Whiteman, George Allison. born 12-10-1919, in Pettis County, Missouri, United States , the eldest of 10 children of John Whiteman
and Earlie Sanders Whiteman,
George had 6 brothers and two siters, John Casey Whiteman Jr (1923-1959)
, Paul Alpha Whiteman (1926-1961),
Sergeant Lee Sanders Whiteman (1927-1985),
Career Marine. Lied about his age and enlisted in the USMC after his brother, 2nd Lt. George Allison Whiteman was shot down at Bellows Field when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Served in the Consolidation of the North Solomons Campaign of WWII. Franklin Eugene “Gene” Whiteman (1930-2007),
Carl Otto Whiteman (1931-1980),
PFC Marshall Earl Whiteman (1933-1953),
Pfc. Marshall Earl Whiteman was KIA in Korea, age 20. He was killed on Carson Hill/Outpost in Un-Gok, North Korea 8 miles east of Panmunjom, Korea (which is right on the border of North and South Korea) when their position was overrun. At the time there were negotiations going on in Panmunjom that would shortly after lead to a truce. Marshall was a member of the USMC, Co B, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Robert Samuel Whiteman (1936-2004),
Susan Elaine Whiteman Berry Cramer (19020-2011)
and Violet Earlie Whiteman Williams (1922-2011).
He graduated from Smith-Cotton High School in Sedalia
and attended the Rolla School of Mines (later University of Missouri-Rolla and now Missouri S&T) before enlisting in the service in 1939.
In the spring of 1940, Whiteman received orders to report to Randolph Field, Texas, for training as an aviator. On 15-11-1940, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps
(later Army Air Forces) and volunteered for duty in Hawaii early the following year.
Death and burial ground of Whiteman, Georg Allison



As the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 07-12-1941, began, Lieutenant. Whiteman of the 44th Pursuit Squadron,
18th Pursuit Group, went to his P-40B Warhawk aircraft
at Bellows Field
and had just lifted off the runway when a burst of Japanese gunfire hit his cockpit, wounding him and throwing the plane out of control. The plane crashed
and burned just off the end of the runway. Whiteman, age 22, died from his injuries.
The news of his death reached his family at 10:13 p.m. the same day. In an interview with the Sedalia Democrat that night, his mother said: “It’s hard to believe. It might have happened anytime, anywhere. We’ve got to sacrifice loved ones if we want to win this war.” She gave the reporter a photograph of her son sitting in an aircraft with the inscription “Lucky, lucky me.”
Whiteman was one of the first airmen killed during the assault which marked the United States entry into World War II, and is considered the first American pilot killed in aerial combat in World War II while serving under American forces.
On 24-08-1955, 14 years after Whiteman’s death, Air Force Chief of Staff General. Nathan Farragut Twining
informed Whiteman’s mother that the recently reopened Sedalia Air Force Base would be renamed Whiteman Air Force Base
in tribute to her son. The dedication and renaming ceremony took place on 30-12-1955.
George Whiteman is buried at the Memorial Park Cemetery of Pettis County, Missouri, U.S. 3306 Greenridge Road, Sedalia, Missouri, 65301.

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