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SSG Justin Davis
to remember
Kite, Max Vernon, CPT.
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Contact Info
Home Town Parsons
Date of Passing Dec 31, 1978
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Captain Max Vernon Kite attended WVU and was employed as a chemist before enlisting with the AAF Lockbourne AAB, Colombus, Ohio as a aviation cadet on 21 December 1942. He received Advanced Bombardier Training at Midland Texas before leaving for overseas on 11 March 1943. Arriving in North Africa 20 March 1943 he was assigned to the 20th Bombardment Squadron, 2nd Bombardment Group as Bombardier and participted in the Sicily, Tunisia, and Naples-Foggia campaigns where he received the Air Medal w/ 9 oak leaf clusters, the E.A.M.E. service medal w/ 3 campaign stars, and the WWII Victory Medal. On 7 November 1943 Captain Kite sailed home arriving on 15 November 1943 were he was assigned to the 2528th AAF Base Unit in Midland Texas. On 17 April 1944 he married Aura Jean Little in Parsons West Virginia. On 4 November 1945 Captain Kite was honorably dischraged from the AAF. He had 2 children and worked as an optometrist before he passed away in December 1978 in St. Clairesville Ohio.
Captain Kite is on the far right in the picture above.
WWII - European Theater of Operations/Sicily Campaign (1943)
From Month/Year
July / 1943
To Month/Year
August / 1943
Description (Sicily Campaign 9 July to 17 August 1943) In preparation for the invasion of Sicily the Allies captured the islands in the Sicilian strait, with aerial bombardment forcing the capitulation of Pantelleria on 11 June 1943. By that time Allied air power had begun the attack on Sicily by bombing defenses and airfields. The invasion itself got under way on the night of 9/10 July with airborne landings that were followed the next day by an amphibious assault. The enemy offered strong resistance, but the Allies had superiority in the air and soon had planes operating from Sicilian bases to support Montgomery’s Eighth Army and Patton’s Seventh.
Interdictory operations against communications in Italy and between Italy and Sicily convinced the enemy that it would be impossible to move strong reinforcements. By 17 August 1943 the Allies were in possession of the island, but they had not been able to prevent a German evacuation across the Strait of Messina.
