Foil: 6 Panel: Distinguished Flying Cross Society Column: 4 Line: 30

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:

The San Diego Union-Tribune
Saturday, February 20, 1999
By Jack Williams

David B. Osborne was flying a bombing mission in World War II when cannon shells from German fighter planes disabled two of his B-24's engines.
Lt. Col. Osborne, in charge of a 10-man crew, weighed his options: bail out or crash land.
"I reminded myself that if you make mistakes, you die," he told The San Diego Union nearly 45 years later. "I said a little prayer and headed for a plowed field."
There, after dislodging two injured crewman from the wreckage, he dashed in the woods of the German-occupied Yugoslavia. With the help of Yugoslavian guerillas, he and his men escaped truckloads of German troops.
Col. Osborne, whose 27-year military career spanned three wars, died of cancer Tuesday on his La Mesa home. He was 82. His B-24 Liberator was shot down on June 6, 1944, D-Day on the beaches of Normandy, France. For Col. Osborne, that date signaled a 200-plane raid on Ploesti in the oil fields of Romania, a bountiful fuel source for Adolf Hitler's Nazi armies.
The previous August, 43 B-24s had been lost in a similar raid, which resulted in 446 American casualties.
Col. Osborne's crash landing began a 66-day odyssey that culminated when American C-47s flew in from southern Italy to rescue him and several hundred downed U.S. fliers.
The Army offered Col. Osborne a Silver Star, which he turned down. He would rather all his crew got his medals, he said. Ultimately, Col. Osborne and each crew member received an Air Medal and a Distinguished Flying Cross.
Later in his military career, Col. Osborne helped establish a school for dependent children of Air Force personnel in Casablanca.
Most of his duty during the Korean and Vietnam wars was based in the United States, family members said.
Col. Osborne's final assignment, before retiring in 1968, was at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
A native of Spokane, Wash., Col. Osborne grew up in Southern California. He graduated from San Bernardino High School, then earned his bachelor's degree in education from Occidental College and a master's from the University of Southern California.
Before joining the army Air Forces I World War II, Col. Osborne took his first solo flight in 1940 in a 40-horsepower Piper Cub in Oceanside.
Based in southern Italy during World War II, Col. Osborne flew that San Diego-designed B-24 Liberator on 10 bombing missions to Germany, Bulgaria and France. Then came the raid on Ploesti.
Describing his crash landing, he said, "I clipped off the treetops. The tail dug into the plowed field. Dust flew. We slammed to a stop. We didn't catch fire.
"I don't know how I did it. But I did it.
The plane landed 35 miles south-southwest of Belgrade, in what was known as Chetnik territory. Later, at a mountain hide-out village, Col. Osborne and his crew met 120 other downed airmen being protected by the Chetnik guerillas.
Col. Osborne settled in La Mesa 30 years ago after retirement.