Kenneth E. Engle

Kenneth E. Engle

Army Air Corps

KENNETH
E.
ENGLE

Nov 9, 1924 - Nov 5, 2009
BIRTHPLACE: Abilene, Kansas

SOLDIER DETAILS

DIVISION:
Army Air Corps
,
90th Bomb Group
THEATER OF OPERATION:
Pacific
SERVED: 1943 -
BATTLE: The 90th Bomb Group from Nov 1942 to Jan 1945 operated from Australia, New Guinea, and Biak, attacking enemy airfields, troop concentrations, ground installations, and shipping in New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, Palau, and the southern Philippines. Received a DUC for strikes, conducted through heavy flak and fighter opposition, on Japanese airfields at Wewak, New Guinea, in Sep 1943. Other operations included participation in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea in Mar 1943 and long-range raids on oil refineries at Balikpapan, Borneo, in Sep and Oct 1943. Moved to the Philippines in Jan 1945. Supported ground forces on Luzon, attacked industries on Formosa, and bombed railways, airfields, and harbor facilities on the Asiatic mainland. Moved to Ie Shima in Aug 1945, and after the war flew reconnaissance missions over Japan and ferried Allied prisoners from Okinawa to Manila. Returned to the Philippines in Dec 1945. Inactivated on 27 Jan 1946.

BIOGRAPHY

Kenneth "Ken" E. Engle was born November 9, 1924 in the Newbern community south of Abilene, and died Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009, in Abilene. His parents were Grant and Mabel (Robson) Engle. Ken attended the Knox School (district 44) and then Abilene High School. He was active in Future Farmers of America, 4-H and Debate in high school, and graduated in the class of 1942. He attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago for one year after high school. He was then drafted into the U.S. Army Air Corps. He went overseas in the fall of 1944 with the Fifth Air Force, 90th Bomb Group, where he served as a tail gunner on the B-24J Liberator bomber and flew missions from New Guinea and the Philippines. After the war he attended and graduated from the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. During the four years of study there he worked as an announcer on radio station WMBI. In 1951 he went to the Philippines as a missionary. He was commended to this work by the Grace and Truth Gospel Chapel of Abilene, and the Woodside Bible Chapel of Chicago in 1950. In 1953 he married Mary Louise "Mary Lou" Leonard, whom he met in Chicago. They were married in Manila, Philippines and served there until 1975.