From UncleTgt's post,

[Ali Cat]

Jagd,

A fine response – as usual. I do love those personal accounts – how they tell the story better than the scholars. It is odd to me that I was not there and yet still the "big one" is part of my personal history as well. There’s an Uncle who died testing a P-47 and another who flew P-51’s (family folklore?) And there is when, as a teenager, I worked at the local field (Owens then) fueling planes. There was an old pilot there that everyone called the "Captain". Turns out he flew B-25’s – I never asked were. And then this. At my grandmother’s retirement home I caught that the man of the couple next door was on the Yorktown. I’m not a regret person and he is gone now but could I not have asked " … you were there - you were at Midway?"

And then there is Gail Coffman and Joe Giltner. These two owned the field were I learned to fly gliders (Bermuda High Soaring). It was said that Joe flew P-39’s (over Europe?) and after a shared ½ kill, was shot and spent the rest of the war in a prisoner of war camp. Joe was outgoing, into everything, and just a plan great guy. Gail was cut of a different cloth. A crisp miltary crew cut, a no BS sergeant’s directness, but about such things as the war, he did not speak. I can still remember Gail – my instructor – just before my solo yelling, at the top of his lungs (from the back seat) " … Sam, dive brakes, dive brakes! Sam – can you hear me? Dive brakes!" And then after doing everything wrong and I got the rambling thing on the ground .. " Sam! Wheel brakes. Wheel brakes – can you hear me – wheel brakes!"

Also, perhaps of interest, is that Joe did the most stunning aerobatics maneuver I have ever seen. It was a lazy, worthless soaring day and Joe had a student up for a ride. We were all standing there on the apron before the hanger when a trainer came just over our heads. It was Joe and he must have been pushing the feeble red line of 80-90 knots (in a Schweizer 2-22). He zoomed right past, perpendicular to the runway, and then pulled up to gain what little altitude the clunky trainer could. And then he banked hard. As God is my witness his low wingtip was just 10 or so feet above the ground. After the turn he landed and brought her to a stop at our feet. Complements were due but the problem was that we were all speechless. Can you imagine being that student!
　
PS: Should anyone want to read about Joe and Gail they are mentioned in the obscure book by Gren Siebel’s "Pilots Choice". As I remember the chapter of "The Owl and the Pussycat" refers specifically to these two.
　

UncleTgt, great stuff, I have never heard of such an AC,
AC

[Jagdflieger]

Ali Cat,

Some 10 years ago or so, my son and I were at the grocery store. Behind us was an elderly man with a military bearing wearing a Doolittle Raiders cap. I asked him about it and he said yes, he was the crew chief on plane number 15.

One thing led to another and we met him by chance a couple of more times. On an invite to his house, he shared his memorabilia with us. He retired a lieutenant colonel and what a fine gentleman he was. After a couple of tours following 9-11, I lost track of him and I'm afraid that time has probably caught up with him. Sadly, I'm sure that his silver goblet is now upside down at the AF Academy.

My platoon sergeant in VN was with the 101st in WW II and made the jumps at Normandy, Arnhem and the Rhine crossing. I learned a great deal about soldiering from him and it has always rung true in all my military adventures.

My uncle was a P-47 driver in the big one and then went on to SAC after the war. He flew C-54s in the Berlin Airlift and later B-29s, as well as the B-47 Stratofortress. He retired just before I entered the service, but he passed away early in retirement due to complications from his 28 some years of service.

My father, though crippled in one leg, still served with the Coast Guard in WWII. While he couldn't serve in the Paras, he did what he could with what he had and that was more than most. He went on to raise the finest family that I know of and he put my two brothers through college.

Some men are heroes by accident, some by design and others because they earn it through selfless service or by overcoming great odds. No matter how they got there, they are to be cherished.

[Fibber]

Around 1983 when I was in my former career I had the occasion to interview a person who was a very successful, and prominent mover and shaker, in his home. What a house! The whole entry corridor was exquisetly paneled and adorned with pictures from floor to 10 foot ceiling. Not just pictures, they were pictures of history!
The person was a former B-17 pilot in Europe who had participated in many of the major raids and who had completed all missions for rotation home. Many of the pictures were of the raids, but the later ones were flabbergasting! After his completion he became the personal pilot of Eisenhower for just about the rest of the war! He had individual, and group, pictures of Patton, Monty just about anyone who met Ike and many of them were signed. It was fascinating talking with him and having him walk me through each picture and its story. That was the really first time that I became aware of Ikes "relationship" with his female aide, and that was before it had become public knowledge.
Unfortunately time constraints precluded no more than one hour with him and, sadly I never got back there again. Never forgot that though!

[T Square]

When I got to my first PCS Station, I worked for a Chief, who enlisted when was 16 during WWII. He switched from Army Air Corp, when it became the Air Force. During WWII he was a ball turret gunner in B-24 in Pacific, got two confirmed kills, Japanese fighters. Chief Webker said the view from that ball turret made him feel closer to God.