Uzal Girard Ent was an American Army Air Force officer who served as the commander of the 9th Air Force, which became the 9th Bomber Command and subsequently the 2nd Air Force during World War II. He flew as mission commander on the Aug 1, 1943, Ploesti oil refinery raid, Operation Tidal Wave. Before reaching his first IP, approaching Ploesti from the west, he ordered his pilot Col. Keith Compton to turn south, toward Bucharest, instead of continuing north toward Ploesti, in spite of immediate warnings from Col. Walter Stewart and others on their aircraft radio radios, and even from his own navigator, Col. Harold Wicklund, on, Teggie Ann’s aircraft's intercom, that Ent had ordered his pilot, Col. K.K. Comptona to make a disastrously wrong turn away from the Ploesti refinery area north of them. This action caused consternation among the pilots in the 93rd and the 376th Bomb Groups following Ent in Compton’s B-24, Teggie Ann,  A number of those pilots, including Col. Addison Baker, John Palm,  Ramsey Potts, and Walter Travis Stewart, after recovering from the shock of  seeing their element leader turn away from their targets to the North of them, decided not to follow Ent and Col. Compton, who were now flying away from their bombing objectives, And they all disobeyed their attack plan orders and turned back north and west toward Ploesti, on their own, in order to strafe and bomb targets of opportunity. This series of actions caused much of the chaos and confusion that the mission fell into, and led to the loss of many of the lives of the pilots who had made the decision to disobey their attack plan orders, and to turn north and west to attack and bomb the Ploesti refineries on their own. Gen. Ent and K. K. Compton were both awarded Distinguished Service Cross medals for their actions over Ploesti, but never attacked even one of their assigned targets and dropped their bombs harmlessly onto the hills north of Ploesti. Col. Addison Baker and Major John Jerstad were shot down and killed in action (KIA) as they attacked White IV, the Astra Romano refinery. John Palm was shot down and grievously injured attacking Ploesti, but survived the crash of his B-24 with the loss of his leg, and became a prisoner of war.



After the war, Gen. Ent was seriously injured in a flying accident when he crashed his B-25 Mitchell bomber during a takeoff at the Fort Worth Army Airfield in Texas, when he made a major mental mistake when he pulled his landing gear "UP" handle before his B-25 had reached flying speed, causing the plane to settle onto the runway as the landing gear retracted. The propellers struck the runway pavement, and one of them broke apart, separated from it's hub, and penetrated the pilots' cockpit area, severing Ent's spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Hospitalized for many months, he learned to walk again using braces and eventually retired, due to his disability, in 1946 with the final rank of Major General. He died of complications from his back injury in 1948.



Keith Compton's Awards: DSM (OLC), DSC (OLC), DFC (OLC), AM (OLC), LOM, Campaign, Defense, WWI and WWII Victory, EAME (3 battle stars). Also Bolivian Order of the Condor of the Andes, the Peruvian Order of Ayacucho (Commander), the Peruvian Aviation Cross (1st Class), and the Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire.