Thursday, March 6, 2008

Jesuit Educated World War II Air Combat Hero

Carrigan, piloted B-24s in WWII combat missions
By DALE LEZON
Houston Chronicle

John Carrigan, a World War II bomber pilot who later became a local attorney, died Feb. 28 at his Houston home. He was 86. Carrigan, a retired Air Force Reserve captain and a retired Texas State Guard colonel, rarely missed a chance to see restored B-24 Liberators like the one he piloted on more than 30 combat missions in the Pacific Theater. A year ago this month, he was on hand to watch a restored Liberator take off from Ellington Field in the annual Wings of Freedom Tour. Tears filled his eyes as the plane taxied on the tarmac and lumbered into the sky. Memories from the war flooded back to him. "On every mission, you didn't know if you were going to come back," he told the Houston Chronicle then. His family said he loved flying. He often took his family to air shows or got family members tickets to the shows, said Scott Allen, his stepson. "He taught me a lot about planes," Allen said. "He's the one who got me interested in flying and air shows." John Frances Carrigan was born May 10, 1921, in New Orleans.
He graduated from Jesuit High School there and moved to Houston in 1938 to live with relatives. In 1943, he enlisted in the Army and was sent to boot camp at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls
and then to Enid, Okla., for cadet training. He completed pilot training at Walla Walla, Wash., before he was deployed to the Pacific to fly B-24 Liberator heavy bombers. Carrigan flew 39 combat missions, his family said, earning 21 medals and ribbons, including the Distinguished Flying Cross.
He told the Chronicle last year that on one mission, a Japanese fighter plane firing at his bomber passed so close to his cockpit window that he saw the pilot's mustache. The flier missed him and was shot down as he sped over the top of the bomber.
Carrigan returned to Houston after the war and worked as as radio newsman for NBC and CBS while he attended South Texas College of Law. He graduated with a law degree in 1949. Carrigan practiced law in Harris and Galveston counties. Survivors include his wife of 28 years, Lori Carrigan; and stepchildren Scott Allen, of Houston, Karen Hollingsworth of Antioch, Ill., Saralyn Carrigan of Eldora, Iowa, and Gene Peters, of Davenport, Iowa. A Mass will be held at 10 a.m. today at St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic Community, 10135 West Road. Burial will be at Houston National Cemetery, 10410 Veterans Memorial Highway.
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