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Concept
William A. Shomo
Résumé
William Arthur Shomo (May 30, 1918 – June 25, 1990) was a United States Army Air Forces fighter pilot during World War II. He is credited with eight victories during the conflict. Seven of these occurred during a single mission while flying a reconnaissance version of the P-51 Mustang, for which he received the Medal of Honor.
Shomo was born on May 30, 1918, in Jeannette, Pennsylvania to George Washington Shomo and Bertha May (née Uncapher) Shomo. He attended the Cincinnati College of Embalming and the Pittsburgh School of Embalming between 1937 and 1940, and then he worked as a mortician for a short time before enlisting in the Aviation Cadet Program of the United States Army Air Forces on August 18, 1941. His father's family was from the Johnstown, Pennsylvania area and, prior to his father's birth, were survivors of the 1889 Johnstown Flood with his uncle, Adam Franklin "Frank" Shomo, being the last known living survivor of the flood.
Shomo joined the United States Army Air Corps from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in August 1941.
For over a year, Shomo was assigned to the 82nd Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron. His unit had moved from airstrip to airstrip along the northern coast of New Guinea and then to Morotai supporting General MacArthur's drive to the Philippines performing dangerous photo recon and ground attack missions. His squadron was equipped with older P-39 Airacobras and Curtiss P-40s, which were adequate for the photo recon/ground attack role, but too short-ranged to reach areas where they might encounter Japanese aircraft.
In December 1944, the squadron was given F-6Ds; P-51 Mustangs designed for armed photo reconnaissance. On 24 December, Shomo was put in command of the squadron and ordered to move it to Mindoro, an island off the southwest coast of Luzon, to support MacArthur's landing at Lingayen Gulf. During that landing on January 9, Shomo led his first combat mission in the squadron's new planes. The low-level reconnaissance was to gather intelligence on the air strength of Japanese in northern Luzon.
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