User:Ldoneill/Lawrence F. O'Neill

Lawrence Frederick O’Neill, DSC, USN Retired

Flying Ace with "Kearby's Thunderbolts". Born in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 28, 1921, the second son of Lawrence Bernard O’Neill and Elisabeth McAuliffe O’Neill. He attended St. Pius V School and St. Louis Public high schools. He developed and early interest in aviation and in 1940 entered the ground school at the Civil Aeronautical Administration flight school in St. Louis. Seeing war looming, he joined the US Army Air Corps on September 4, 1940, and became certified as an aviation mechanic. After the outbreak of war he was selected for pilot training which he completed in January 1942 and was assigned to fly Republic P-47s. Lt. O’Neill’s initial assignment was to the 322nd Squadron of the 326th Fighter Group, but on November 6, 1942, he was transferred to the 342nd Squadron of the 348th Fighter Group under Major Raymond Gallagher and Group Commander Lt. Col. Neel E. Kearby. In May 1943 the 348th shipped out for Australia, where they landed in June 1943. “Kearby’s Thunderbolts" then flew to New Guinea in August 1943, where they operated from Wards Airfield at Port Moresby, then Finschhafen, on the other side of the island, later moving on to Saidor, then Wakde, Biak and Noemfoor. Lt. O’Neill scored his first confirmed kill on September 13 1943. On December 26th 1943, Lt. O’Neill’s Squadron was assigned to cover the US landing at Cape Gloucester in western New Britain (Operation Cartwheel). It was on this day that O’Neill, in the words of his medal citation “….. shot down four enemy aircraft in a single mission. First Lieutenant O'Neill's unquestionable valor in aerial combat is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflects great credit upon himself, the 5th Air Force, and the United States Army Air Forces.” This was to remain the largest number of kills by a single pilot in a single day's combat until surpassed some months later by Col Kearby himself in an encounter for which he won the Medal of Honor.

In Lt. O’Neill’s own words, “At 13,000 feet over a point about 5 miles north of Umbroi Island, our flight sighted nine enemy Betty bombers in a tight vee of vee’s at 15,000 feet headed east,” O’Neill wrote in his combat report the next day. “The bombers were green and very shiny. My flight leader made a head-on pass and the lead bomber fell out of formation in flames. I followed with a 45 degree head-on pass and hit the number two bomber. Lt. Grant of the second element witnessed my destruction of this plane. After this I pulled around and made three consecutive attacks from astern and each time a different one of the bombers dropped out of formation in flames. Capt. Roddy and Lt. Nagle of Yellow Flight witnessed my destruction of these three Bettys making a total of four that I definitely destroyed. By this time, the rest of the nine bombers were destroyed by other members of our formation so we broke off and returned to base.” Awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy and promoted to Captain, O’Neill continued to serve with the 322nd until he returned to the United States in September 1944. In 1945 he married Miss Dorothy Lee Breckenridge of Granite City, Illinois. In 1948 he earned his Bachelor of Science at the University of Missouri at Rolla (Missouri School of Mines) and qualified as a civil engineer. In 1948 he joined the US Navy and was commissioned as a lieutenant junior grade in the Civil Engineer Corps. He served his country for a further seventeen years, including tours of duty with the Naval Construction Battalion (Seabees) at Port Hueneme, California, and in the Pacific, where he played a major role in the construction of the atomic bomb test sites and Pacific Missile Test Range. He concluded his naval service as Chief Engineer with Allied Forces Mediterranean Based in Malta, retiring from active service in May 1965. He then worked as a civil engineer in St. Louis Missouri, constructing the various campuses of the St. Louis Junior College District, and as chief engineer at Washington University, until his final retirement in 1986. He lived out his retirement in Terre du Lac, Bonne Terre Missouri where he honed his love of the game of golf. Throughout his life he maintained a strong Christian faith and a commitment to his country, his community and his family. He fathered six children, four of whom died in early childhood, and adopted three others. Commander O’Neill died on December 18th 2007 and was buried with full military honors at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis.