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Jay Karpin

Lieutenant (Sep.) Jay Karpin is an Army Air Corps veteran who served between 1944 and 1945. Karpin is a distinguished bombardier who flew more than 35 bombing missions during World War II. He began his career in the B-24 Liberator. After flying 12 missions, he was reassigned by General Jimmy Doolittle to the B-17 Flying Fortress, and flew 23 more missions. At the age of 19, Karpin was on one of the first crews flying over Omaha Beach on June 6 during the D-Day invasion, witnessing the battle on the ground, ultimately losing two aircraft from their formation. Karpin was awarded the Air Medal with 4 oak leaf clusters, 4 battle stars, a Presidential Group Citation from Franklin D. Roosevelt, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, a personal citation from General Jimmy Doolittle, and the Distinguished Flying Cross. Karpin would go on to train new bombardiers on the B-29 and then later provided key consultation on multiple aircraft. He helped develop groundbreaking air-to-air refueling capabilities on the F-84 Thunderjet and the F-105 Thunderchief, and was instrumental in the improved flying range of fighter aircraft. Today, Karpin runs an air quality consulting business for military and civilian aircraft.