Have you ever met any WW2 and WW1 pilots in person?

[[CPT]Crunch]

Had an old farmer looking guy come up into the cockpit of my C-130B with his son and grandson, he was amazed at the lamp on the nav station, fixed on it, and started talking about B-29's and how the exact same lamp was fitted.  I made him sit up in the pilots seat and that sparked off his memories, he was a Flight Engineer and had seen combat, so he remained in the seat telling his tales for a good 40 minutes.  Kept the conversation going, and old 1957 herk had quite an effect, much of the tech was still the same.  I could tell his son and grandson had never heard any of it they were silently soaking it in.  Sometimes it takes a lot of time and a little refamiliarization for those guys to open up.  That was many years ago, around 89-90, don't really remember specifics, but it wasn't roses.

 

Also bumped into Noble Peterson a time or two back in the old regional air show circuit, you'd have never guessed he was a 106 combat mission mustang pilot/ squadron commander, he was dressed as the Rancher he was born, looked and behaved more like my dad.  A truly mighty man in my eyes.  He usually hung around his replica Mustang all day out in the hot sun during airshows in his cowboy hat jean, and snap button rancher shirt, with people walking by who had no clue he was there as the pilot, no matter the weather.  Dakota Kid!

 

Wish someone would make a skin for his 51's, both.  By the way, he's the only known USAF pilot who's crewchief placed his own nick and art on his fighter, hence The Long Island Kid on the opposite side of the nose, he was known as that kind of leader, kept in contact with his chief for life.

 

Found out the used 73 Chevy 3/4 ton my dad acquired in Mobridge SD back in the late 70's for a farm truck was originally bought new by Noble, he had a custom cowboy hat rack installed, nice truck but a real gas guzzler.  I was driving his truck all along in my youth. 

Edited February 19, 2024 by [CPT]Crunch

[Gambit21]

On 10/29/2021 at 10:33 PM, [CPT]Crunch said:

 

Wish someone would make a skin for his 51's, both.  By the way, he's the only known USAF pilot who's crewchief placed his own nick and art on his fighter, hence The Long Island Kid on the opposite side of the nose, he was known as that kind of leader, kept in contact with his chief for life.

 

First of all, great post! ??

 

Regarding the above, crewchief/ground crew art was fairly common if not ubiquitous. It was painted on the opposite side of the pilots’ art, and almost never got photographed.

 

Example.

Back in the day I was a prolific skinner for IL2, and I did many of the 352nd Mustangs. Well one day a gentleman contacted me through the IL2 Skins PM, and introduced himself as Wally Starck’s crew chief. He’s seen my skin for Starck’s P-51B “Starck Mad”

 

He wanted to know if I knew anything about his former pilots’ whereabouts, and as it happened I did! I’d interviewed him some months earlier having obtained his contact info via Bob “Punchy” Powell.

 

So I was able to reunite those 2 guys - which was amazing. The salient point here however is that this gentleman informed me that on the “mechanics’” side of the cowl, “Even Stevens” was painted in the same letter style. Both crewchief and I guess armorer were Stevens. (So I added it to the skin)

 

He informed me that this was common practice during the war.

At least in that squadron.

 

I was one of the few ever to interview Starck - he mostly turned such requests down.

 

 

Edited November 10, 2021 by Gambit21

[CUJO_1970]

2 hours ago, Gambit21 said:

He wanted to know if I knew anything about his former pilots’ whereabouts, and as it happened I did! I’d interviewed him some months earlier having obtained his contact info via Bob “Punchy” Powell.

 

Punchy Powell was a great guy and I could almost call him a neighbor.

 

Was fortunate enough to speak with him on a couple of occasions, just sitting and talking to him about nursing his Mustang back after getting hit in the tail end on that strafing run where he shot up a Ju88 in it's hangar. Interestingly enough, sitting at the table next to us in that hangar in Marietta was none other than Paul Tibbets. 

 

Bob Powell's account to me about chasing a flight of four 109s at high altitude is one of the reasons I want an /AS variant added to the sim.

[SCG_motoadve]

Oshkosh 2017 we were at the main hotel bar, its crowded ,luckily  I get a table, I see Harrison Ford a bit far away looking down trying so people don't recognize him, my friend goes for drinks, so I am alone at the table, then a lady comes with Bob Hoover on a wheelchair and ask me if he can join my table, of course I said , when my friend showed up he could not believed, we spent the evening chatting, I asked about the escape in the 190, how was he shot down, everything, he just chatted away,  great guy, very humble.

Then Harrison Ford saw us and joined us, and then our table was the center of attention of the whole bar, everyone came to take pictures, I must be in many of them.?

 

[Gambit21]

19 hours ago, CUJO_1970 said:

 

Punchy Powell was a great guy and I could almost call him a neighbor.

 

Was fortunate enough to speak with him on a couple of occasions, just sitting and talking to him about nursing his Mustang back after getting hit in the tail end on that strafing run where he shot up a Ju88 in it's hangar. Interestingly enough, sitting at the table next to us in that hangar in Marietta was none other than Paul Tibbets. 

 

Bob Powell's account to me about chasing a flight of four 109s at high altitude is one of the reasons I want an /AS variant added to the sim.

 

You're very fortunate.

I'm grateful for the dozen or so phone conversations that I had with him.

 

 

 

[Pict]

I find this a funny topic for a poll, as if you are old enough the chances of meeting WWI & WWII pilots is fairly high as there were a fair few of them cutting about in all walks of life. Yet on the other hand plenty of younger people will never get the chance to see any of them as they fall off the perch. So it's almost a how old are you poll.

 

That said I'm no spring chicken and I just happened to run across a few from both wars, couldn't avoid them really.

 

My Grandfather and one of his brothers, there were seven of them, all but the youngest fought in WWI, were both at Gallipoli as infantry, Cameron Highlanders, and they volunteered for the Royal Flying Corps.

 

They wound up training in Egypt and as a part of 30 Wing RFC fought against the Ottoman Empire in Palestine, during 1917 and 1918. My Grandfather reckoned that more were killed during the training than in combat and that blokes with one arm were a common sight around the aerodrome due to staring accidents.

 

My uncle had his papers from that time and I found it funny to read his medical, which stated that he was fit to fly all types currently in service, yet nothing so specific was mentioned on his pilots ticket   My Grandfather moved to Australia right after WWI and my father and his brothers were born there. He came right back to Scotland for WWII as a Captain in the British Army. His movements during that time I am still investigating, but he knew a guy personaly called Colin Gubbins, Col. during the war and Maj. General Sir afterwards, the most decorated British soldier ever who was head of Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.) for the later part of the war. My father wound up with his wartime Willys MB, which I now have and I have reason to beleive that my Grandfather was involved in S.O.E., but it's hard to prove as there are many closed doors.

 

My Grand Uncle continued in service after WWI with what was then the RAF as a test pilot and survived loosing a wing in somthing. He wound up buying a liberty ship after WWII and started his own shipping company out of Hong Kong.

 

One of my uncles by marriage, had a brother who was an FAA pilot and flew Seafires and was with the BPF in the end. The family made a bit of a fuss about him, Spitfire pilot, had his service revolver on the hip when he was home and that kind of thing. That uncle on the other hand never spoke about his war experiences, even when I found out that he'd been with the so called "forgoten army" the 14th Army in Burma fighting the Japanese, and asked him about it, he played it down saying it was pretty much all over when he got there. But it wasn't as I discovered after a bit of digging ito it. I found out years later after reading a great book called "The Forgotten Highlander" by Alasdair Urquart, that these guys were forced to sign the official secrets act before getting home and promised not to talk about their experiences with the Japs, so as not to sour business relation with Japan after the war.

 

It was an entirely different approach in Australia where the atrocities were well documented and spoken of openly. That was yet another culture divide I noticed between the UK and Oz during my many years scooting between the two.

 

As a kid in Scotland, late 1960's early 70's I remember yet another pilot, he had been a Squadron Leader in the RAF and a Spitfire pilot. He had a tobacconist / news agency type of store, where you could buy bubble gum and stuff and it was on my walk home from school. He also sold plastic model kits, WWII aircraft specifiacally. I was in the market for a new kit and he spotted that I couldn't decide which one, he came round and suggested a Zero, probably the first I'd ever heard of it and not what I had had in mind, but he sold me on it telling me lots about it, how it was unbeatable in it's day. Interesting coming from a real deal WWII Spitfire jockey, a Squadron Leader to boot.

 

I knew lots of WWI vetresrans, Royal Navy, RNR, RNVR and Army, 51st Highland Division mostly. And many many WWII veterans, one or two still on the go. From guys who fought with the 51st HD in 1940 from the Maginon line to Saint Valery and spent the rest of the war as POW's in Germany, guys like this gave me a lift to school sometiimes.

 

It's good to remember them and typing this out certainly helps that.

Edited November 15, 2021 by Pict

[Sheriff88]

About 26 years ago I met Gunther Rall and Hub Zemke at a book signing and Q&A at Bader Aviation Art near John Wayne Airport,California.  Accompanied by my daughter who had just built model of Zemke’s P-47.

Gunther was picture of health and quite energetic .

Edited January 30, 2022 by Sheriff88

[56RAF_Roblex]

I used to help out a local Air Scout group and occasionally an elderly ex Navy man called Eric Monk would visit to give out awards etc.   I thought it odd that an Air Scout group would use a Navy guy.   A few years after I moved away from the area and I read a book called 'Carrier Pilot' by Norman Hansen about his experiences joining the Fleet Air Arm in WW2 and flying the Corsair.  In it he makes several references to their commander H.A. 'Eric' Monk DSM and it turns out it was the same guy.   Used to fly Skuas off the Ark Royal.  If I had known at the time I would have drilled him mercilessly for details but sadly he had died before I found out.

[TimSell75]

Yes, my grandfather who flew Bf 109s and He 111 in Africa mainly. My grandgrandfather was a pilot in WW1 but I don´t know the types and I never met him.

 

My grandfather was kind of a reserved man but we got very close to each other when I started building plastic models as a teenager. I also built some for him, his special favourite was a 109 G6 in 1:48 which I gave to him as a present when he spotted it in my room

Edited January 24, 2022 by TimSell75

[Cognac]

I gave Dolfo Galland a tour of the Aviation Museum in Ottawa around 1991. A few years later I gave a tour to a man who claimed to have flown JU-52s before becoming a test pilot on - among other things the ME-163.

[Irishratticus72]

3 hours ago, Algernop_Krieger said:

I gave Dolfo Galland a tour of the Aviation Museum in Ottawa around 1991. A few years later I gave a tour to a man who claimed to have flown JU-52s before becoming a test pilot on - among other things the ME-163.

I assume the cigar was also present? 

[Cognac]

LOL. No. He was in his nineties by then. I think he'd given them up. I didn't ask. I just tried not to babble.

[airdave]

On 8/16/2021 at 5:14 PM, Knarley-Bob said:

My Dad flew with "Easy's  Angels" and was shot down 14,March 1945.

I was looking at some pictures he had, and he said "That is the plane I was shot down in". I asked why he named it "MAJ MAC".

"Well, it wasn't really my plane, you flew what they told you to fly" He also said it was the smoothest flying plane in the squadron.

I still have that photo, and that is my Dad on my avitar.

Knarley Bob

 

Nope, not unless you are Greg Magnuson and your Dad was Morris Magnuson?

In a squadron like this, pilots generally flew their own aircraft, hence the names and nose art.

You are correct, Maj Mac was shot down behind enemy lines in March of '45.
But it was flown by Capt Morris Magnuson...who was later captured...and became a POW.
He spent the rest of the war in a prison camp, and survived until 2010.

 

So, no, your Dad did not get shot down in this plane.

 

Maybe he wasn't a Pilot? He may have been a mechanic or other ground crew of Maj Mac.
No less important than the pilot.
And he may have just told you that Maj Mac was shot down.

 

Anyway, I am curious if you have any more photos of this aircraft, or any other 36th FG?

[Knarley-Bob]

On 5/16/2022 at 1:29 PM, airdave said:

 

Nope, not unless you are Greg Magnuson and your Dad was Morris Magnuson?

In a squadron like this, pilots generally flew their own aircraft, hence the names and nose art.

You are correct, Maj Mac was shot down behind enemy lines in March of '45.
But it was flown by Capt Morris Magnuson...who was later captured...and became a POW.
He spent the rest of the war in a prison camp, and survived until 2010.

 

So, no, your Dad did not get shot down in this plane.

 

Maybe he wasn't a Pilot? He may have been a mechanic or other ground crew of Maj Mac.
No less important than the pilot.
And he may have just told you that Maj Mac was shot down.

 

Anyway, I am curious if you have any more photos of this aircraft, or any other 36th FG?

Perhaps you are a troll..........

Seeing as how you are going to call my father and I a liar, I don't think I'll dignify you or your conversation any farther.

Edited May 18, 2022 by Knarley-Bob

[airdave]

Sorry, no troll.

The information (about Maj Mac) is not a secret.

I happen to be a scale model designer, and I put out a model of Maj Mac many years back.

So I already know its history.

 

I'm currently updating that model with better finish and artwork, and to better educate myself, I've also done more research on the plane.

Thats how I came across this forum and your statement.

 

I didn't call your Dad a liar...I just said he is not the pilot who was shot down while flying this plane

...unless he is Morris Magnuson and you are his son Greg Magnuson.

 

Might I suggest you better educate yourself about an American War Hero...before calling people names.

I've added (at the end of my comments) a wonderful and touching interview (short) Magnuson did back in 2007.

Heres an article by a friend of mine, that explains everything you need to know about Magnuson and Maj Mac.

It even explains the name Maj Mac (since you asked)!: https://ww2fighters.blogspot.com/2009/04/profile-30-maj-mac-as-flown-by-morris.html

 

If you choose to ignore the facts about Maj Mac, then you are doing yourself a disservice.

 

Maybe your father said he was shot down in that plane, meaning that type of plane (the P47 Thunderbolt).

Maybe he didn't mean Maj Mac specifically.

You may have assumed that.

Maybe your Dad wasn't clear of mind...it isn't uncommon with WW2 vets.

 

I've assumed nothing...and I haven't called your Father a liar.

But I know for a fact, from doing actual research with actual WW2 Heroes, that recollections and memories are often skewed and inaccurate.

So he may have given you wrong information, or only part of the story, or you may have completely misunderstood.

As I said, if you choose to ignore facts (like the fact that Morris Magnuson, a real person, was shot down in that exact plane) then you are the person in the wrong.

 

Maybe if you can give me your Dad's name and military history (rank, unit, squadron, etc) I can give you more information on his wartime service.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 22, 2022 by airdave

[Knarley-Bob]

I would like to apologize to Airdave for calling him a troll, he is not.

Now to the story of the MAJ MAC, it seems some 77 years ago, the plane was crashed twice on the same day, by two different pilots, according to the research done by Airdave. One account says one thing, one the other. So there is confusion in the records of who was the pilot  16 March 1945. The stories are very similar, getting shot down, getting captured, and surviving the war. I guess I'd like to leave it at that.

 

Regards,

KB

Edited May 25, 2022 by Knarley-Bob

[airdave]

Nope, there are not conflicting accounts as you say of the pilot of Maj Mac.

There is absolutely no confusion about who the pilot of Maj Mac was on that day...it was Morris Magnuson

This is a well documented story.

 

The conflicts I mentioned to you in private PM, were that two websites had conflicting MACR facts...basically just one number transposed.

These are internet websites, reposting information they got from other sites, and mistakes happen.

There is no confusion...why do you keep twisting my words?

 

Maj Mac was apparently shot down Mar 16 with Morris Magnuson onboard...not your Dad (I'm sorry)

However, as I discovered, and presented to you, Wayne J Hoeck did get shot down, also on Mar 16, in a P47.

(In fact, there were at least seven P47s shot down, that day, across a few different Fighter Groups)

 

I'd love to find out exactly what P47, and with what unit...because I think facts and history are important to be remembered correctly.

I'm sorry your Father went through this, I'm glad he survived the war, I'd love to know more about what happened.

In fact, I will keep looking as I always do.

But without requesting the actual MACReport and Enlisted Man's Service Record, some basic info will always be missing.

 

Even the serial number you have for your Dad is wrong, according to the Enlistment records...so isn't it possible other information you have is wrong?

My best guess is your Father pointed to a photo of a P47 and said "I got shot down in that plane" meaning he got shot down in that type of plane ( a P47).

Thats the only assumption I am making based on the lack of facts and evidence.

I do have reliable evidence that Morris Magnuson was shot down in Maj Mac and ended up a POW in Germany.

 

My goal was only to correct your original post and give you more information about your Dad and the correct aircraft involved.

I'm in no way, disrespecting your Father or trying to mislead you...

in fact, I do this regularly, searching out valuable historical information to honor the heroes of WW2, no matter who they were, or what they did in the war.

Yes, I am often researching for my own model designs...but the research ends up being the most interesting part of all

and (as a scale modeler) I hate taking anyone's "word" for it, I need to establish facts about the aircraft I model.

 

Personally, I would question whether I had all the correct information, based on the biggest discrepancy in this story (Maj Mac being Morris Magnuson's aircraft)

and I would want to search out the facts to honor my Father's legacy.

 

 

...update

 

Well, I have discovered some new information, that proves me wrong.
But before I reveal that, I must say it is by determined effort to find out the facts
rather than rely on inconsistent and unsupported information.
I've been up against this before...and it doesn't surprise me that "common" knowledge is often wrong
and once you make the effort to look for the truth, you find it.

 

So while I apologize for my errors, I applaud myself for finding the facts!

 

One photo does not make the truth...the same applies to eyewitness testimony which is unfortunately often skewed.

 

According to my sources...
Maj Mac is indeed the P47 assigned to Morris Magnuson.
He is also responsible for the name/noseart "Maj Mac".

 

But Magnuson was flying a different aircraft 44-228927 on March 14...only two days prior to the loss of Maj Mac.
Note the aircraft serial number...only very slightly different from Maj Mac #44-228947.
This obviously resulted in some confusion in reports and history ...and the internet!.
It also explains why I managed to find a MACR quote that showed Maj Mac being lost on Mar 14 
whereas most 'reports' put the date as Mar 16.

 

Its possible that Maj Mac was undergoing repairs or something that kept her on the ground on Mar 14
...causing Magnuson to take out another aircraft for his 80th mission.
He was of course shot down on that mission and missing in action.

 

Maj Mac...aircraft 44-228947 was then flown by Wayne J. Hoeck on Mar 16, and also shot down in Germany.

This could have all been cleared up a lot quicker with the proper service records and MACReport.
I just happen to know someone who has a lot of these files.

 

There is still much speculation as to the reasons for parts of these events, but now we have some proper information.
I still stand behind my comments, and my beliefs that its important to establish all the details and not ignore the facts.
And its more important to honour the great servicemen who risked life and limb in these great wars.

 

Its funny how much information there is out there that Morris Magnuson was shot down on March 16...he was not.
And that he was flying Maj Mac...he was not.
Thats why Maj Mac was sitting back at base without its pilot.
If only Hoeck was able to bring her back safely...thats unfortunate.

 

Like many, I have been duped as to some of the facts...and I never accept the first thing I am told, I keep searching for answers.

I still suggest you apply for the Service record and MACReport to complete your portfolio of information regarding your Dad.
It would be nice to retain that kind of supporting information.

Edited May 25, 2022 by airdave

[Knarley-Bob]

Thank you sir, 

That clears up a lot of things. 

Again, thank you.

[SCG_Tzigy]

Wow. Some awesome stuff.

[FodderMonkey]

The USAF museum in Dayton, OH uses veterans as docents for their tours. Most of the WW2 vets can’t do the tours any more, but I was fortunate to take the tours a couple decades ago when they were regulars. I remember one B-25 pilot (different from the one I mentioned above) who actually flew the B-25 they have at the museum. He made a point of noting that his plane, painted as a Doolittle raider, was actually from later in the war. He also was a big fan of the P38, and spent a good bit of time going over the airframe and detailing each component that had been copied by the automotive industry in the late 40’s and 50’s (vertical stabilizer copied exactly by Chevy for their original fin design, engine nacelles copied for headlight fairings, etc.). He listed at least 5 or 6 different components from that plane alone. 

Edited June 1, 2022 by FodderMonkey
Already posted first paragraph in this thread

[LukeFF]

I never met him, but my wife certainly did - her grandfather Bill Daley (from Knutsford, England), a diver in the Royal Navy in Southeast Asia from about 1943 - 1946. We just came across his photos tonight. Here's some of them:

 

 

Christmas 1943 in Chittagong:

 

 

1944, Nepal:

 

 

After the surrender in 1945 in Singapore:

 

 

 

Lord Mountbatten:

 

[Lusekofte]

When I started out as a sailors my boatsman was a commando

And my grandpa fought the Germans ìn Narvik.

Both of them did not say anything about the war

Edited July 14, 2022 by LuseKofte

[Enceladus828]

Forgot about this thread, lol.

 

I met John Hillman back in November at a concert, I posted a thread where I got the C-47 in his honour and briefly talked about him.

 

Last month he walked 104 laps to raise money for children affected by war:

104-year-old WWII vet is walking 104 laps of his B.C. home to raise money for charity - BC | Globalnews.ca

[czech693]

Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, 26 victory ace, Flying Tigers, Black Sheep, POW, and MOH.  George "Tex" Gay, only survivor of Torpedo 8 from the Midway attack and Avenger pilot in Guadalcanal.  Masajiro "Mike" Kawato the young Zero pilot who claimed to have shot down Boyington over Rabaul, and who flew solo non-stop from Tokyo to California.  Met all of them at the Conferderate Air Force annual air show at Harlingen, Texas in 1979 and got their autogaphs on their books.  Also, met Frank Borman at our airport antique aircraft fly-in, but he wasn't a WW2 pilot.

[Reinhardt]

When I was about 10 years old in 2008-2009 a substitute teacher told us about one of his professors who was a crew member on a Lancaster (not sure when or what targets they attacked) who lost his toes to frostbite after the plug-in for his heated suit stopped working. He was pretty tall and so he had to bend over while he walked to keep his center of balance lower or something (since he didn't have toes to balance him). 

[BOO]

1981 a stand in-French Teacher, Mr Ayre (Eyre??) eventually conceeded, under intense questioning, that he flew Lysanders from Tangmere. At the time I was somewhat dissappointed he wasnt a spitfire ace (I was 11). Now i understand just how incredible a career that man was alluding to and how brave and skilled he was. I wish I had told him.

 

My family Doctor,  Donald Wilde was crew on at least the Stirling though what role I dont know. All gleaned from a brief conversation during a house call to my father in the very early 80s when he saw my airfix model "Ah, the Stirling!" he exclaimed. "Did you fly them?" asked dad. "Yes. Deadful days. Awful things. Now why am I here?". And that was that. 

 

Not a pilot but I went to school in Royton, England with the great nephews of Donald Hopkinson. Don was the bomb aimer on Bill Astell's BIII Special AJ-B and sadly died on the Dams raid. It was years before I discovered this fellow Roytonian's role in raid. Later in life my neighbour revealed he worked on those first specials at Avros in Woodford (I think they were converted there during final assemby). 

 

Finally, Frank Etherington. Not a pilot but a flight engineer on 166 Sqdn Lancasters. Amongst the Lancs in his logbok was ME182 AS-F "Fairfighers Revenge", a lanc that survived the war having completed over 100 missions with 166 and 153 Sqdn. I got to know him in 2000 as a customer. At the time there was a very comprehensive Squadron history of 166 on line in which Frank had a few mentions. One of those was an account of Frank throwing himself down over a gaping hole in the rear of a Lanc whilst other crew members hauled the injured tail gunner over his back. I asked Frank about it "Throwing myself down was the easy bit. Now getting back up.....". He gave me a print of the Fairfighter's Revenge which still has pride of place in my sons's bedroom. 

[LukeFF]

I did some more digging into my family history this past week and found out that, before what I thought, I had a great uncle on my father's side of the family who was in the Pacific from 1942 to January 1946. He was in the 536th Amphibious Tractor Battalion, which from what it looks like was part of the actions on Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf, and Okinawa. Quoting my dad's cousin, "he drove one of those Higgins Landing Crafts and operated a Sherman Tank. He said they would drive the Tank through the back of Phillipino Houses and wait in Ambush for the Japanese to pass." He also captured a Japanese rifle and dog tags near the end of the war and (again quoting my dad's cousin) "I could tell it bothered him that the Japanese Soldier was in a Fox Hole and spoke English and said don’t shoot”.

 

My theory is maybe that by 1945 Guadalcanal was a transit point and the two met each other while one was coming and the other was going in the opposite direction. I'm planning to meet up with my dad's cousin later this month, so hopefully I'll find out more about this.

 

Sadly, both of these men passed away before I was aware of any of this, but at the least I'm glad I have a relative who can still fill me on all these details.

 

In any case, I do have a photo of the two of them meeting up during the war. That's my granddad on the right and his brother on the left:

 

[ZiggyZiggyStar]

I had a client whom I met several times and I was lucky enough to hear some of his stories. His name was Bryan Cox. He flew P40s (training) and Corsairs for the RNZAF in the Pacific, Green Island I think, and he was also based in Japan (occupation forces) after the war. He wrote several interesting books which you may be able to find, the best being  ‘Too Young To Die’. He died only a a few years ago aged in his 90s. 

[Jaegermeister]

I have been lucky enough to meet several WWII Combat pilots. The first one was my dentist Albert Burger who flew F6F Hellcats off a carrier in the Pacific. I remember seeing a picture of planes on a ship on his office wall and I asked him about it. He said he was a pilot in his previous life before he took up dentistry. He talked a little about it but not much. I believe his son is also a dentist and still practicing. 

 

I spoke with Hamilton "Mac" McWhorter on the telephone on several occasions while I was doing research for my IL2 1946 Campaign "Cat O'9 Tails". He lived not far from me in Atlanta at the time but his health was failing and he could not hear well, so his wife had to speak to me and write down what I said and then give him the phone to answer questions. That campaign was based on his career and he gave me some interesting observations as well as describing the unique paint scheme of an Oscar that I reproduced for the campaign. I believe he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor after his death a number of years ago.

 

I also sort of met Chuck Yeager when he attended the Atlanta opening of "The Right Stuff". I was standing on Peachtree Street with the rest of the current Air Force ROTC cadets from Georgia Tech as an honor guard. He sat on the front row and we sat way up in the top balcony, but at least we all got to see the movie for free. After the show he shook our hands and wished us good luck in our careers. I remember a little kid squirming between my legs and running across the street during the parade, and I didn't know whether to tackle him or just stand still. I chose the 2nd option and it all worked out fine.

[TempestV]

No. But as a child in the 1950's and 1960's I am sure many of them flew me safely as 1st Officer on PanAM, Braniff, TWA, UNITED, EASTERN. B707, B720, B737, DC-8 and DC-7's. I was a military dependent so I flew a lot on the government dime.?

[HazMatt]

On 6/19/2021 at 1:15 PM, Eisenfaustus said:

My grandfather flew Ju-87 G‘s on the eastern front before being transferred to a Lw Field Division in the West. This transfer propably saved his life. 
 

Unfortunately when I was old enough to ask questions, he wasn’t clear enough to answer anymore. Alzheimer sucks. 

 

Other then Rudel there doesn't seem to be many Ju-87 pilots that survived. I'm glad that Rudel shared his experiences in his book.

4 hours ago, TempestV said:

No. But as a child in the 1950's and 1960's I am sure many of them flew me safely as 1st Officer on PanAM, Braniff, TWA, UNITED, EASTERN. B707, B720, B737, DC-8 and DC-7's. I was a military dependent so I flew a lot on the government dime.?

You mean tax payers dime? (the government doesn't have any money other then what it takes from people)

[TempestV]

And Thank you ? for the tickets.

Pops PCS'd from Germany to USA in 1959 on the SS United States. Bremerhaven to New York City in less then a week. People still traveled (not cruise) by oceanliners back then.

Edited March 22, 2024 by TempestV

[HazMatt]

1 hour ago, TempestV said:

And Thank you ? for the tickets.

 

 

When ever anybody says: "Thank you for your service" I respond to them with: "Thank you for paying for it" Some of the responses have been interesting. Seems most don't realize that they are paying for it and think the government has a money tree.

 

I went to the post office once and the lady behind the counter said: "Use as much as the tape as you want. It's free" I responded with: "You and I paid for that tape" She looked baffled. Go figure.

[ilmavoimat]

I met Frank "Chota" Carey on a few occasions when I was young as my Mum and Dad were in the process of buying his house until they were gazumped. I have his autobiography which is a fascinating read. The chap who took me for my PPL ground school at Tollerton (EGBN) was Gerry Price who had been an instructor on Spitfires. He said that at the time he was so frustrated at not "strapping one on and killing Germans" but in retrospect it probably saved his live as only five of his wings course survived the war.

 

Frank Carey.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Reginald_Carey

 

 

 

 

Gerry Price in the back seat.