Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hey Dale, "Thanks for the Memories" as Bob Hope would say...going to war without enough of the right equipment sure isn't anything new, as you point out. During my dad's '64 tour (still 'advisors' at that point), they were given gear that hadn't changed in design since Korea, including leather boots without steel soles...I don't have to mention what this produced...
Between your story and the recent Humv 'retrofittings', I now understand why every vet I know, regardless of MOS, seems to have welding skills...

Thanks for your sacrifice, brother...meanwhile 'Macnamara Jr.' goes to the World Bank...

Speaking of P-38's... There's an amazing story about a squadron of brand new P-38's that was flying from the US to England during WWII. Due to weather, the squadron landed all of the planes on Greenland --- with varying results.

Fast forward almost 50 years later and some industrious folks thought they might retrieve a pristine P-38. Problem was, the planes were buried under 300 feet of ice that had accumulated over the decades. Go to:

http://www.thelostsquadron.com/

to read how the story ends (happily!).

My wife's uncle flew P-38 in South Pacific, during a dog fight with a Zero his plane collided with another P-38 and he bailed out. got hung up in some tall palms and had cut away the parchute, broke a leg in the fall and evaded capture for 2 weeks in the jungle. Finally was rescued after he walked out of the jungle into the arms of some friendlies. His clothes had rotted off him and he had malaria. Never flew a plane again. History channel did a deal with the P-38 pilots on a program called Heavy Metal and interviewed Uncle Glen. Glad to have known him, he just passed last Fall.

Cool story Brian. Sorry to hear about your wife's uncle passing.

I always loved P-38 Lightnings. My dad used to tell a story about when he was at Hickam Field near Pearl Harbor during the war. On days off he and his buddies would go lie on the beach and P-38s would fly by real fast, real low over the beach. Said they were very shiny chrome.

My grandfather who passed last Dec. was a mechanic on the B-17 bombers. He had some horrible stories about trying to patch together planes to get them back up in the air. One particular instance he recalled a plane coming in for a landing that didn't have landing gear and unfortunately the person in the belly gun was unable to get out before the landing. I do have a knife he made out of bullet casing. On one side is inscribed "N. Africa '43" and on the other is "Dottie and Lindy" My grandmother's name was Dorothy and my grandfather's nickname was Lindy.

Very nice story Jason. Thanks. I had a semi retired guy that worked part time for me. He was a tail gunner on a B17. He flew at least 50 missions. I forget the total. He was shot down 5 times. Each time escaping capture. The last time he was actually picked up by a german patrol and released at the Swiss border. To this day he still has debris floating around his chest from enemy fire. Those guys really did save the world.

And it was a time when the world needed saving, too. That's why we were all behind it so passionately!

(Do you get what I'm hinting at?)

Oh, sorry...

Wow - how cool is that "lost squadron" thing?!

amazing

They didn't have much trouble recruiting back in those days...