Colin Purdie Kelly Jr. ( ; July 11, 1915 – December 10, 1941) was a World War II B-17 Flying Fortress pilot who flew bombing runs against the Japanese navy in the first days after the Pearl Harbor attack. He is remembered as one of the first American heroes of the war after ordering his crew to bail out while he remained at the bomber's controls trying to keep the plane in the air before it exploded, killing him. His was the first American B-17 to be shot down in combat. Life Kelly was born in Madison, Florida in 1915 and graduated from high school there in 1932. He went on to West Point in 1933, graduated in the Class of 1937, and was assigned to a B-17 bomber group. He was the first Army officer to fly the Boeing Flying Fortress in the Far East. Battle and death On December 10, 1941 (December 9 in the United States), Kelly, with 14th Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bombardment Group, United States Army the Air Corps was in command of B-17C Flying Fortress heavy bomber, #40-2045, which departed from Clark Field, on the island of Luzon, Commonwealth of the Philippines, alone and without escort, to search for an enemy aircraft carrier which had been reported near the coastal city of Aparri, at the northern end of the island. Kelly's Flying Fortress had not been fully fueled or armed because of an impending Japanese air raid. It carried only three demolition bombs in its bomb bay. While en route to their assigned target area, Kelly and his crew sighted a Japanese amphibious assault task force north of Aparri, including what they believed was a Fusō-class battleship. The crew was unable to locate the reported aircraft carrier and Kelly decided to return to attack the ships that they had seen earlier. Kelly made two passes at while the bombardier, Sergeant Meyer Levin, set up for a precise drop. On the third run, Sergeant Levin released the three bombs in trail and bracketed the IJN light cruiser Natori. It and an escorting destroyer, IJN Harukaze, were damaged during the attack: ...The battleship, actually the light cruiser IJN Natori, was seen about 4 miles offshore and moving slowly parallel with the coastline... A quartering approach to the longitudinal axis of the ship was being flown. The three bombs were released in train as rapidly as the bombardier