Namesake of Whiteman AFB was a Miner
Posted by magazine
One of the first heroes of World War II was a Miner. He was also one of the first U.S. casualties of the war during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 75 years ago.
George Allison Whiteman’s plane was gunned down by Japanese “Zero” fighter pilots on that “day which will live in infamy,” Dec. 7, 1941. Whiteman is considered the first American airman to die in aerial combat during World War II. But a half-decade earlier, Whiteman was a promising chemical engineering student at the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy.
Read more about Whiteman, his experience in Rolla and his military service online at rol.la/MinerWhiteman.
