Today's marks the 78th death anniversary of the greatest American hero of the Pacific Theater of #WWII, Lt. Col. William Edwin Dyess of Albany, Texas. The "One-Man Scourge of the Japanese" waged an extraordinary one-man war versus Japan from Dec. 1941 to Dec. 1943 (thread)... 
2) The pilot, 25, downed 5 enemy planes btw Dec '41/Jan '42 in the Philippines. When the USAAF ran out of planes, Dyess fought as infantry. On 8 Feb '42, Dyess volunteered & led 20 men of the 21st Pursuit Sqdrn in America's 1st amphibious landing of #WW2 @ Agloloma Bay, Bataan...
3) 1 month later, on 2 Mar '42, Dyess jury-rigged a P-40 fighter as a dive-bomber and launched attacks on the enemy supply depot at Subic Bay, sinking four ships and causing damage to shore installations estimated at $25 million. Dyess's heroics from Jan-Apr '42 are believed...
4) ...to have helped prolong Fil-American resistance on the Bataan Peninsula by 4-6 weeks, providing U.S. military forces with the invaluable time needed to marshal resources that would help turn the tide of the war. Dyess refused an order to evacuate Bataan on 9 April 1942...
5) ...and instead chose to send out as many other pilots as he could, announcing that he was staying behind to share the fate of his enlisted men. Dyess cheated death by disease, torture and starvation on the infamous Bataan Death March & during 361 days of captivity in...
6) ...3 squalid enemy POW camps, before leading the only large-scale escape of Allied POWs in the PTO from the Davao Penal Colony on Mindanao on 4 Apr '43. He fought as a guerrilla behind enemy lines until General Douglas MacArthur sent a submarine to evacuate him in July '43...
7) ...arriving home in the US in Aug. '43, Dyess then fought his own government to tell the story of the Death March and Japan's heinous treatment of American POWs in the Pacific. His sensational story was finally released to the American public in late Jan 1944 and was used...
8) ...to stimulate record-breaking sales of war bonds during the Fourth War Loan Drive. Dyess, however, never saw his name on the front page of every newspaper in the US. During his preparations to take a squadron of P-38 Lightnings to the European Theater, Dyess took off...
9) ...from Grand Central Air Terminal in Burbank, CA on a pre-Christmas training flight. When his P-38 began experiencing engine trouble, Dyess attempted an emergency landing on an empty city street. At the last moment, a motorist turned into Dyess's landing path...
10) ...and Dyess pulled up to avoid hitting the vehicle. Rather than bail-out over an area known to house war workers, Dyess expertly guided his malfunctioning plane into a vacant lot, killing himself instantly. "Greater love hath no man," the motorist wrote in a telegram...
11) ...to Dyess's parents, "than to give his life for another." Dyess, 2x DSC, 1x DFC, 2x Silver Star, 1x Bronze Star, Legion of Honor, POW Medal & Soldier's Medal, was awarded the Texas Legislative Medal of Honor in 2015. @USArmyCMH @AFmuseum @MacArthur1880 @DeptofDefense (End)
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