History Characters / MastersOfTheAir

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Joins the show as a [[EnsignNewbie Lieutenant commanding]] a [[NewMeat replacement crew]] about midway through the series, [[spoiler: and is appointed a squadron commander and promoted to [[MajorlyAwesome Major]] after he re-ups for a second tour less than a year later.]]

Commander of the 418th Bomb Squadron. Buck's hard-partying best friend.

* [[spoiler: DeathByIrony]]: [[spoiler: Despite piloting a B-17 named "Escape Kit" during the Regensburg raid, he stays behind to try and land his damaged B-17 in order to save his co-pilot Dickey, which fails and kills both of them. Made even more ironic as in real life, a fire aboard the aircraft prevented him from escaping the flight deck regardless.]]
* [[spoiler: DecoyProtagonist]]: [[spoiler: Is heavily featured in the first three episodes as a friend of Buck and Bucky's before his sudden death.]]

* [[spoiler: ShooOutTheClowns]]: [[spoiler: Dies trying to land his damaged Fort, after refusing to bail out and leave a badly injured Dickey behind during the Regensburg raid.]]

* [[spoiler: DecoyProtagonist]]: [[spoiler:Played with. The first few episodes establish him and Bucky as the natural leaders of the group, and the episodes focus on their exploits. Buck is shot down off-screen in Part Four, though he returns as a POW in Part Six and once again shares equal screen time alongside Bucky in Part Seven.]]

!Captain Robert "Rosie" Rosenthal (Creator/NateMann)

!First Lieutenant/[[spoiler:Captain]] Harry Crosby (Anthony Boyle)

* RankUp: [[spoiler:He is promoted to the rank of Captain in Part Five after surviving the second Bremmen raid.]]

!First Lieutenant/[[spoiler: Captain]] Harry Crosby (Anthony Boyle)

!Lieutenant Harry Crosby (Anthony Boyle)

!Lieutenant Curtis Biddick (Creator/BarryKeoghan)

* {{Workaholic}}: Crosby shows an immense dedication to his job as Lead Navigator, meticulously plotting and calculating every route. His work is immensely valuable and greatly appreciated by the airmen who rely on his plots, but that same drive to get ''everything'' right leads to him working for 72 hours straight in the run-up to Operation Overlord. His superiors eventually order/convince him to take a month's leave Stateside to ensure he has a proper break and won't burn out on the job.

* [[spoiler: DecoyProtagonist]]: [[spoiler: The first few episodes establish him and Bucky as the natural leaders of the group, and the episodes focus on their exploits. Buck is shot down off-screen in Part Four, though he returns as a POW in Part Six.]]

* [[spoiler: DecoyProtagonist]]: [[spoiler: The first few episodes establish him and Bucky as the natural leaders of the group, and the episodes focus on their exploits. Buck is shot down off-screen in Part Four.]]

* SurvivorsGuilt: Subtle, but it's there. When he re-ups for a second tour of duty after his 25th mission, one of Rosenthal's stated motivations is that he can't stand the idea that his likely replacement is going to be some EnsignNewbie who is going to get himself and his crew killed in their first few missions. While he doesn't explicitly mention [[spoiler:his own status as sole surviving pilot of the Munster Raid]] on his own first mission, it's not hard to connect the dots.

* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler: His plane is the only one from the 100th Bombardment Group that survives the Munster raid.]]

* DueToTheDead: After his friend is killed on their first mission, he takes it upon himself to inform the girl the man had been flirting with the night before.

Boisterous Irish-American pilot of "Wild Cargo/Escape Plan."

* [[spoiler: DeathByIrony]]: [[spoiler: Despite piloting a B-17 named “Escape Plan” during the Regensburg raid, he stays behind to try and land his damaged B-17 in order to save his co-pilot Dickey, which fails and kills both of them. Made even more ironic as in real life, a fire aboard the aircraft prevented him from escaping the flight deck regardless.]]

* [[spoiler: ShootOutTheClowns]]: [[spoiler: Dies trying to land his damaged Fort, after refusing to bail out and leave a badly injured Dickey behind during the Regensburg raid.]]

* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler: Is shot down off-screen in Part Four. As of Part Five, his fate remains unknown.]]

* PayEvilUntoEvil: After he meets the widow of a Polish fighter pilot, witnesses first-hand the effects of a German air raid on London, and [[spoiler: learns that Buck has been shot down]], Bucky takes this attitude towards the bombing campaign against the Germans.
** After the Munster Raid, Bucky [[spoiler: finds himself on the flipside of this Trope, as a group of angry German civilians in a recently-bombed city lynch him and several other downed airmen after they are captured, and he only barely escapes.]]

** [[spoiler:Is promoted to group navigator after surviving the second Bremmen raid.]]

* JewishAndNerdy: He's a lawyer and [[spoiler: post-war would be part of the Nuremberg trials, interviewing UserfulNotes/HermannGoring]]