A
Anonymous
Guest
Ollie was a natural born pilot, and learned to fly before he was 18, as a civilian. When he was drafted in 1936, that did not mean a thing, and he ended up in thr Army as infantry. By 1939, he had enough connections to transfer into the ARMY AIR CORPS, as a crew chief/mechanic. Now the lower grade pilots loved him being able to fly, because that meant he could do the scut work like testing repaired planes, or working as a courier or whatever. The ARMY did not notice OFFICALLY, because that meant he got paid less, and no flight pay.
[I'm listening to "STATUS QUO", a brit. group from the 60s- they had a monster hit called, Pictures of Matchstick Men, which is one of the most haunting
guitar rock songs ever- anyone remember them?]
Well Pearl was bombed Dec.7, 41, and everything changed. All of a sudden pilots were in short supply.
One day all the N.C.O. pilots were called into an auditorum, and there was a lot of them. They are all wearing starched khakis, standing around making small talk, when someone screams ATTENTION, and in walks a 2 star general. They come to attention, wondering what is going on, when he says, "We can't have ncos flying god---ed airplanes, and simply walked out of the place. They were all told to report to some big hanger, and were marched over in formation. They get inside to find all of their officers awaiting. They are told, "be at rest", and the hanger doors are closed. The C.O., very seriously called the first name [while the officers suddenly break out in a cheer], and the nco comes to attention in front of him; Attention to orders, he gives the man's name, and he says, " by command of Dept. of the Army you are promoted to WARRANT OFFICER,WO-1, and he and the X.O. pin the new rank on them, and this happens, one by one. The new officer is given a shot glass of whiskey, afterwards. Turns out most of the officers had a head start on this celebrating. Well, after about the 25th person stood forward, the CO & XO started to indulge also, and it did not take too many more people before those 2 were 'bombed', pun intented. Well, at formation next morning those who the MPs had not grabbed, turned out in their underwear, or whatever uniform was handy, regardless of who it originally belonged to, to include the NAVY, & MARINES. Their was even some women in formation, most wearing nothing except a khaki shirt,
sunglasses, high heels and some type of military hat.
Ollie was such a good pilot,fortunatly or unfortunatly, as the case may be, he almost missed the war. They kept him in training command teaching others to fly. Didn't matter whether it was a P-40 TOMAHAWK, P-39 COBRA, P-47 THUNDERBOLT, the twin engine P-38 LIGHTNING,P-51 MUSTANG, or a bomber like the A-20 HAVOC, the 'WIDOWMAKER' B-26 MARAUDER, OR A B-17 , B-24, or B-29 SUPERFORTRESS. He even flew the old TIGERMOTH BI-PLANE, [ no that is not a plane that flies 'both ways']. Anytime some 'big wheel' showed up, he was the pilot to ferry them around. He also was one of the people to train the 'TUSKEGEE AIRMEN'.
When ELEANOR ROOSVEALT showed up, he was in the cockpit. The scene from the movie where LAWRENCE FISHBURN'S character took her up in a bi-plane did not happen. But he said there were some really great aviators among them, and he became quite close to the pilot who became the first black general. And it is true that their unit, who flew Mustangs, was the only fighter escort to never lose a bomber to an enemy fighter. Their tactic was to engage any 'BANDITS ' until it posed no threat to the bombers, then return
immediately back to flying cover for the bombers. This strategy caused them to miss out on a lot of kills, and chances to become aces, but they brought the bombers home.
Ollies' favorite plane was the P-38 LIGHTNING, because he said it could out dive a THUNDERBOLT, and out climb a MUSTANG. He said the Germans called them 'WHISPERING DEATH, and the Japanese called them 'FORK TAILED DEVILS'. That 20mm cannon in the nose, along with 5, .50 cal. machine guns, ruined the day for a lot of 'BANDITS'. The really good thing about LIGHTNINGS was that having 2 engines meant if you lost one, you could still get home, and this came to be real important in ground attacks, because the fighters took a lot of hits from groundfire. Mustangs
that took a hit in the engine went down, and this happened to almost every ace who flew a MUSTANG. If you wanted your picture made for your girlfriend back home, you had it made with a MUSTANG. If you wanted to make it back alive after the fight, you flew a LIGHTNING.
There was a raid flown on the oil fields & refinerys
at PLOESTI, ROMANIA, where they accompanied a large group of B-24 LIBERATORS. The leader of one of the groups of B-24s made a wrong turn in some heavy cloud cover, and got lost. But they managed to find their way to the target. As they come out of the clouds, at about 500ft above the ground, they look up to find they are flying right into the original bomber group
who is approaching from the opposite direction. The lead ship simply dropped down below the oncoming bombers, and all his following planes did the same.
One group passes under the other with about 30 feet to spare, and there are no collisions. They find out after the war that the Germans who saw it thought it was the greatest feat of flying they had ever seen.
And it was all an accident. Unfortunately, some B-24s
were knocked down by the bomb blasts of the other bomber group. The really good thing was that a lot of ROMANIANS risked their lives by hiding downed AM. airmen.
[I'm listening to "STATUS QUO", a brit. group from the 60s- they had a monster hit called, Pictures of Matchstick Men, which is one of the most haunting
guitar rock songs ever- anyone remember them?]
Well Pearl was bombed Dec.7, 41, and everything changed. All of a sudden pilots were in short supply.
One day all the N.C.O. pilots were called into an auditorum, and there was a lot of them. They are all wearing starched khakis, standing around making small talk, when someone screams ATTENTION, and in walks a 2 star general. They come to attention, wondering what is going on, when he says, "We can't have ncos flying god---ed airplanes, and simply walked out of the place. They were all told to report to some big hanger, and were marched over in formation. They get inside to find all of their officers awaiting. They are told, "be at rest", and the hanger doors are closed. The C.O., very seriously called the first name [while the officers suddenly break out in a cheer], and the nco comes to attention in front of him; Attention to orders, he gives the man's name, and he says, " by command of Dept. of the Army you are promoted to WARRANT OFFICER,WO-1, and he and the X.O. pin the new rank on them, and this happens, one by one. The new officer is given a shot glass of whiskey, afterwards. Turns out most of the officers had a head start on this celebrating. Well, after about the 25th person stood forward, the CO & XO started to indulge also, and it did not take too many more people before those 2 were 'bombed', pun intented. Well, at formation next morning those who the MPs had not grabbed, turned out in their underwear, or whatever uniform was handy, regardless of who it originally belonged to, to include the NAVY, & MARINES. Their was even some women in formation, most wearing nothing except a khaki shirt,
sunglasses, high heels and some type of military hat.
Ollie was such a good pilot,fortunatly or unfortunatly, as the case may be, he almost missed the war. They kept him in training command teaching others to fly. Didn't matter whether it was a P-40 TOMAHAWK, P-39 COBRA, P-47 THUNDERBOLT, the twin engine P-38 LIGHTNING,P-51 MUSTANG, or a bomber like the A-20 HAVOC, the 'WIDOWMAKER' B-26 MARAUDER, OR A B-17 , B-24, or B-29 SUPERFORTRESS. He even flew the old TIGERMOTH BI-PLANE, [ no that is not a plane that flies 'both ways']. Anytime some 'big wheel' showed up, he was the pilot to ferry them around. He also was one of the people to train the 'TUSKEGEE AIRMEN'.
When ELEANOR ROOSVEALT showed up, he was in the cockpit. The scene from the movie where LAWRENCE FISHBURN'S character took her up in a bi-plane did not happen. But he said there were some really great aviators among them, and he became quite close to the pilot who became the first black general. And it is true that their unit, who flew Mustangs, was the only fighter escort to never lose a bomber to an enemy fighter. Their tactic was to engage any 'BANDITS ' until it posed no threat to the bombers, then return
immediately back to flying cover for the bombers. This strategy caused them to miss out on a lot of kills, and chances to become aces, but they brought the bombers home.
Ollies' favorite plane was the P-38 LIGHTNING, because he said it could out dive a THUNDERBOLT, and out climb a MUSTANG. He said the Germans called them 'WHISPERING DEATH, and the Japanese called them 'FORK TAILED DEVILS'. That 20mm cannon in the nose, along with 5, .50 cal. machine guns, ruined the day for a lot of 'BANDITS'. The really good thing about LIGHTNINGS was that having 2 engines meant if you lost one, you could still get home, and this came to be real important in ground attacks, because the fighters took a lot of hits from groundfire. Mustangs
that took a hit in the engine went down, and this happened to almost every ace who flew a MUSTANG. If you wanted your picture made for your girlfriend back home, you had it made with a MUSTANG. If you wanted to make it back alive after the fight, you flew a LIGHTNING.
There was a raid flown on the oil fields & refinerys
at PLOESTI, ROMANIA, where they accompanied a large group of B-24 LIBERATORS. The leader of one of the groups of B-24s made a wrong turn in some heavy cloud cover, and got lost. But they managed to find their way to the target. As they come out of the clouds, at about 500ft above the ground, they look up to find they are flying right into the original bomber group
who is approaching from the opposite direction. The lead ship simply dropped down below the oncoming bombers, and all his following planes did the same.
One group passes under the other with about 30 feet to spare, and there are no collisions. They find out after the war that the Germans who saw it thought it was the greatest feat of flying they had ever seen.
And it was all an accident. Unfortunately, some B-24s
were knocked down by the bomb blasts of the other bomber group. The really good thing was that a lot of ROMANIANS risked their lives by hiding downed AM. airmen.
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