Stephen J. Bonner Jr.
American flying ace (1918–2021)
Stephen Jacob Bonner Jr. (January 16, 1918 – September 15, 2021) was an American flying ace in the 23rd Fighter Group during World War II.
Early life
Bonner was born on 1918 in Guymon, Oklahoma, to Stephen Jacob, Sr. and Nellie Belle Bonner. He graduated from Panhandle College in Goodwell, Oklahoma, before attending the University of Illinois. He developed an interest in flying after a pilot at a local airport would often take him up for an aerial flight.
Military career
After joining the U.S. Army Reserve and later the Aviation Cadet Program, Bonner was commissioned as a second lieutenant and awarded his pilot wings at Eagle Pass Army Airfield in Texas on February 16, 1943.
World War II
In June 1943, he was assigned to the 76th Fighter Squadron of the 23rd Fighter Group in China, where he flew missions in the China Burma India Theater. Flying the P-40 Warhawks, Bonner scored his first aerial victories on July 23, 1943. On that day, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service sent a mixed formation of bombers and fighters from Hankou to attack the cities of Hengyang and Lingling in Hunan Province. The P-40s intercepted the formation and in the aerial battle, they shot down five fighters and two bombers, with Bonner credited with one aerial victory.
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This entry incorporates text from “Stephen J. Bonner Jr.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.