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5/25/2009
You serve so I can be free
Thank you Dad, for serving my country, our country, your grandchildren’s and great-grandchildren’s country, in uniform.
Earlier this year, I visited my dad at his home in South Carolina. Just me, just for a couple of days. I’ve been working on transcribing notes he made, at my urging, about his experiences fighting for America and the Allied Forces in World War II. His memories are clear as a bell, down to the spelling of the towns and cities in Borneo, air bases on still smaller islands in the South Pacific and the names of some of his fighter squadron buddies.
December 7, 1941
I think it was a Sunday…. The radio was blaring the news of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor…. I was a senior at Fond du Lac High School and busy with school and school social life. [Dad was born in October, 1924, so was 17 when the attacks came.]
The war with Japan and Germany and Italy did not have much of an affect on us in Fond du Lac, initially, at least. As the war progressed, there were some food shortages (I guess) and I was aware of gasoline rationing…. Summer of ’42 to Winter, 1943
Most kids my age wanted to become part of the war effort and enlisted in the armed forces. I was no exception. I took a day off [from college classes in Holland, Michigan] and drove to Lansing, Michigan for mental screening and testing…. I was a member of the Army Air Corps reserve…. I quit school and hitchhiked out west… Did your dad support you going to the war?
My dad, my dad, no.. well, I guess, yeah of course he did, he had to because that’s what I did. I didn’t discuss it with my parents, I just went in. Training
Orders to report to Shepard Field, Texas came in February, 1943 for basic training in the Army Air Corps. Dad took ‘pre-training’ at Denver University and then bases in Arizona and California. In Victorville [CA]. his class (44D Army Air] trained on the Bell Air Cobra, or P-39. All sorts of stories about the plane and its problems. Then to Santa Maria and finally, the twin-engine fighter, the P-38.
Missions
…fighter sweeps using skip bombs….
… quite a bit of cat cover, covering navy PBY Catalinas rescuing disabled B24 and b17 bombers of f the coast of Balikpapen and Kuching, Borneo.
… instrumental in forcing the Japanese from their caves in the mountains of Northern Luzon.
I can remember the day the [Pacific] war ended (I think it was August 14[, 1945]). We stayed overnight, sleeping under the wing of our airplanes with mosquito netting draped from the wing to the corrugated steel matting [that was the ‘floor’ of the airfield]. After more vivid details about his flying in the South Pacific, we drove to visit The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum outside Savannah. We spent hours in the library, looking through volumes to try to find any history tied to Dad’s unit – not the Mighty Eighth, but still the Army Air Corps. Dad served in the 13th Air Force, the 347th Fighter Group, and the 67th fighter squadron, “The Fighting Cocks.” We found a grand, very detailed history book of the Army Air Corps in the South Pacific and there, Dad found day-to-day records of his combat missions. Really neat.
Dad received an honorable discharge from the 347th Fighter Group on December 5, 1945 at the Separation Center, Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. Just two months after his 21st birthday.
Thank you Dad. Thank you too, to all the men and women who served and are serving in uniform to protect my United States. We are free because you serve.
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
A fine tribute to a hero. He is lucky to have you. I heard all kind of things about the P-39. WE gave thousands to the Russians. Have a nice day.
Dick Griesser (Mon May 25 07:46:56 2009)
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