Hoosier Daddy

So, let me tell you about a kid from Miami, Indiana who enlisted in the United States Marine Corps as a private in 1909, eventually took a commission as a lieutenant in the Indiana National Guard, spent time in the cavalry, was a captain leading an infantry company at Château-Thierry and commanded an infantry battalion in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. After the Great War, at the ripe old age of 27, he then transferred to US Army Air Corps and earned his wings as both a balloon pilot and an airship pilot.

Between the wars he won a few international balloon races; was the test pilot for the world's only successful metal-skinned dirigible; learned how to fly fixed-wing craft; and participated in an unsuccessful attempt at the world record for balloon altitude and bailed out after the balloon's envelope ruptured at altitude, riding the plummeting pressurized gondola down until it was safe to parachute.

During WWII he was promoted to Major General in '43 and took command of 8th Fighter Command before taking over the 2nd Bomb Division of the Mighty Eighth. He flew a couple dozen combat missions over occupied Europe and didn't retire until 1953, by which time the Hoosier country boy who'd been a private in the Marines when airplanes were novelties was now a lieutenant general who had commanded fleets of jets.

Meet Lieutenant General William Kepner:

So cool that his buddies probably stored their beer in his pockets.