2nd Lt. John Clark Riley was a B-24D pilot in the 9th Air Force, the 93rd Bomb Group, and the 330th Bomb Squadron at Benghazi, Libya, in the Mediterranean theatre (MTO) during WWII. Lt. Riley and his command Pilot Robert Nespor from the 98th Bomb Group, and the rest of his crew were reassigned from the 93rd Bomb Group and were all placed on temporary duty (TDY) with the B-24D, Kickapoo, and the 98th Bomb Group for the deadly mission to destroy the German oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania. Lt. Riley was assigned to be the copilot aboard Kickapoo, with Bob Nespor, the command pilot, from the 98th Bomb Group. During the takeoff run for the mission, their plane, Kickapoo, had a massive #4 engine failure and caught on fire. Nespor and Riley, turned their failing bomber out over the sea, jettisoned their bombs, and were trying to make the second of two approaches back to the Lete runway when they began losing power from their last three engines, on short final approach to the Lete runway. On short final, losing power, they sank into a hard landing, bounced, and drifted left into a concrete post, hitting it with the left wing, and cartwheeled into the ground in flames. Both pilots, and all but two of the crewmen, were badly burned in the crash and died of their injuries. Lt. Riley was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart for his bravery and sacrifice on the Ploesti mission. 1 Aug 1943





Awards: AM, PH, EAME, American Campaign Medal.



Due to the abort after take-off and subsequent crash, Lt. Nespor's crew did not receive mission credit and their names do not appear in the official AAF History Roster of Personnel for DFCs.