Ray Clifton Langford

Military
media-38087.jpeg UPL 38087 Ray Clifton Langford
Fighter Pilot
404th FG - 507th FS - 9th AF

Object Number - UPL 38087 - Ray Clifton Langford Fighter Pilot 404th FG - 507th FS - 9th AF

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Units served with

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Events

Event Location Date Description

Born

Hillsboro, Texas 4 September 1919

Enlisted

Dallas, Texas 24 April 1941 5'11" 155 lbs

Other

Crashed on Take Off

Winkton Airfield, UK 29 May 1944 Ray Longford of the 507th had an even worse experience. Bumps in the runway threw him into the air with inadequate flying speed. He wobbled and mushed across the treetops and finally crashed down out of sight. His wingtip had hardly disappeared when a huge column of bright flame exploded up. Nobody gave him one chance in a thousand. Lieut. Dike Pisegna from Group Headquarters hopped fences and ran across fields to the scene and found-two shattered gas tanks and a scorched area in someone's backyard bean-patch, a twin-row radial engine steaming in a backyard, an intact fuselage, nose down on top of a truck,. with the tail just clearing the side of a house in a small village and Ray himself sitting in the living room of a house his plane had just hurdled. He was badly burned about the face and wrists, and shocked, and ready for a long stay in a hospital, but he was still with us.

Died

Houston, Texas 18 December 2006

Buried

Forest Park Cemetery, Houston, Texa 21 December 2006 Forest Park Cemetery Houston, Harris County, Texas, USA

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