Frank D. Padgett

Who is Frank D. Padgett?

Frank David Padgett is a retired judge and former World War II B-24 bomber pilot. Padgett grew up during the Great Depression and earned a scholarship to Harvard College in Massachusetts. Before he could graduate however, he was called to active duty in the U.S. Army Air Force and for the next 13 months, trained as a pilot.

In 1944, Padgett and a crew of ten, flew their B-24 heavy bomber from Mitchell Field in New York to an airbase in southeastern China. There, as part of the 373rd Squadron, 308 Bomb Group, 14th. Air Force, they began bombing operations against the Japanese. On January 1, 1945, while on their 13th. mission, they were hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and forced to bail out. Coming down spread out across the French Indochinese countryside, Padgett and several others were captured by the Japanese. He was tortured by the Kempetai while in Hanoi. He was then transferred down to the Saigon Kempetai prison where he spent the next eight months until the war ended.

After the war, Padgett spent many months in military hospitals recovering from the tropical diseases he had contracted while a prisoner. He went back to school and earned his law degree from Harvard College in 1948. He and his family moved to Honolulu, Hawaii in 1948, where Padgett was offered a job with an old and reputable law firm, Robertson, Castle and Anthony.