 |
||
 |
|
|
| THE ROAD TO A FIGHTER PILOT'S WINGS
1. When Walt tried to volunteer on the day after Pearl harbor, the USMC recruiter said his teeth had too many cavities and he was 10 lbs. underweight. Boy, was Walt ever lucky! 2. A year later, the Army Air Corps needed pilot candidates so bad that they offered equivalency exams in lieu of college credits. Walt passed the tests and was sworn in to the Enlisted Reserve. Lady luck smiled again. 3. Walt was called up, spent 8 months and 28 days in pre-flight, primary, basic and advanced flying schools. He graduated as a 2nd Lt. at Craig Field, Al. Anybody who's been there will tell you it takes a lot of LUCK. 4. After P-47 Thunderbolt training at Dover, DE. and Atchim, England, Walt arrived at his new outfit on the beachhead in France only to find out that they had P-51 Mustangs. His first flight in a P-51 was a combat mission. That's the day Walt became a fighter pilot. No skill involved, just dumb luck. 62 MISSIONS LATER, A Purple Heart for Lucky Walt On October 29th, 1944, Walt was leading a flight in a 12 ship sortie against the railroad yards at Worms, Germany. They were over the target flying at 8,000 feet armed with 500 lb bombs. There was an overcast that was shielding a gaggle of ME-109's. Sweepstakes Ground Control sounded the alarm just before they came roaring in from behind with cannons blazing. The enemy flew through Walt's formation and hightailed it on an Easterly heading for the Fatherland. The radio was blue with everybody transmitting at once, but Walt was in great shape. He could see 6 of the enemy about 10 miles ahead and about 5,000 high. The chase was on. Walt was overhauling the 109's slowly but surely and yelling at his wingman to move out and up. He was low and behind and wouldn't move. After an eternity Walt closed to firing range and made one last check on his wingman. He was still low and behind but he was closing fast. Walt lined up on his first target, crooked his finger on the trigger and when he fired his guns, his Mustang blew up. The cockpit was full of dense black smoke, there were flames coming out of the floorboard and he couldn't locate the stick or the throttle. Walt pulled the canopy ejection handle and when it went he was pulled up tight against his harness. When Walt released the seat belt, he was out in the airstream. Walt free fell for some time, then he pulled the ripcord, the parachute opened and Walt estimated that he was about 5,000 feet above the ground. During the ride down Walt found that he had a deep wound in his left shoulder, his left hand was next to useless, his legs were bleeding above the knees, and his left ear was numb. There was no wind and Walt made a soft landing in an open field with no enemy in sight so he took off running for the nearest tree line. It was about noon time and Walt was able to run 50 paces, walk 50 paces until dusk. He was heading in a generally West direction and still in shock. Walt wasn't sure about what happened, but he believed that his wingman had shot him down. He was determined to get back to his outfit so that he could maim the sorry s.o.b. Walt got madder at him each day and that anger kept him going until Walt was captured on the 4th of November. He was lucky to be alive but he didn't realize it at the time. EPILOGUE When Walt had plenty of time on his hands he eventually figured it out - His wingman lost him at the outset and the plane Walt saw at 6 o'clock low and closing fast was the 7th ME-109 in that little group of 6 that he thought that he had cornered. That didn't make him feel any better about his wingman but you can bet your sweet bippie that Walt knows for sure whether it's a friend or foe on his tail to this day! 1945-1974 ONE GOOD YEAR AFTER ANOTHER |
||
|
||
| © 2007 Walt Meyler |
||
