Medal of Honor Monday: John Cary "Red" Morgan

He completed a difficult bombing mission, but he had to fight off the plane’s wounded—and thus delirious—pilot to do it.

At about this time in 1943, a hero engages in an action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. John Cary “Red” Morgan flew a damaged B-17 for hours, completing a difficult bombing mission.

He had to fight off the plane’s wounded—and thus delirious—pilot to do it.

But then again, the Texas native was nothing if not determined. He’d already talked his way into the Army Air Forces despite an old neck injury that initially caused the military to reject him. By the spring of 1943, he was overseas serving with the Eighth Air Force.

His heroism came during a July 26 bombing raid on Hannover, Germany. He was then co-piloting a B-17 known as Ruthie II.

Trouble came when a large force of enemy fighters attacked. “German fighters turned ‘Ruthie II’ into a flying piece of Swiss cheese,” one local newspaper colorfully described. Unfortunately, the pilot, Lt. Robert Campbell, had taken a hit. His skull was split open, and he began acting a bit crazed. He clenched the wheel in a vice-like grip while the bomber slid into a dive.

“Morgan at once grasped the controls from his side,” his Medal citation describes, “and, by sheer strength, pulled the airplane back into formation despite the frantic struggles of the semiconscious pilot.”

Morgan receives the Medal of Honor from Lt. General Ira C. Eaker.

Morgan was using one hand to keep the frantic pilot at bay, and the other to keep the bomber in formation. The interphone was destroyed, so there was no way to call for help—assuming anyone was back there. Morgan wasn’t sure what was going on with the crew. Oxygen deprivation had caused them to lose consciousness, but he didn’t know that. Were the bomber’s guns silent because they’d bailed out?

Morgan had a decision to make. Could he make it to the target and back, all on his own, even as he fought the pilot?

“In the face of this desperate situation, 2d Lt. Morgan made his decision to continue the flight and protect any members of the crew who might still be in the ship,” his citation concludes.

For two hours he kept that bomber in formation. The pilot was punching him, and Morgan reportedly suffered broken teeth and two black eyes as a result. As if that weren’t enough, he was having trouble seeing out the smashed front window.

Eventually, the navigator, Lt. Keith Koske, made his way to the cockpit. He couldn’t believe his eyes. “Morgan was flying the plane with one hand, holding the half-dead pilot off with the other hand and he had been doing it for over two hours,” he later marveled.

Would you believe Morgan got the plane to its target, then back to a base, completing the mission and saving nearly everyone aboard?

One badly wounded gunner, S.Sgt. Tyre Weaver, owed his life to Koske: The navigator saw that he was losing blood too fast and needed immediate medical care from someone on the ground. He strapped Weaver into a parachute and pushed him out of the aircraft, believing it was the only way to save him. (He turned out to be right.)

In the end, the only loss aboard the plane was Lt. Campbell, who unfortunately did not survive his head wound.

“It was an unbelievable thing he did,” gunner Sgt. Gene Ponte concluded. “Not only did he bring the aircraft back, he brought back nine of us flyers with him.”

Morgan would receive a Medal of Honor, but he would also go on one last mission to bomb Berlin in March 1944. He got shot down that day and would spend the rest of the war as a POW before finally returning to the States.

Naturally, that is a story for another day.

P.S. As a side note, Morgan’s citation states that his action occurred on July 28. The Air Force Historical Support Division has determined that the action actually occurred on July 26.

Sources can always be found on my website, here.