John Riley Kane was a colonel in the United States Army Air Corps and, later, in the United States Air Force. He received the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor, in World War II, for his leadership, courage, and heroism for leading the 98th, the 44th, and the 389th Bombardment Groups on Operation Tidal Wave, the low altitude attack on the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania. All of the bomb groups Kane led, successfully bombed their assigned targets, including Kane's target, the Astra Romano Refinery. 1 Aug 43.

A native of Texas, Kane joined the Army Air Corps after graduating from Baylor University. In WWII in July 1942, he was sent to the MTO, Mediterranean Theatre of Operations, where he flew 43 combat missions against shipping in the Mediterranean Sea and over Italian ports for a total of 250 combat hours in Africa, the Middle East, and, later, Europe.

In North Africa, John Kane became the Group Commander of the 98th Bombardment Group, named, "The Pyramiders". His aggressive and daring flying on combat missions against the German Army in North Africa caused German intelligence reports to name him, "Killer" Kane, the arch enemy of Buster Crabbe's "Buck Rogers" movies.

Kane earned the Silver Star medal during a mission when his plane became separated from his formation and was attacked from the rear by a German ME-110 fighter. Although the tail and top turrets of his bomber became inoperative during the air fight, Kane successfully outmaneuvered the pursuing ME-110 through eight different attacks. The German pilot eventually exhausted his ammunition and was forced to break off the attack without causing any appreciable damage to Kane's aircraft.

Kane chose Lt. John Young, a fellow Texan from Dallas to be his copilot in Kane's lead B-24D aircraft for the Ploesti mission, Hail Columbia, with Lt. Young's crew from his personal B-24D, Kickapoo. This last minute change proved fortunate for Young and his regular crewmen when, Kickapoo, lost it's number 4 engine on take off for the mission and crashed, killing it's two replacement pilots, Lt. Robert Nespor, Lt. John Riley, and most of the replacement crew, minus two, who survived and returned to duty months later. RTD. Col. John Kane, Lt. John Young, and all of the crewmen on, Hail Columbia, survived the Ploesti mission and flew to the island of Cyprus, where they crash landed on the British air base at Nicosia, wrecking, Hail Columbia, which was written off at the base. 1 Aug 1943. As Kane and his crew inspected their wrecked B-24 in the morning light, the next day. As the crew and Kane were looking over their wrecked B-24, marveling that the big bomber made it all the way to Cyprus in it's shot up and damaged condition, several of the crewmen reported seeing tears in Col. Kane's eyes, as he looked over his beloved, Hail Columbia, the plane he felt had saved his life more than once, and, likely, thinking of all the men he knew and lost on the mission. 2 Aug 43. A total of 41 B-24s were lost to enemy defenses, mostly anti-aircraft fire and another seven lost to internment.  Another six were lost to varying causes: one on takeoff, his own copilot's regular B-24, Kickapoo, one, Wongo Wongo,  en route, two in a mid-air collision in clouds on return, one in Cyprus and one off the Turkish coast.  This made for 54 total B-24D losses, with 310 aircrew killed, 108 captured and 78 interned in Turkey.  On August 3rd only 33 B-24s were deemed mission capable.

After the war, Col. Kane commanded a series of airfields in the U.S. and served another year and a half in North Africa until his retirement. John Kane died May 29, 1996. He was buried with honors at Arlington National Cemetery.                                                                                                                                                                            Col Kane later wrote a stirring tribute to the men who were lost on the Tidal Wave mission.  It is repeated here, provided courtesy of MSgt Herb Harper, 98th Bomb Group Veterans Association Historian:

To The Fallen of Ploesti

To you who fly on forever I send that part of me which cannot be separated

and is bound to you for all times. I send to you those of our hopes and

dreams that never quite came true, the joyous laughter and showery tears of

our boyhood, the marvelous mysteries of our adolescence, the glorious

strength and tragic illusions of our young manhood, all these that were and

perhaps would have been, I leave in your care, out there in the blue.

                                                                            John Riley Kane

                                                                            Colonel, U.S.A.F.