Jose Abelardo Quinones

Photograph of the inverted flight of José Quiñones, January 21, 1939.

José Abelardo Quiñones Gonzales (Pimentel, April 22, 1914 - Quebrada Seca, July 23, 1941) was a Peruvian war aviator and lieutenant in the Peruvian Air Force . Declared a national hero of Peru by Law no. immolation) commemorates the Day of the Peruvian Air Force. Also as a tribute, his image appears on the ten soles bill.

Biography

Early Years

Quiñones family.

José Abelardo Quiñones Gonzales was born in Lambayeque, Pimentel. His parents were José María Quiñones Arízola and María Juana Rosa Gonzales Orrego. He was the third of three brothers. He learned his first letters at the initial education school run by the Bulnes sisters.

He continued his primary studies at the Colegio Nacional San José de Chiclayo. At this school, its director, Karl Weiss, promoted the activity of gliding, to which Quiñones became fond along with other classmates, enthusiastic about the outstanding feats of Peruvian civil aviation figures, such as Jorge Chávez and Juan Bielovucic.

In 1928, by decision of his parents, he moved to Lima and began his secondary education at the Colegio Sagrados Corazones Recoleta, until his second year. The remaining years he finished at the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe National College.

Military career

After overcoming the fearful opposition of his parents, in 1935 he entered the Central Aviation School "Jorge Chavez" and integrated the promotion "CAP Commander José Lucas Raguz Verán". In the officer school he stood out for his ease in adapting to different piloting and aviation techniques. Some colleagues from the Aviation School say that one day a professor indicated that the Peruvian Air Force lacked a national hero, for which reason the then officer Quiñones got up from his seat and with an energetic voice said & # 34; present & # 34; # 3. 4;. Four years after entering, he was received as an ensign on January 21, 1939, as the first of his promotion in the fighter pilot specialty. In merit of this he received the "Golden Wing" of the Air Force. It was precisely at the air show that he gave on his graduation day that he astonished those present with his reckless inverted flight almost one meter above the ground, which can still be seen on film today.

As an aviation officer, he was assigned to the Ancón No. 4 Squadron. After four months, he was transferred to the Las Palmas base and from there to the 21st Fighter Squadron of the First Air Group, located in the city of Lima.

Quiñones was part of the 41st (forty-first) North American NA-50 Aircraft Squadron and was part of the first High Acrobatic Squadron. When the parachute unit was created and after carrying out intense training, he made jumps from the skies of Chiclayo.

The feat in the Peruvian-Ecuadorian war

Monument to Quiñones in the district of San Isidro.

When the invasion of Ecuador began in 1941, Lieutenant Quiñones was assigned to the theater of operations, integrating the XXI Fighter Squadron of the Northern Air Group. The pilots assigned to this Group fulfilled various functions, including photographing the terrain of the events and locating enemy positions. The Peruvian divisions, supported by their air force, defeated the Ecuadorian troops along the Zarumilla border, but there were still two strong points to destroy, those of Rancho Chico and Quebrada Seca, where the Ecuadorians had concentrated little anti-aircraft artillery and placed "nests" of machine guns.

With the mission of silencing the Ecuadorian batteries to make way for the Peruvian troops, on July 23, 1941, the 41st Squadron (a member of the XXI Hunting Squadron) took off from Tumbes, under the command of Lieutenant Commander CAP Antonio Alberti and made up of CAP lieutenants Fernando Paraud and José Quiñones and CAP lieutenant Manuel Rivera, aboard their North American NA-50 fighter planes. Quiñones had baptized his prized plane with the name of "Torito".

A few minutes after the departure they were already over the objective and began the bombardment of the Ecuadorian post of Quebrada Seca. When the aircraft piloted by Lieutenant Quiñones made the descent for the second time to drop its bombs, it was hit by Ecuadorian anti-aircraft fire. Instead of jumping out of the plane and using his parachute, which he was adept at using, Quiñones directed his plane towards the Ecuadorian target, crashing, destroying the enemy batteries and dying instantly.

On October 19, 1941 (three months after his death), Ecuadorian Army Colonel Octavio A. Ochoa, head of the IV Military Zone, delivered the mortal remains of the Peruvian hero on behalf of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces uttering the following words:

I give the Peruvian Air Force the remains of those who knew how to honor their homeland, their people and their armed forces. My [Ecuadorian] people pay homage to the Peruvian people, decently embodied in the heroic figure of José Abelardo Quiñones Gonzales.

Octavio A. Ochoa

His mortal remains rest in the gardens of the Las Palmas air base in Lima, near the also famous aviator Jorge Chávez.

Tributes

Bust of Quiñones in the Avion Park, Rimac.

Quiñones was posthumously promoted to Captain of the Peruvian Air Force and declared a National Hero of Peru by Law No. 16126 of May 10, 1966.

In July 1991, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death and once again recognizing his heroism, the Central Reserve Bank of Peru decided that Quiñones's image should appear on the 10 Nuevos Soles bills. In the original design of this bill, on the back there was a representation of the inverted flight that the hero made on the day of his graduation from the aviator school (in the second design, the image of Machu Picchu, Cusco appears)..

Likewise, every July 23 (the day of his immolation) is commemorated the Day of the Peruvian Air Force.

The Congress of the Republic of Peru posthumously granted him the rank of Great Air General of Peru through Law No. 29160 of December 18, 2007.

On April 15, 2014, Congress approved giving Peruvian airspace the name "Cielo de Quiñones", in homage to the 100th anniversary of the hero's birth.

In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of his birth, the Central Reserve Bank of Peru authorizes the issuance of five thousand silver pieces of a new collector's coin with the image of the captain of the Peruvian Air Force (FAP) and Great Air General, José Abelardo Quiñones, with a nominal value of one nuevo sol, at a cost of 10 nuevos soles.