William A. Shomo
| William A. Shomo | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
May 30, 1918 Jeannette, Pennsylvania |
| Died | June 25, 1990 (aged 72) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Buried | St. Clair Cemetery in Greensburg, Pennsylvania |
| Allegiance |
 United States of America
|
| Service/branch |
 United States Air ForceUnited States Army Air Corps |
| Years of service | 1941 – 1961 |
| Rank | Lieutenant Colonel |
| Unit |
82d Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron 71st Reconnaissance Group |
| Awards |
Medal of Honor Air Medal (5) Army Commendation Medal (3) |
William "Bill" Arthur Shomo (May 30, 1918 – June 25, 1990) was a United States Army 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 joined the 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; 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. They approached the Japanese airfield at Tuguegarao, where he scored his first air victory, an Aichi D3A "Val" dive bomber coming in on its final approach.
Shomo had been in the undertaker business before the war. He named all his aircraft "Snooks" (plus the appropriate numeral) to note this. The F-6D in which he won his Medal of Honor was "Snooks 5"; this aircraft was later lost while being flown by another pilot. The next F-6D was briefly "Snooks 6" but was changed to "The Flying Undertaker". Though Shomo flew more than 200 combat missions in World War II, he saw only a total of 14 enemy aircraft from his cockpit and destroyed eight of them.
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