SOFT NEWS WWII pilot reunited with P-51 Mustang he flew in combat

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Murt

Veteran Member
years ago I was traveling and stopped at a small coffee shop
there was only one other customer in there an elderly man
he was probably in his early 90s
I sat at the table with him and started talking
Turns out he was a P51 pilot in WWll
I talked with him for close to an hour
But his eyes would light up when telling some of the stories
 
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Chance

Chance

Veteran Member
My dad was a combat glider pilot in WW2. When my brother got his wings in the Navy..my dad was asked to come up and pin the wings on his son. It was an amazing moment! Don't think there was a dry eye at the ceremony.

Proud moment for my father. My brother will never forget this.
 
Reasonable Rascal

Reasonable Rascal

Veteran Member
When I was working at the hospital in Needles, CA in 2014 I had a patient that I got to chatting with, and learned he was a Korean War vet. Flew Mustangs in fact. As it happened I was reading a pictorial history of the Mustang and so I took it in to him. Hey, some nights were really slow there so having a decent book or Kindle was a must.

Just so happened he found a pic of *his* plane. The tail number gave it away. Talk about waves of nostalgia. I told him to keep the book; it was a garage sale find anyway and probably cost me a $1.

RR
 
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Publius

TB Fanatic
He is lucky to have lived so long and talk about it, he is seen in the video standing and walking just amazing.
Must be 101 years old! The time it takes to train someone to fly before sending off to combat he was older than most foot solders seeing combat for the first time.
 
BadMedicine

BadMedicine

Would *I* Lie???
I was waiting (like the first two commenters) for them to say "This is THE AIRCRAFT you flew. THIS is TOMAHAWK."

Din't happen because IT WASN"T..

NOT A GREAT THREAD TITLE... no Slight to HFcomms... but we all wanted that airframe to be TOMAHAWK! :)
 
K

Kennori

Contributing Member
My FIL was a radio-gunner on B-17s during WW2. He was 89 when the CAF flew a 17 into our local airport for an exhibition. He got in line with me and when they found out he flew in them they stopped the line and he got a personal tour. We lifted him into the plane through the bottom hatch as his arthritis was bad by then. He stepped through the plane through the bomb-bay and into his old station. It was a stool and a map table and a radio. He said the only thing missing was the 30.cal mounted over his stool. His job was to kill the ME 109's as they tried to dive in from above. He sat down and the years melted away and I swear he looked like a frightened 18 yo kid for a few seconds. He flew 35 missions and got a "Lucky Bastard" award which still hangs in his son's office. The last mission was Poltava and the Germans mustered a few hundred airplanes and with the help of the Russians, massacred the American pilots and crew on the ground along with their planes. He was smuggled out through the desert and onto a boat in Casablanca and home. There is a museum in Savannah devoted to the 8th Army Air Corp which is the story of the heavy bomber war.
 
Elza

Elza

Veteran Member
My flight instructor back in the early '70's was a P51 pilot. I really wanted to talk to him about it but he staunchly refused. I have no idea why. Even talking about the plane itself was a no go. DAMN!!! I really wanted to hear about his experiences.
 
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Old Gray Mare

TB Fanatic
Back when the offspring were young, I helped out at the "Y". One of the members was a WWII P51 pilot. I mentioned to some of the staff I'd love to here his stories. He sought me out at work and told me of two forced landing on the German Autobahn. After the first the resistance was able to smuggle him out of mainland Europe and back to England. It was years ago. I vaguely remember the rout taking him thru Spain and Portugal.

I was surprised that he was sent back after being smuggled out. There was a fear that if he was captured he be forced to expose the contacts in the underground who helped him escape the first time.

I don't know if it's still there but there was a picture of him hanging in the caffe at the local municipal airport in PA. May have been Coatesville?
 
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Firebird

Firebird

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Elza said:
My flight instructor back in the early '70's was a P51 pilot. I really wanted to talk to him about it but he staunchly refused. I have no idea why. Even talking about the plane itself was a no go. DAMN!!! I really wanted to hear about his experiences.
Click to expand...
I knew a guy back in the 90's who was a P51 pilot and he also trained new pilots on the P51 during WWII
 
Granny Franny

Granny Franny

Senior Member
My dad was a fighter pilot in WWII and the Korean war. He flew the P38 lightning as well as the P51 and others. He was shot down over the Mediterranean in WWII and picked up by the Italians before the Germans came in and occupied Italy. His prison camp released the prisoners when the Germans came in and they had to make their way south across Italy back to friendly lines. They hid in forests, stole potatoes from farmers to survive, he didn't have any boots until he got some off a dead German. It sadly affected his health and he had a massive heart attack at age 35 when I was a toddler, then passed at age 56. Those wars were rough for a lot of families. My brother has his diary from that time, and I have the map he drew of his escape route through Italy.
 
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