Field Eugene Kindley Captain Field Eugene Kindley ( 13 March 1896 – 2 February 1920 ) was an aviator and World War I flying ace credited with twelve confirmed aerial victories . Early life . Field Eugene Kindley was born at Prairie Grove in northwestern Arkansas . Kindley ' s mother died when he was two years old and his father took a position in the Philippines , leaving Kindley to be raised by his grandmother in Bentonville , Arkansas until the age of seven . Kindley joined his father in Manila , where he lived until 1908 , when he moved to Gravette , Arkansas to live with his uncle . After completing his education he moved to Coffeyville , Kansas where he became a partner in a motion picture theater . Military service . During his stay in Coffeyville , Kindley enlisted in the Kansas Army National Guard . Kindley volunteered for a transfer into the aviation branch of the United States Signal Corps . He attended the School of Military Aeronautics at the University of Illinois . Kindley established himself as an unlucky and somewhat untalented flier , with a series of accidents , mechanical failures and land mishaps . He became part of the first group of American pilots to be transferred to England for combat training in 1917 . In the spring of 1918 , he completed training and commissioned as a first lieutenant in the American Air Service . On his first flight , he was assigned to ferry a Sopwith Camel from England to the western front , but crashed on the White Cliffs of Dover . Kindley was sent to hospital to recover . After his release , Kindley was assigned to No . 65 Squadron Royal Air Force , and scored his first aerial victory on 26 June 1918 over Albert , France shooting down the Pfalz D . III of Lt . Wilhelm Lehmann , commander of Jagdstaffel 5 . In July 1918 , the United States Army formed the 148th Aero Squadron and assigned Kindley to the unit . Kindley shot down a German Albatros D . V near Ypres and earned the unit its first kill . Kindley was the appointed commanding officer of the 148th and promoted to captain . While with the 148th he scored 11 confirmed kills . His fourth kill on 13 August 1918 was the Jasta 11 Fokker D . VII of Lothar von Richthofen , brother of " The Red Baron , " Manfred von Richthofen . Lothar von Richthofen was wounded and never flew in combat again . Kindley scored four more wins in early September , including one shared with Jesse Creech . Then , during missions in September 1918 , Kindley earned the Distinguished Service Cross ( DSC ) , Distinguished Service Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster and the British Distinguished Flying Cross . On 24 September , he led a flight of Camels in a successful attack on seven Fokkers near Bourlon Wood , France . Three days later , Kindley earned the Oak Leaf Cluster to the DSC by dropping bombs on and strafing German infantry , destroying a German observation balloon , taking out a German machine gun nest , shooting down an enemy airplane , and scaring two Fokker biplanes away from fellow fliers even after his ammunition had been exhausted . Postwar military career and death . In 1919 , Kindley was offered a contract by a New York - based motion picture company to re - enact his war service . The company offered him $ 60 per day for two weeks which was an extremely high wage . Kindley refused the job because he thought it might interfere with his army career . Kindley died in a crash at Kelly Field near San Antonio , Texas during a demonstration flight for General John J . Pershing . A control cable snapped on the SE - 5 Kindley was flying . It stalled and fell from an altitude of . Kindley is buried at Hillcrest Cemetery in Gravette , Arkansas . Honors . A city park in Gravette is named for Kindley , as is a high school in Coffeyville , Kansas . Kindley Air Force Base , also known as Kindley Field , a World War II airfield in Bermuda , was named in his honor , as was Kindley Field in the Philippines , a small auxiliary airstrip on Corregidor . The Kindley home has been acquired by the Gravette City Museum . Kindley ' s personal effects are on display at the Arkansas Air Museum in Fayetteville , Arkansas . A Sopwith Camel F . 1 said to be Kindley ' s and claimed to be the only surviving Camel in the United States , was used during the filming of " The Blue Max " in 1968 and is currently on loan to the Aerospace Education Center in Little Rock , Arkansas .