| Original caption: “With an officer giving them pointers from a giant map, pilots of an American P-51 Mustang fighter-bomber group learn their `target for today’ during a briefing at a base in Italy. Both the map and the briefing chart (right) indicate another objective in Germany will soon be on the receiving end of their bullets and bombs. The men are members of the Fifteen United States Army Air Force, whose planes fly as part of the Mediterranean Allied Air Force.” Lieutenant Edward Gleed (November 5, 1916 – January 25, 1990) briefs the 302nd Fighter Squadron about a mission. Note that the curtain to hide the briefing map has been drawn back, and lights for night briefing. Gleed graduated from the University of Kansas on June 9, 1941, with a Bachelor of Arts in history. Later that year, he enlisted in the United States Army and was assigned to the 9th Cavalry Regiment, 1 of the famed Buffalo Soldier units. The following year, he was an aviation cadet in Alabama’s Tuskegee Flight School program at the Tuskegee Army Air Field. Cadet Harry Sheppard (October 24, 1917 – July 22, 2003) called him “super-cocky.” Gleed arrived wearing a covert operations topcoat. He later wrote, “Word had gotten to somebody that there’s something strange about this guy.” Gleed became a Tuskegee Airman when he graduated from flight school and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Single Engine Section Cadet Class SE-42-K on December 13, 1942. He was 1 of 3 Cadets selected to train on the P-400, the British version of the Bell P-39 Airacobra. This was the reason he was selected to be Commanding Officer of the 302nd Fighter Squadron in June 1943. Gleed began the war as Commanding Officer of the 302nd Fighter Squadron, but he was relieved by Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin O. Davis after an ill-conceived strafing mission that led to the loss of a P-39 and injuries to its pilot. He became Operations Officer for the 301st, and then for the entire 332nd Fighter Group. His squadron was responsible for escorting Allied heavy bombers assigned to bomb Budapest, Hungary. On July 27, 1944, Gleed and other pilots of the 301st encountered German fighters. Gleed was credited with shooting down 2 German Focke-Wulf Fw-190 fighters, and while on the same mission, he and other pilots destroyed supply dumps, bridges, oil refineries, and German planes on the ground. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross for this mission. Gleed ordered all the North American P-51 Mustangs in the 332nd equipped with long-range tanks on March 23, 1945, for the group’s 1st mission to Berlin. On June 24, 1945, Davis assumed command of Godman Field, the 1st time in United States Army Air Force history that an African American held that post. Gleed became Operations Officer of the entire 332nd Fighter Group. But his wife Lucille Graves Gleed (March 22, 1917 – February 29, 2004) had to take their daughter Bettye (born 1939) back to Kansas for schooling; the local Army school at Fort Knox was off limits to African Americans. After World War II ended, Gleed continued to serve as a fighter pilot. In March 1946, the 332nd Fighter Wing was activated, with gleed as Davis’s Executive Officer. Gleed took command on August 15, 1947. He was deployed in service during the Korean Conflict in the 1950s and the Vietnam War in the 1960s. In 1970, Gleed retired honorably as a full Colonel after 30 years of military service and over 6,000 flying hours. Gleed later served as System Program Manager, Chief Administrator, and Contract Negotiator of government computer programming contracts for 2 major Defense Operational Control Systems at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, California. In 1976, Gleed earned a Juris Doctorate (law degree) from Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, California. Gleed has also received numerous awards, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, a Legion of Merit, and Bronze Stars. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0686.jpg |
| Image Size | 588.20 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2920 x 1893 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | Office of War Information |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | September 1, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Ramitelli |
| State or Province | Molise |
| Country | Italy |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-208-MO-18K-32983 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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