Ace of Aces: WWII Pilot Don Gentile Commemorated Along the Dayton-Kettering Connector
“The air to me was what being on the ground was to other people,” wrote Capt. Dominic Salvatore ‘Don’ Gentile in his 1944 autobiography.
“Things could get too much for me on the ground; they never got that way in the air. When I was flying I was never nervous or afraid or felt in danger.” It’s an impressively stoic stance for a highly decorated WWII fighter pilot sometimes referred to as the Ace of Aces.
Gentile (pronounced jen-TILL-ee) recalled learning about the start of what would become the second world war in high school, where newspaper headlines blared news of Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland. “A lot of fellows could read their death sentence in that headline,” he wrote, “but I didn’t feel that way. I felt, standing in the school corridor there in Piqua [Ohio] with all that excitement all around me, that I was going to get into the war. But I was ready for it.”
The war, however, wasn’t ready for him. Gentile had amassed some 300 flight hours through rented flight time and later in his own Aerosport biplane, in which the young man was well known in his hometown of Piqua for his aerial stunts. At 21, he tried to join the U.S. Army Air Corps, but his flying credentials and enthusiasm for the cause weren’t enough; lacking the two years of college the Corps required of their pilots, he was rejected. But eager to join the fight against Nazi Germany—and fearing that if drafted he would wind up in the infantry—he went north and enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force instead.
In 1941, Gentile was posted to the United Kingdom and assigned to Eagle Squadron No. 133, one of three such Royal Air Force divisions composed of volunteer pilots from the United States. Signing up with the RAF was a risky endeavor, beyond the threats that being a fighter pilot imposed. The United States had not formally joined the global war effort yet, and U.S. neutrality laws made it illegal for Americans to join the armed forces of foreign nations—even friendly ones. Nevertheless, Gentile—whose parents had left Italy for America 13 years before he was born—was prepared to face imprisonment and the loss of his citizenship to support a cause he felt was just. (After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, the U.S. did, of course, enter the war. Then in 1944, Congress issued a blanket pardon for all Americans who, like Gentile, had volunteered to fight for other countries.)
“Put me in an airplane and I am sure I can make something of my life,” he wrote. The softspoken and self-effacing pilot did just that; he flew his first flight with the Eagle Squadron in June 1942 and downed his first two German planes two months later in the cockpit of a British Supermarine Spitfire. The Eagle Squadrons were short lived, lasting less than a year before being turned over to the U.S. Army Air Forces, where Gentile was happily accepted this time and continued downing enemy aircraft in U.S. P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs.
He is credited with downing or destroying 27.8 enemy aircrafts (multiple pilots might share credit for a downed plane with each getting fractional credit), surpassing the tally of WWI ace—and fellow Ohioan—Eddie Rickenbacker. Upon being presented with the Distinguished Flying Cross by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, the supreme commander of the Allied forces (and future U.S. president) called Gentile a “one-man air force.”
The appellation was too good to pass up, becoming the title of Gentile’s autobiography. Even ace pilots don’t work in a vacuum, though, and Gentile’s wingman, John T. Godfrey, was nearly his equal. The two were only half-jokingly called Captains Courageous by their brothers in arms and together made a formidable team credited with destroying more enemy aircraft than any fighter pilot duo in history.
As Gentile’s renown grew, military brass came to fear what his loss in combat would mean for morale. He was ordered home for a war bond tour in April 1944, where he was greeted by an enthusiastic public, and was then reassigned as a test pilot in Wright Field in Dayton. In November 1944, shortly after the end of the war, Gentile married his childhood sweetheart, Isabella Masdea, in Columbus—an event covered by media across the country.
Gentile stayed with the U.S. Army Air Forces as it became a standalone branch, the U.S. Air Force, and served until 1951, when a freak accident did what no enemy pilot ever accomplished. He was flying a T-33 Shooting Star jet aircraft out of Maryland’s Andrews Air Force Base at low altitude when its single engine flamed out. Unable to restart it, Gentile attempted an emergency landing in a nearby clearing, but his left wing clipped a line of trees, sending the plane tumbling to Earth and killing the famed pilot along with a passenger, Sgt. Gregory Kirsch. Following his death, the U.S. Air Force promoted Gentile to the rank of major.
Today, the recently opened Gentile Nature Park pays homage to his military service. Found at the southern terminus of the Dayton-Kettering Connector rail-trail, the 13-acre park offers a nature-themed playground, a climbing tower, a 100-foot-long zipline and interpretive signage honoring the war hero.
This article was developed as part of Rails to Trails Conservancy’s Trails Across America historical marker program—launched in partnership with the William G. Pomeroy Foundation to lift up unique places, people and history along greenways, canal towpaths and rail-trails—linking communities while honoring their pasts.
A trailside marker, created through a collaboration with the City of Kettering, now commemorates Gentile.
Marker Location: 915 Peach Orchard Road, Kettering, OH 45419 (Gentile Nature Park—near the park’s entrance)
CAPT. DON GENTILE
1920-1951. FROM PIQUA, OHIO.
WWII U. S. AIR FORCE ACE WHO
DESTROYED OVER 27 ENEMY PLANES
& EARNED 13 WAR DECORATIONS.
PROMOTED TO MAJ. POSTHUMOUSLY.
DAYTON-KETTERING CONNECTOR
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2026
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