George Rodrick Greene Full Narrative

George Rodrick Greene was born June 24, 1920, in Sunnyside, Washington; he had three brothers and two sisters. He and his family lived for a time on the Yakima Indian Reservation and relocated to Spokane by 1935. Greene graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, and during his high school years, he worked as an operator at a gas station. He attended Washington State College during the 1941 to 1942 academic year as a mechanical engineering major. Greene registered for the draft on July 1, 1941, while he was working at Northwest Magnesite Company in Chewelah, Washington. Following the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Greene enlisted in the Army Air Corps as an Aviation Cadet on January 21, 1942. Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, he received his silver wings in October 1942. Assigned to the 3rd Bombardment Group, Greene joined the 13th Squadron in May 1943. His unit was known as the "Grim Reapers." Greene received an air medal for a bombing run in New Guinea in August 1943. Promoted to First Lieutenant, Greene received the Silver Star for his efforts as part of the 3rd Attack Group flying B-25s over Rapopo on October 12, 1943. He was also promoted to Captain. By October 1944, Greene was noted to have flown 110 strike missions against enemy targets in western New Guinea. He received two oak leaf clusters in lieu of an air medal for scoring direct hits on two armed enemy vessels in New Guinea. In January 1945, one month before he was killed, Greene was promoted to Major. He died on February 17, 1945 in the Philippines after his plane burst into flames and crash landed in the water near Alabat Island in the Philippines.