“Missouri Sue”

Flown for most of her combat career by Captain Kenneth L. Gilbert of Newport, Rhode Island, who left Rhode Island State University to enlist, trained as a sergeant-pilot, and received a direct commission in May 1943. Gilbert entered combat with the 93rd on April 12, 1944, completed his first tour by July 12, and then refused rotation home, flying on without leave or a single 24-hour pass as his mission count climbed past fifty and eventually to seventy-one. "I'll keep on going as long as they let me," he told a reporter, adding that his crews teased him for not drinking, smoking, or missing his eight hours of sleep. He accepted a bottle of bourbon won on a bet with the flight surgeons that he wouldn't reach fifty missions, but held to his belief that drinking and flying didn't mix, and eventually agreed to a six-day rest.

Gilbert declined to wear his Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medals, calling himself superstitious, and no man who flew with him was ever awarded a Purple Heart. His original engineer and radio operator, Sergeants Joseph Evanovich and Dale Jennings, logged 47 and 39 missions with him respectively. "We were always lucky and never had much trouble," Gilbert said of the run. After his rest, Missouri Sue continued flying with other crews.