Darnaby Henton Wilhoit was born at Woodford Memorial Hospital on the 22nd of December 1922. Don as he became known to his friends, was the second child of Hiram and Jessie Henton Wilhoit.
Don enlisted in the U.S. Army on December 15th, 1942. He was inducted at Cincinnati on February 24, 1943, and later was classified as a pilot for the Air Corps. He was sent to Debden, England, serving the 336th Fighter Squadron. He completed two combat missions over Germany before the war ended, and after the V.E. Day, he piloted an aircraft in the great flypast over London.
On the 29th May 1945 At the USAAF fighter station at Debden, Essex, twelve P-51D Mustangs of the 336th Fighter Squadron with less than 100 hours flying time were selected to be flown to Speke where they would be crated and sent to the US and then to the war in the Pacific. 1/Lt. Harold H Fredericks and Flight Officer Darnaby H Wilhoit were two of the pilots who volunteered to fly the aircraft to Speke. 1/Lt. Fredericks was to be the leader of the flight of twelve aircraft flying No 44-72181. By 10:00 hours all twelve aircraft were airborne and in formation heading for the North West Coast, a distance of 160 miles. Near Leicester, they encountered a thick.
After 55 minutes had passed 1/Lt.Fredericks estimated that they should be over Speke and with ice forming on the aircraft wings opted for descent through the clouds, his last instructions were to look for any aerodromes. 1/Lt. Beacham Brooker, who was 1/Lt. Fredericks No. 3, recalled the events that followed. "As we were letting down through the overcast Fredericks plane suddenly disintegrated in front of me and a ball of fire flung my plane to one side. Immediately I pulled up out of the soup and found that my aircraft was difficult to handle. Looking out at my port wing I saw the reason why, two feet had been ripped away."
1/Lt. Brooker had hit the ground with his port wing, after keeping the aircraft in the air and landing back at Debden he climbed out of the cockpit shaken, never to fly an aircraft again. 1/Lt. Fredericks had crashed into the moors at Catleshaw, North of Oldham. Most of the other aircraft who had gone down through the cloud carried on and found Speke in poor visibility, some opted for climbing back up into the clouds and looking for another opening, others became separated and turned back to Debden. Flight Officer Darnaby H Wilhoit, flying in 44-64084, was to be the second victim that day, when he attempted to gain sight of the ground whilst still over the hills and, under power, he flew into Plainsteads Farm south of Glossop in the High Peak. Both Pilots were originally interred at Cambridge but after the war, were repatriated to Kentucky.
F/O Wilhoit is now buried in the Versailles Cemetery, Versailles, Woodford County, Kentucky, USA.
Source of information: www.findagrave.com