World War I flying ace, 91, dies peacefully at home
NEW YORK (AP) — It was 1918, the dawn of aerial warfare, when
Kenneth Porter swooped out of the clouds over France into a sky full of German fighters.
With the sun at his back and a lucky ring on his finger, the American pilot opened fire and won the first of six victories that by the end of World War I would make him an ace.
Kenneth Porter was 22 that day, and before he left Europe he would be shot down three times. When he died peacefully at home in Queens on Wednesday he was 91. "He was in excellent health, but he just ran out of steam," said Neal O'Connor, an aviation historian and a friend of Porter's.
Porter's death left only five living American World War I aces, each of whom shot down at least five German warplanes.
In an interview in 1979, Porter recalled that first dogfight.
"It was near Chateau Thierry on July 2, 1918," he said. "The Huns had just brought in their flying circus for a big battle and the sky was full of 'em."
Flying a Nieuport 28 biplane, an aerial pioneer, Porter spotted enemy planes "getting ready to jump on my pals." After maneuvering "to get the sun at my advantage," he shot down a Fokker D-7.
The Newports [sic] "were nothing but fabric and a bit of metal," he recalled on another occasion. "I never went up without my elephant hair ring. A girl gave it to me for good luck."
He needed all he could get, especially the time he crash-landed in the no man's land between German and Allied lines.
In addition to his six confirmed victories, Porter was believed to have shot down three other German planes.
Porter, a member of the Army Air Force's 147th Aero Squadron, received the Distinguished Service Cross and the French Croix de Guerre for his exploits.
Porter continued to attend reunions of the American Fighter Aces Association into his 80s, prompting an ace some 30 years his junior to predict "that old man will outlive all of us."
In 1981 he was one of nine American aces who attended an Armistice Day reunion in France with 31 foreign aviators, including several Germans.
A graduate of the University of Michigan School of Engineering, Porter worked as an engineer and executive after the war. He retired from PESCO Hydraulic Pump Co. in New York City in 1962.
Porter will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery following a memorial service in the spring, O'Connor said. He is survived by a sister, Louise Baldauf of Grand Fork, N.D.
American World War I aces still living are
George A. Vaughn,
Douglas Campbell,
A. Raymond Brooks, Byrne V. Baucom and Frank K. Hayes [sic] Vaughn, a 90 year-old Staten Island resident logged the most victories, 13.
Syracuse Herald-Journal - Friday, February 5, 1988
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