Trails Across America Historical Marker Program
Brandon Bridge along the Cedar Valley Nature Trail in Iowa | Photo courtesy Black Hawk County Conservation
RTC and the William G. Pomeroy Foundation are pleased to present Trails Across America, designed to celebrate and preserve history along America’s multiuse trails. Through the program, we are collaborating with communities across the nation to select, develop and install premium cast-aluminum historical markers featuring unique places, people and history along greenways, canal towpaths and rail-trails—linking communities while honoring their pasts.
Markers
Dayton-Kettering Connector – Capt. Don Gentile
“The air to me was what being on the ground was to other people,” wrote Capt. Dominic Salvatore ‘Don’ Gentile in his 1944 autobiography.
Marker Location: 915 Peach Orchard Road, Kettering, OH 45419 (Gentile Nature Park—near the park’s trail entrance)
An Eagle Squadron pilot and American flying ace in World War II—Dominic Salvatore “Don” Gentile would go on to be a decorated fighter pilot, downing or destroying more than 27 enemy planes and earning 13 war decorations. While presenting Gentile with the Distinguished Service Cross, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower dubbed him a “one-man air force.” A Piqua, Ohio, native, he is commemorated now along the Dayton-Kettering Connector at Gentile Nature Park.
Read more about the WWII air ace on the TrailBlog.
Acknowledgements:
Since its inception in 2005, the Pomeroy Foundation has funding more than 2,000 signs and roadside markers across the United States, all the way to Alaska. Learn more about its partner programs.
