Sergeant George E. Larkin Jr.

George E. Larkin Jr. was the son of George Larkin and Sara Crowe Larkin. He was born in Colesburg, Hardin County, Kentucky.

His father worked for the L&N Railroad and later at Cummins Disillery at Athertonville.  From the Atherton site the distillery issued a number of brands, including “Singing Sam Whiskey” and “A.J. Cummins Kentucky Straight Bourbon.” 

The young George played on the High School Football Team. Elmer graduated in the class of 1936 at the highschool in Elizabethtown. His picture is in the yearbook and he is mentioned in the class prophecie. In Elizabethtown and in Bardstown, before joining the army in 1939 on his 21st birthday, Larkin worked at various grocery stores.

Following the Doolittle Raid, George Larkin Jr. was recognized by the Commonwealth for being the first Kentuckian to bomb an enemy capital and was awarded a $100 war bond

The death of Doolitle Raiders George Larkin and Robert Gray (Crew 03)

By the spring of 1942, policy makers understood that an air ferry system to China “must be established.” Despite the difficulties of a supply line running from the United States, uninterrupted operations were essential. Airlift from Dinjan began in April “with a handful of airplanes and aircrews… composed largely of Pan Am pilots. The original plan was to fly supplies from Dinjan to Kunming via Myitkyina.

Others from the Doolittle Raid assigned at Dinjan included pilots Richard Cole and Richard Joyce, and gunner George Larkn. Eventually, the Kunming, China based Eleventh Bomb Squadron, 341st Bomb Group assigned two B–25s to form a detachment at Dinjan. Gray joined that detachment and began flying bombing missions. A unit history noted Robert Gray and fellow Raider Richard Joyce “were of great assistance because of their previous reconnaissance missions.

On 18 October 1942 Lieutenant Richard Joyce was at the field hospital in Dinjan when his plane was ordered to bomb a Japanese convoy at Hong Kong. In need of a pilot, Robert Gray volunteered for the job. About thirty minutes out of Dinjan both of Gray’s plane engines quit simultaneously. Along with Captain Gray, co-pilot Max F. West, bombardier co-pilot Richard A. Walter, Gunners Herbert F. Cromwell and George E. Larkin (who had flown the Doolittle Raid as a gunner with Lieutenant Joyce), and passenger Private Russell D. Juggers were all killed instantly.

Sergeant Jack Price, an observer with the 51st Fighter Control Squadron based in the Naga Hills on the Burmese border, recovered the bodies. Price reported that while covered with the thick overcast normal to that region at their camp at 7,000 foot, they “heard the B25 and were tracking it when the engines quit. A moment later we heard the crash north of us.” Two days of searching the jungle clad mountains proved unsuccessful. At last, a child came to alert them to the location, and Price found the plane “in a deep gully in a low valley.” An apparent second observer quoted in the accident report, Ujan-based Lieutenant Donald Harburg, stated the plane was directly over 

Since 19 July 1986 there is a Larkin Terminal Fort Hood, Texas @ 31.06280691544944, -97.83123515396983 see picture below

The members of the House of Representatives collectively salute the heroic life and memory of Sgt. George E. Larkin, Jr. by nominating him to the Kentucky Aviation Hall of Fame 2012.

Doolittle exhibit at Aviation Museum of Kentucky

The Aviation Museum of Kentucky is located at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington. It is the official aviation museum of the Commonwealth and is home to the Kentucky Aviation Hall of Fame.