Major George Welsh, Wilmington Delaware Pilot, Pearl Harbor Hero, Death.

October 12, 1954 - Wilmington, Delaware :

George Lewis Welsh, age 36, of Wawset Park, Wilmington, Delaware, a Pearl Harbor hero, December 7, 1941, , was killed while testing an F-100 Saberjet aircraft in the Mojave Desert at Edwards Air Force Base, California, while chief test pilot for North American Aviation. Welsh was born George Lewis Schwartz but his parents change their name to avoid anti German sentiment during WWI. His father was a research chemist at duPont Experimental Test Station, Wilmington. Welsh was a graduate of St. Andrews School and took a mechanical Engineering major at Purdue University before joining the Army Air Corp in 1939. While stationed at Wheeler Field in Oahu, Hawaii after he received his wings and commission in January 1941, during the Japanese attack, he and Lt. Ken Taylor took off from Haleiwa Fighter Strip in two Curtiss P-40B taking several kills. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Silver Star, Asia-Pacific Campaign Medal among others, flying 348 combat missions in WWII and Korea with sixteen victories before malaria caused him to retire from the military. Major Welsh is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.