rural surroundings. His parents,
James and Almira McLaughlin, owned farms in Braxton, Berkeley,
Kanawha, and Putnam Counties. Kemp grew up in Charleston, but
spent his formative years working on all of the family's farms.
"My father was a farmer his whole life and served as agricultural
commissioner from 1932 until his death in 1955," McLaughlin
recalled. "I grew up in the agricultural business through
high school. I still have the farm in Berkeley County."
In 1937, McLaughlin left the farm for the
city of Morgantown to attend WVU.
"It was a small school back then, between 3,000 and 3,500
students, and I knew just about everybody there," he said.
"You could almost throw a rock across the campus, it was
so small. But it was a very enjoyable place-and inexpensive,
with tuition at $35 a semester.
"There were no parking problems on the campus," he
added. "I was a member of Beta Theta Pi, and only one member
had a car. Comuntzis' and a place called The Rendezvous were
the big meeting places back then."
WVU's sports teams posted winning seasons during McLaughlin's
four years in Morgantown. The football team went to the Sun Bowl
in 1937, and the basketball and boxing teams made good names
for themselves as well, he said.
McLaughlin graduated from WVU in 1941 with a bachelor's degree
in history.
"University life was very good," he said. "I have
no complaint about that part of my life at all."
McLaughlin considered joining the military halfway through college,
when an Army Air Corps testing team visited the WVU campus in
April 1938. McLaughlin took the test and passed, but he wasn't
yet 21 years old and his parents refused to sign the necessary
papers allowing him to join the service.
Consequently, he remained at WVU, completing the primary and
advanced phases of the College Pilot Training Program offered
at the school before graduating. He then took and passed the
Army Air Corps test a second time and began training in the fall
of 1941.
For training, which lasted seven months, McLaughlin was stationed
at Maxwell Army Air Corps Field in Alabama and the Army Air Corps
training schools in Greenville and Columbus, Mississippi.
While in Greenville,
he celebrated his 23rd birthday with friends in Little Rock,
Arkansas, where his girlfriend was attending the University of
Arkansas. The base operated only five days a week, and cadets
could sneak out through a back fence and go to town on weekends.
When the AWOL Cadet McLaughlin returned to the barracks from
his birthday visit to Arkansas, he learned that the Japanese
had bombed Pearl Harbor. After December 7, 1941, all military
bases began operating 24/7.
McLaughlin arrived in England as a second lieutenant and co-pilot
in the Mighty Eighth's 92nd Bombardment Group, later nicknamed
"Fame's Favored Few."
The crews flew the B-17 bomber, called the Flying Fortress. The
planes were 100 feet long and had a 98-foot wingspan; they were
painted in camouflage, with the exception of the undersides,
which were light gray to blend in with the sky. Each plane accommodated
a crew of 10: pilot, co-pilot, bombardier, navigator, flight
engineer/top turret gunner, belly turret gunner, two waist gunners,
tail gunner, and radio operator/gunner.
"The B-17 was the first bomber we ever had with so many
guns," McLaughlin recalled. "It was very well built.
You could shoot it full of holes, and it would still fly as long
as you didn't hit a fuel line."
The plane's durability was critical for the success—and
survival—of the 92nd Bomb Group, which would participate
in some of the war's most dangerous air battles.
McLaughlin himself would have several near-death experiences.
• He piloted the mission command plane during the second
raid on Germany's primary ball-bearing factory in Schweinfurt.
Allied planes were under constant attack for six hours from enemy
air and ground fire during the October 14, 1943, raid, which
military historians have called the greatest air battle of the
war. The Mighty Eighth destroyed 70 percent of German ball-bearing
production, but lost 25 percent of its bombers.
• McLaughlin was deputy air commander on a bombing raid
in Norway in November 1943 when his plane lost oil pressure in
the number three engine, causing the engine to overheat. The
crew carried out the raid despite the mechanical problem. On
its way back to England, the B-17 came under attack from an enemy
plane and could not return fire because the crew had thrown all
the guns overboard to lighten the load. The overheating engine
caught fire as the plane landed at an airfield in England. McLaughlin
called this his "longest day."
• McLaughlin was air commander on a bombing raid during
the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. The Allies had decimated
German air power by this time, but their planes unexpectedly
encountered fire from enemy tanks. A piece of shrapnel went through
the side of McLaughlin's plane and pierced his metal seat. He
was uninjured.
"I had flown about 40 missions all over the continent by
this time without being hit, and here, on what I would call a
'milk run,' I'd nearly bought the farm," he said.
Not all of McLaughlin's missions were fraught with peril, though.
• He spent almost five months ferrying high-ranking military
officials around Gibraltar and North Africa in a B-17 outfitted
with lounge chairs, a folding table, and windows in the bomb
bay. The one close call during this period came on the return
trip to England. The plane ran low on fuel, and the crew had
to crash-land in Ireland with the commander of American forces
in the European Theater of Operations on board.
• McLaughlin and his fellow pilots staged air battles with
a Hollywood director, Major William Wyler, and his crew on board
filming the action. Wyler included the footage in such movies
as Twelve O'Clock High and Memphis Belle.
• He transported performers sent to entertain Allied troops
and once ate lunch with comedian Bob Hope.
• He found time to marry his long-time girlfriend, Constance
Bailey, also a WVU graduate. The two were wed May 11, 1944, in
the interim between McLaughlin's first and second tours of duty.
McLaughlin was nearing
the completion of his second tour in the spring of 1945. After
flying 40 combat missions and spending more than 31 months in
England, he was ordered back to the States. He accepted a commission
as a lieutenant colonel following the war and finished his service
in June 1946 at Gulfport Army Air Field in Mississippi. After
that, he and his wife returned to Charleston.
Of his war years, McLaughlin said he has both good and bad memories.
"I think of all the combat I went through, which are the
bad parts," he said. "Of course, I remember the good
times as well. All my comrades were boys just like I was, just
out of college. We were all single, and we all got along great
together. There were lots of happy times.
"The missions were pretty tough times," McLaughlin
added. "The tough part of flying combat during war was not
only the mission you fly today, but the one you would have to
fly tomorrow. None of us ever thought we were going to make it
through the war. Our losses were just too great."
When McLaughlin and his wife returned to Charleston, he considered
the military chapter of his life closed. He had landed a job
selling construction equipment and was beginning the process
of moving on with his life.
Three months later, though, the adjutant general of the West
Virginia National Guard asked McLaughlin to serve as commander
of the state's first Air National Guard squadron. He accepted,
and in 1947 he began organizing the unit.
"We were going to get 40 airplanes for the squadron,"
he said. "It was supposed to be a part-time job. The next
thing, we got nine boxcars full of squadron equipment. The Air
Force had shipped equipment for a complete fighter squadron,
and I had to go to work full-time."
Highlights of McLaughlin's 30-year tenure as commander of the
West Virginia Air National Guard included service during the
Korean War and organizing a second unit based in Martinsburg.
The West Virginia Air Guard started out with 360 members and
went through its share of growing pains, including a tumultuous
relationship with the Air Force.
"The Air Force decided they really didn't want us because
they couldn't control the money," McLaughlin said. "We
were kind of like bastards at the family reunion. During the
Korean War, we were stationed in World War I barracks at Godman
Field, Kentucky, that had no operating heating systems."
Fortunately for all involved, those days are over, McLaughlin
said.
"The Air Guard is fully accepted now," he said. "We
have 2,500 members, with people on duty all over the world. The
unit performed well during Operation Desert Storm in 1991."
McLaughlin retired as commander in 1977 with the rank of brigadier
general.
"I thought it turned out to be a very worthwhile organization,"
he said of his years with the Guard. "You can operate a
reserve unit where the members live at home and operate on a
civilian airport for a quarter of what it costs to keep an Air
Force squadron on active duty."
At the same time he was commanding the West Virginia Air National
Guard, McLaughlin began dabbling in politics and real estate.
He served on the Kanawha County Commission from 1963 to 1969
and in the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1974 to 1976
as a Democrat.
"I'm one of the few conservative Democrats left in West
Virginia," he said.
His real estate ventures have centered around development. In
1963, he developed a public cemetery in the northeast section
of Charleston. He completed a housing development in the Martinsburg
area in 1999, and is exploring another similar project in Berkeley
County.
He and his wife, Constance, also raised three children: Kemp
Jr. and Mary, both WVU graduates, and Laura. A granddaughter,
Elizabeth McLaughlin, currently attends WVU.
His wife died in 1993.
McLaughlin now resides in Lake Wales, Florida, but returns to
Charleston and his farm in Berkeley County every summer. Although
he is retired, he shows no signs of slowing down.
"I'm still looking over parts of my business," he said.
"I still have my hand in two or three real estate projects,
both in West Virginia and Florida. I also have the farm in the
Eastern Panhandle."
He has also written a compelling memoir of his war years. The
Mighty Eighth in WWII: A Memoir was published by the University
Press of Kentucky in 2000.
Also in 2000, McLaughlin married Elizabeth W. Hartman, who is
from the Charleston area.
"I stay pretty busy," he said.