Korean War
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Fallen
Fargo, ND
Circumstances:
"Lieutenant Colonel Molland was the pilot of a T-33A Shooting Star fighter with the Headquarters Squadron, 49th Fighter Bomber Group. On May 16, 1951, while returning from a combat weather mission, on the aircraft's approach to Taegu Airfield #1 (K-2), it crashed into a mountain 12 miles southeast of Taegu, Korea." Source: http://www.koreanwar.org
"At dawn one May day Selenger and Lieut. Colonel Leland P. Molland, 32, of Fargo, N.Dak. volunteered to fly a weather reconnaissance mission behind enemy lines. A World War II ace, Molland himself had flown 167 missions in Europe, bagged eleven German planes, collected a Silver Star, two Distinguished Flying Crosses and 29 Air Medals.
As Selenger and Molland streaked northward in a T-33 jet, the sky was murky, the air turbulent. They did not return. Last week the Air Force announced the fate of two of its most spectacular airmen. They had been found dead in the wreckage of their plane on a cloud-shrouded mountain top just north of Taegu." Source: Time, Monday, Jun. 04, 1951, http://www.time.com
Biography:
Interred on December 20, 1951 at Arlington National Cemetery. Leland P. Molland, United States Army Air Forces, was awarded the Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving with the FIFTEENTH Air Force in the Mediterranean Theater of Action during World War II. General Orders: Headquarters, 15th Air Force, General Orders No. 416 (1944)