A chronological biography of M.F. Kirby, World War II fighter ace, P-38 pilot, oilman, and keeper of the Headhunters' history
Marion Franklin Kirby II, known throughout his life as M.F. Kirby or simply Kirby, was born on July 14, 1919, in Louisville, Kentucky. His life carried him from a small Texas town to the skies over New Guinea and Rabaul, where he became a World War II fighter ace, and then back to civilian life as a geologist, oilman, community member, and historian of the men with whom he served. This biography merges the family biography with Kirby: Memoirs of a Combat Fighter Pilot During the Early Years of WWII, using the family biography as the primary source whenever the two accounts differ.
Timeline at a Glance
1919-1940: Childhood, School, Sports, and the Flying Bug
Marion Franklin Kirby II was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on July 14, 1919, while his father, Omar Autrey Kirby, was attending medical school. His father's medical career caused the family to move frequently through Texas and Oklahoma during Kirby's childhood, including Dallas, Lometa, Marietta, and Oklahoma City. In Lometa he developed a love of the outdoors, sports, mechanical tinkering, and airplanes, and after the family's several moves during the Great Depression he ultimately graduated from Lometa High School in 1938. Biography, p. 1; Memoirs, EPUB p. 10
One small episode from Kirby's childhood was considered newsworthy enough to appear in newspapers far from Oklahoma. On Oct. 21, 1932, the Miami Daily News published a short article entitled "Good Deed Backfires" about 13-year-old M. F. Kirby, who was then a Boy Scout in Oklahoma City. Kirby had set out to perform his good turn by helping a neighbor child find a missing pet rabbit. While searching his father's garage, he struck a match so he could see inside. The search took an unexpected turn when the garage caught fire. Fortunately, the blaze was extinguished before causing much damage, although the newspaper concluded its account by noting that the rabbit was still missing. The brief story provides a humorous glimpse of Kirby as an adventurous and well-intentioned boy many years before he became a fighter pilot. Miami Daily News, Oct. 21, 1932, "Good Deed Backfires"
Aviation fascinated Kirby from an early age. He remembered the excitement surrounding Charles Lindbergh's Atlantic crossing, seeing Wiley Post's Winnie Mae, and taking his first airplane ride in a Ford Tri-Motor when a barnstormer visited southern Oklahoma. A later ride at the Love County Fair consumed the money he had managed to save, but the experience confirmed what he later called the "flying bug," an interest that soon became the central direction of his young life. Memoirs, EPUB pp. 13-15
After high school Kirby attended North Texas Teacher's College, now the University of North Texas, on a track scholarship. His family biography records that money was so tight that he spent only $10 during the entire year, yet his athletic ability next earned him a football scholarship at Daniel Baker College in Brownwood, Texas, where he played as a running back. While in college he entered the government-sponsored Civil Pilot Training program, flew Porterfield aircraft, and also served in the Texas National Guard, combining his athletic discipline with the aviation and military experience that would soon take him into the Army Air Corps. Biography, p. 1; Memoirs, EPUB pp. 10-11
1941: Army Air Corps Flight Training
Kirby completed Civil Pilot Training in April 1941 and entered the Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet in Dallas. His class became part of the "41-I" group, and his training moved quickly from primary instruction at Hemet Field, California, in the PT-13 Stearman to basic training at Moffett Field in the BT-13 Valiant. By October he had advanced to Mather Field near Sacramento, where he flew the AT-6 Texan and learned the navigation, aircraft handling, discipline, and judgment expected of a military pilot. Biography, p. 1; Memoirs, EPUB pp. 11, 16-18
His advanced training included demanding cross-country flights that depended heavily on visual landmarks and beacon lights. Kirby later recalled one night flight in which he followed the "light line," a chain of rotating beacons between Sacramento and Redding, California, with each intermittent flash helping him determine where he was along the route. The episode reflected the type of practical navigation training that prepared young pilots to operate long before modern electronic navigation systems became routine. Biography, p. 1
Late in November 1941, Kirby was sent to Mitchell Field, New York, where his training moved from trainers to the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk. On Dec. 7 he had checked out in a P-40 from Floyd Bennett Field and remembered circling the Statue of Liberty before later meeting his sister in New York City, where he heard the first reports of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Five days later, on Dec. 12, 1941, he graduated and was commissioned a second lieutenant, moving almost immediately from training into a nation at war. Biography, p. 1; Memoirs, EPUB pp. 11, 19
December 1941-June 1942: Panama Canal Defense
Before Pearl Harbor, Kirby and several classmates had expected to resign their new commissions and become civilian Pan American Airways pilots ferrying lend-lease fighters across Africa for the British. The declaration of war ended that plan, and Kirby was instead assigned to the 13th Fighter Squadron at Dale Mabry Field in Tallahassee, Florida, before moving through Charleston, South Carolina, and sailing for Panama on Dec. 24, 1941. From January through June 1942 he flew P-36 and P-40 patrols protecting the Panama Canal, one of the most strategically important transportation routes in the Western Hemisphere. Biography, pp. 1-2; Memoirs, EPUB pp. 11, 19-20
The months in Panama gave Kirby operational experience that he later regarded as unusually valuable. His 1941 class had moved through wartime training quickly and had received limited aerial gunnery experience, so daily patrol flying gave him more time to become familiar with combat aircraft before he entered the far more dangerous air war in New Guinea. By the time he was sent to the Southwest Pacific, he had already accumulated months of practical fighter operations that many newly commissioned pilots did not receive. Memoirs, EPUB pp. 53-54
June-November 1942: Australia, New Guinea, and the Headhunters
In late June 1942 Kirby returned briefly to the United States before receiving orders for the Pacific. Traveling through Hamilton Field, California, and then across the Pacific in converted B-24 transports by way of Honolulu, Canton Island, and Fiji, he reached Australia in July 1942. Near Brisbane he joined the 80th Fighter Squadron, known as the Headhunters, and the family biography records that unauthorized aerobatics over Brisbane attracted the attention of Gen. Douglas MacArthur before Kirby and the other pilots were sent forward for immediate combat duty in New Guinea. Biography, p. 2; Memoirs, EPUB p. 12
Kirby reached Port Moresby around July 20, 1942, and entered frontline service with the 80th. His early combat aircraft included the Bell P-39 Airacobra and the P-400, an export version of the same basic design, aircraft that were poorly suited to meeting Japanese fighters and bombers at high altitude. He remembered Japanese formations, including Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bombers, as disciplined and precise, while the American pilots often had to fight at the upper limits of their own aircraft and improvise tactics to protect Port Moresby. Biography, p. 2; Memoirs, EPUB pp. 21-35
Life at the forward bases was primitive and exhausting. Pilots lived in simple open-sided quarters and coped with tropical weather, malaria, poor food, air raids, crude airstrips, difficult navigation over the Owen Stanley Range, and the constant knowledge that friends might not return from the next mission. The hardship was balanced by intense camaraderie, and Kirby's recollections include card games, storytelling, an old hand-wound phonograph, makeshift meals, and the humor that helped the men endure conditions that offered very little comfort or privacy. Biography, p. 2; Memoirs, EPUB pp. 22-35
November 1942-July 1943: Milne Bay and the P-38 Lightning
The 80th Fighter Squadron moved to Milne Bay on Nov. 1, 1942, and continued operating under difficult conditions. Kirby's account repeatedly contrasts the limitations of the P-39 and P-400 with the airplane that transformed his combat experience, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. On Feb. 7, 1943, the squadron left Milne Bay for Mareeba, Australia, to receive P-38s, and by April 1943 Kirby was back in combat with an aircraft that could finally challenge Japanese fighters at altitude and range far beyond the capabilities of the planes he had previously flown. Biography, p. 2; Memoirs, EPUB pp. 21, 31-39
Kirby remembered his first high-altitude combat experience in the P-38 as a revelation. After months in aircraft that struggled above 20,000 feet, the twin-engine fighter seemed to have power in reserve, giving him greater speed, altitude performance, firepower, range, and confidence. The Lightning became the aircraft most closely associated with his wartime service and remained important to him for the rest of his life. Biography, p. 2; Memoirs, EPUB pp. 36-38
On May 21, 1943, while patrolling between Lae and Salamaua at about 23,000 feet, Kirby filed the first individual combat report preserved in the memoir and claimed one Japanese fighter as probable. On July 15, 1943, the date given in the family biography, he transferred from the 80th Fighter Squadron to the newly formed 431st Fighter Squadron of the 475th Fighter Group, known as Satan's Angels. The 475th was a dedicated P-38 organization created to provide long-range fighter and bomber escort capability across New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and surrounding Japanese-held territory. Biography, p. 2; Memoirs, EPUB pp. 21, 64-65
August-December 1943: Wewak, Rabaul, and Becoming an Ace
The second half of 1943 brought the most concentrated combat of Kirby's career. He participated in repeated missions against Wewak and Rabaul, two of the strongest Japanese air centers in the Southwest Pacific, while the 475th escorted bombers, intercepted enemy aircraft, and fought for control of the air. The attacks combined high-altitude fighter work with aggressive low-level B-25 Mitchell strikes, and Kirby remembered Wewak and Rabaul as the hardest targets of his tour because of the concentration of enemy aircraft, antiaircraft fire, difficult weather, long distances, and fuel limitations. Biography, p. 2; Memoirs, EPUB pp. 52-58
- May 21, 1943 - Lae and Salamaua: One probable while flying with the 80th Fighter Squadron. Memoirs, EPUB p. 64
- Oct. 15, 1943 - Oro Bay: One Japanese Val dive bomber destroyed. Memoirs, EPUB pp. 65-67
- Oct. 17, 1943 - Buna Bay: One Zeke destroyed. Memoirs, EPUB pp. 67-69
- Oct. 23, 1943 - Rabaul: One Hamp destroyed during a fighter sweep. The combat report is dated Oct. 24 but identifies the mission as Oct. 23. Memoirs, EPUB pp. 69-71
- Nov. 2, 1943 - Rabaul, Bloody Tuesday: Two enemy fighters ultimately credited from the mission, bringing Kirby's official score to five confirmed victories. Biography, pp. 2-3; Memoirs, EPUB pp. 55-58, 71-74, 134
The Nov. 2, 1943, mission over Rabaul became one of the defining events of Kirby's military career. The Fifth Air Force struck Rabaul while Allied operations were expanding elsewhere in the region, and Kirby, then serving as operations officer of the 431st, joined the P-38 formation escorting B-25s into the heavily defended target area. When he saw a crippled Allied bomber with an engine on fire being attacked by Japanese fighters, he moved to defend it, and the family biography identifies this action as the engagement for which he received the Silver Star and in which he secured his fifth aerial victory, making him an ace. Biography, pp. 2-3; Memoirs, EPUB pp. 55-58, 71-74
The official combat report initially credited Kirby with one Zeke destroyed and another probable, but a B-25 crewman's witness statement later confirmed the second aircraft. The action was costly for the 431st, and Kirby remembered that three of the nine P-38s available to the squadron that day were lost. His own writing never presents the mission as effortless heroism, but instead emphasizes damaged aircraft, uncertainty, fear, losses, split-second decisions, and the dependence of every pilot on ground crews and other airmen. Memoirs, EPUB pp. 55-58, 71-74
Kirby's decorations reflected both individual actions and sustained combat service. The family biography identifies the Silver Star with his bravery over Rabaul on Nov. 2, 1943, the Distinguished Flying Cross with his exceptional piloting and leadership during dangerous escort missions, and the Air Medal with his sustained combat flying against Japanese forces. The memoir's final page lists his decorations as the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, together with a final aerial victory tally of five confirmed and one probable. Biography, pp. 2-3; Memoirs, EPUB p. 134
December 1943-1945: The End of Combat and Return Home
Kirby's logbook, as quoted in the memoir, closes on Dec. 8, 1943, although another recollection places his last combat patrol near Christmas while the squadron was supporting operations connected with the Marine landings at Cape Gloucester. The final mission brought no enemy contact, but rough weather, turbulence, and engines that seemed to be running badly made the flight memorable. By the time his combat flying ended, Kirby believed he had watched Allied air power move from the desperate early period of the P-400 and P-39 to clear air superiority over New Guinea. Memoirs, EPUB pp. 34, 51, 53
After the war Kirby left the Air Force and returned to civilian life. The family biography provides the postwar chronology that is largely absent from the memoir, showing that the transition from combat pilot to civilian did not end his connection with aviation or with the men who had served beside him. Although he chose not to return to regular piloting, the war remained an important part of his friendships, stories, and later efforts to preserve the history of the Headhunters. Biography, p. 3; Memoirs, EPUB pp. 84, 128-129
1945-1975: LSU, Gulf Oil, and the Oil Business
Kirby resumed his education after military service and graduated from Louisiana State University in 1948 with a bachelor's degree in geology. He then joined Gulf Oil Corporation and worked for the company for 12 years, building a civilian career far removed from the fighter strips of New Guinea but still grounded in technical judgment and field experience. After leaving Gulf Oil, he established his own oil business and continued working in the petroleum industry until his retirement. Biography, p. 3
In 1975 Kirby retired to Lampasas, Texas, returning to the part of the country that had shaped his youth. His family biography describes him as active in local community life, generous with his time, supportive of younger people, and deeply committed to veterans and historical preservation. Those activities complemented the work he had already begun several years earlier to reconnect members of his wartime squadron and preserve their shared history. Biography, p. 3
1969-1989: Rebuilding the Headhunters
On July 22, 1969, Kirby received a call from two squadron friends, Lt. Gen. Jay T. Robbins and Norb Ruff, suggesting that the old Headhunters get together. Kirby took on the difficult task of finding former members at a time when there was no internet, relying on old rosters, squadron orders, telephone information services, letters, and personal contacts. His work led to the first World War II Headhunters reunion in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in 1970 and eventually to an organization that linked veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and later generations of the 80th Fighter Squadron. Memoirs, EPUB pp. 8, 123-124
By the late 1980s the reunion effort had become an enduring part of Kirby's life. He invited Col. Jay Riedel to the May 1988 Williamsburg reunion, and at the September 1989 reunion in Phoenix, after roughly 20 years of keeping the group together, Kirby asked Riedel to assume leadership of the organization. Riedel later wrote that without Kirby there would have been no Headhunters Association, a judgment that captures how much of the squadron's postwar community depended on Kirby's persistence in finding people and maintaining relationships. Memoirs, EPUB pp. 8-9
1990s-2009: Preserving Stories and Friendships
Kirby's later years remained closely tied to the history and people of military aviation. He corresponded with former squadron members, attended reunions, supported commemorative activities and museum efforts, and helped preserve stories about pilots and ground crews who otherwise might have been forgotten. His family biography describes him as a valued storyteller and mentor, while the memoir shows the same role through decades of letters, interviews, reunion recollections, and friendships that crossed generations of Air Force service. Biography, p. 3; Memoirs, EPUB pp. 123-129
A 1993 trip to northern Minnesota brought Kirby together with Norb Ruff, Paul Murphey, Mark Kasper, Harrison Freeman, and Jay Riedel. The memoir presents the trip less as a fishing expedition than as several days of old friends talking, remembering, and preserving experiences that only they fully shared. That same pattern continued through Kirby's later life, with companionship and storytelling becoming one of the principal ways the wartime generation passed its history forward. Memoirs, EPUB pp. 123-125
Larry Simpson's December 2004 portrait of Kirby found him living near Lometa on a small ranch with a few cattle and maintaining friendships around the world. Simpson described a personal letter from Charles Lindbergh displayed on the wall and a P-38 model on a bookcase, reminders of how closely aviation remained woven into Kirby's identity even though he had not chosen to resume piloting after the war. During another visit to Dallas, seeing and touching the restored P-38 Putt Putt Maru brought the old excitement back immediately, showing that his affection for the Lightning had never faded. Memoirs, EPUB pp. 126-129
Kirby turned 90 on July 14, 2009. On Sept. 24 of that year, Vanessa Snell interviewed him in Lampasas, Texas, recording memories that included an adventurous wartime training flight and a landing near the school in Lometa. The interview provides a fitting close to the memoir's chronological record because Kirby was still doing what he had done for decades, telling the stories of his generation so that the people, aircraft, hardships, and friendships behind the official history would not disappear. Memoirs, EPUB pp. 125, 129-131
2011: Death and Legacy
Marion Franklin Kirby II died on July 10, 2011, in Lampasas, Texas, only four days before his 92nd birthday. His family biography remembers him not only as a decorated fighter ace and skilled aviator but also as a community figure, mentor, storyteller, and advocate for remembering the veterans of the Pacific war. His legacy therefore extends beyond his five confirmed aerial victories to the history he helped preserve and the relationships he maintained long after the war ended. Biography, p. 3
The memoir reinforces that broader legacy by focusing repeatedly on the people around him rather than only on his own achievements. Kirby wrote about squadron mates, crew chiefs, lost friends, primitive airfields, fear, mistakes, humor, mechanical problems, and the improvisation required during the early Southwest Pacific air war, and his postwar reunion work continued the same emphasis on preserving a shared story. His own military record remains distinguished, with five confirmed aerial victories and one probable, the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, but the history he left behind also records the service of the larger Headhunters family. Biography, pp. 2-3; Memoirs, EPUB p. 134
2025: William A. Brookshire LSU Military Museum
On Tuesday, April 22, 2025, M.F. Kirby's sons, Frank, Stephen, and Joel Kirby, donated a print of Kirby, a painting by aviation artist Jack Fellows, to the William A. Brookshire LSU Military Museum. The painting depicts M.F. Kirby's courageous effort to defend a crippled B-25 Mitchell bomber from attacking Japanese fighters during the raid on Rabaul on November 2, 1943, a day remembered as "Bloody Tuesday." During this battle, Kirby was credited with his fifth aerial victory, officially making him a fighter ace. The donated print helps preserve the story of his service and the men who fought in the air war over the Southwest Pacific during World War II.
Primary memoir source: Kirby: Memoirs of a Combat Fighter Pilot During the Early Years of WWII, edited by Larry L. Simpson, 2009. The family biography was treated as the controlling source for biographical facts and dates when a difference existed between the two accounts.
475th Fighter Group Historical Association: https://475th.org/
Support the 80th Fighter Squadron Headhunters Association
The 80th Fighter Squadron Headhunters Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the history and heritage of the 80th Fighter Squadron. Donations help support the preservation of photographs, documents, artifacts, and other materials associated with the squadron and the men who served with it.
Additional Photographs from the Memoir
References
- MF Kirby Biography with references by Stephen B. Kirby, family biography, pp. 1-3.
- Larry L. Simpson, editor, Kirby: Memoirs of a Combat Fighter Pilot During the Early Years of WWII, 2009, EPUB pagination 1-134.
- 475th Fighter Group Historical Foundation, Marion F. Kirby biography, cited as reference 2 in the family biography.
