Hometown: Goliad, TX
Branch: U.S. Army (Air Corps)
Unit: 77th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group
Military Honors: Air Medal, Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: January 5, 1944 - KIA near Neumünster, Germany
Age: 22 
Conflict: World War II, 1939-1945

Bennie Rubio Carbajal was born in August of 1921 in Goliad, Texas. In November 1940, at the age of 19, he enlisted in the Army at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio. He was assigned to the United States Army Air Corps—the precursor to the Air Force (later established in 1947).

Sent to the European theater during World War II, Carbajal served as a P-38J fighter bomber pilot with the 77th Fighter Squadron, part of the 20th Fighter group.

The P-38’s unique design was first introduced in 1941. The planes featured a pair of engines in a “twin-boom” configuration with a single pilot in a central pod. A horizontal bar joined the two tail booms. Allied forces claimed that the aircraft had been nicknamed the “fork-tailed devil” by the Germans, and “two planes, one pilot” by the Japanese.

Intended for long-range, high-altitude flight, the versatile P-38 was used for aerial reconnaissance photography, as a general fighter, and as a long-range escort fighter. It was the only fighter aircraft in Europe capable of escorting bombers deep into Germany.

Carbajal’s 20th Fighter Group arrived in Clyde, Scotland, in August 1943, before moving to their home air base in Kings Cliffe, Northamptonshire, England. Flying across the English Channel, pilots escorted bombers and strafed ground targets in addition to attacking enemy planes. The 20th Fighter Group was given the nickname “Loco Busters” because of their unique ability to hit locomotive targets.

Operating at high altitudes in the cold European sky generated a variety of issues for the P-38s that had gone unnoticed while flying at lower altitudes and in the warmer climates of North Africa and the Pacific theatre. Superchargers would frequently fail, forcing the pilot to shut down the engine. As a result, many of the aircraft were forced to cancel missions and return to base. Several planes were lost due to engine failures, rather than to hostile action.

On January 5, 1944, Lt. Carbajal departed from Kings Cliffe air base, flying northeast on a target support mission to the strategically important port city of Kiel, on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast. His plane was lost under unknown circumstances, and he was declared Killed in Action.

A recipient of the Air Medal and Purple Heart, Bennie Carbajal was buried in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Neupré, Belgium, Plot A Row 9 Grave 12.

Sources
Artist’s rendering: Craig Du Mez
Details submitted by Ms. JoAnn Ybarbo, Lt. Carbajal’s niece
American Battle Monuments Commission: Bennie R. Carbajal
American Air Museum in Britain: Bennie Rubio Carbajal
The 20th Fighter Group Project: F/O Bennie R. Carbajal
National Museum of The United States Air Force: Lockheed P-38L Lightning
Britannica: P-38 Aircraft
Burial Site: Find a Grave