AllenParkinson - Person Sheet
AllenParkinson - Person Sheet
NameDavid Albert Whitmore 
FatherAlbert Ceylon Whitmore (1875-1959)
MotherMay Halle Wilson (1888-1971)
Notes for David Albert Whitmore
He was encouraged as he flew over the Battle of the Bulge to drop supplies - he could see the relief troops coming in the distance. He wanted to know what it was like to parachute from a plane. So he talked a friend into taking him up. He looked around until he found a space with a lot of green grass to land in. He yelled "this is it" and jumped out. When he stood up he saw General Eisenhower and Winston Churchill looking at him. (They had been playing golf).
Was an Air Force Lt. Col. at the time of his death.355, 282
He died while on duty in a plane crash on Gray Mountain (body never recovered - but memorial stone in Arlington Cemetery).
Orders were received that day (they wanted fighter plane manuevers tested that all test pilots had refused to do) and David was the duty officer. They sent the orders to David, knowing he would not refuse - even though the plane he had on base was much larger than a fighter plane. He would not let his men follow the orders alone, so he wrote a good-bye letter to his wife and went on the flight with them.
His parents received a letter shortly after the accident from a general who told them that it never should have happened. That the orders were so wrong and the deaths so unnessary that he was going to leave the service in protest.355
Was an Air Force Lt. Col. at the time of his death.355, 282
He died while on duty in a plane crash on Gray Mountain (body never recovered - but memorial stone in Arlington Cemetery).
Orders were received that day (they wanted fighter plane manuevers tested that all test pilots had refused to do) and David was the duty officer. They sent the orders to David, knowing he would not refuse - even though the plane he had on base was much larger than a fighter plane. He would not let his men follow the orders alone, so he wrote a good-bye letter to his wife and went on the flight with them.
His parents received a letter shortly after the accident from a general who told them that it never should have happened. That the orders were so wrong and the deaths so unnessary that he was going to leave the service in protest.355
Military notes for David Albert Whitmore
He served in the Air Force in WWII - C47 paratroop plane commander, participated in the Normandy invasion. Flew to Paris on the day it was liberated and his was the first plane to land at Heidelburg, Germany.