Francis Walter Nye was a United States Air Force major general who was a B-24 Liberator and B-29 Superfortress combat pilot. He was commander, Field Command, Defense Atomic Support Agency, Sandia Base, N.M. Nye graduated from Barton Academy and the University of Vermont and, in February 1942, completed flying training and was commissioned a second lieutenant. Through April 1943, he flew 36 missions with the 98th Bombardment Group from bases in Palestine, Egypt, and North Africa. Nye returned to the United States in April 1943 and, in September, entered the B-29 aircraft program first as an acceptance test pilot at the Boeing plant in Wichita, Kansas. Nye?s crew was formed at Salina, Kansas, and assigned B-29 serial # 42-6232 in April 1944. This aircraft was named ?Kickapoo II.? Capt. Nye had finished a tour of duty previously with 36 missions in a B-24's named ?Kickapoo? in the Mediterranean Theater. Nye was Aircraft Commander of an original crew that departed from Salina, KS on April 4, 1944 for Kharagpur, India, and was one of the first to leave Salina, and arrive at Kharagpur, India, with stops in Presque Isle, ME; Marrakech, Morocco; Cairo, Egypt; and Karachi, India. [More at Wikipedia]

June 28th, 1918 in Barton  /  Died:   Jan 13th, 2019 - aged 100