General William Kepner

---

Custom coat by by Hastings of California. Hastings was located in San Fancisco which would date the coat to 1942 while Kepner was in command of the 4th Air Force located in San Francisco area. Coat is all original and was found while cleaning a closet out in England. Unknown by the person who found the coat as to who's it was,  Identifacation was made definitively by the Marine Corps ribbon on his ribbon bar (kepner served in the Marine Corps during WWI prior to his Air Corps service)  and WWI wound stripe on the right sleeve as Kepner always wore. 

D-Day in Europe, the cross channel attack on the German occupied Normandy coast was the largest amphibious landing that had ever taken place, with over 5000 ships, 150,000 men and enough material to sustain the battle. Focus has always been on the brave men storming the beeches, but too often we forget about the enemy strength that had to be eliminated before the invasion.  A successful invasion would depend on having complete air superiority; the German Air Force had to be neutralized!  This task in large part fell to the 8thFighter Command under the Command of General William Kepner. 

In the early days of World War II the 8th Fighter Command was tasked with providing protective fighter planes to escort the bombers. While General Kepner did this with great efficiency, he always felt the fighter plane could be used more effectively in perusing and destroying the enemy whether in the air, or on the ground!  Finally his request was granted when General Doolittle gave him what he wanted authorization to ATTACK!  And attack he did destroying in the air and on ground over 9300 enemy air craft! When D-Day arrived on June 6th1945, the 8th fighter command was able to provide a 50 mile air protective screen for the attacking Allied Forces, air superiority had been secured. 

By wars end General Kepner had flown 24 combat missions 10 in a fighter and 14 in a bomber and was placed in charge of the 2nd Bomb Division, than the 8th Air Force.