And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Monday, November 11, 2019
I wish I could thank them. And nice belt knife, Major Bong.
Maj. Richard Bong (L) and Maj. Thomas McGuire (R ), America’s top scoring fighter aces. McGuire would be killed in action 7 Jan 1945; Bong died 6 Aug 1945 while flight testing a P-80 stateside.
This could be Marge >> 44-53087 Marge – EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surviving_Lockheed_P-38_Lightnings
Read the book the Fork-Tailed Devil: The P38 by Martin Caiden. He writes about Maj. Thomas McGuire who wrote a series of rules on how to fight using the P38. Essentially it was to never get into a dog fight, stay high, always use speed to fight (Boom & Zoom). Caiden wrote that Major McGuire forgot his rules trying to help out one of his pilots during an engagement and got shot down. Dan Kurt
Per the Wiki article on Maj. McGuire: "As Sugimoto approached from behind, McGuire rapidly increased his turn rate.[11] This extremely dangerous maneuver, performed at an altitude of only 300 ft (90 m) (contrary to McGuire's own dictates never to engage at a low altitude[12]), caused McGuire's P-38 to stall. It snap rolled inverted and nosed down into the ground. Despite the low altitude, McGuire nearly pulled out successfully; had he jettisoned his drop tanks at the start of the dogfight, he might have managed it.[13] McGuire was killed on impact.[14] "
Major Bong was the guy who looped the Golden Gate bridge, and probably the only guy who could get away with it.
ReplyDeleteHis P-38, Marge, made it back to the states, then got lost. I hope it's in a barn somewhere. BOLO.
This could be Marge >> 44-53087 Marge – EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surviving_Lockheed_P-38_Lightnings
There were a lot of people that needed thanking...
ReplyDeleteNotice they're both packing Colt .45's in shoulder holsters.
ReplyDeleteArmy Air Corp pilots were issued snub-nosed 38's.
My Dad told me he traded his .38 to a Marine for a .45 after the attack on the pilot's bivouac area on Iwo Jima.
I looked that attack up, I'd never heard of it before, it's worth the read.
Deletehttps://www.historynet.com/final-spasm-on-sulfur-island.htm
Read the book the Fork-Tailed Devil: The P38 by Martin Caiden. He writes about Maj. Thomas McGuire who wrote a series of rules on how to fight using the P38. Essentially it was to never get into a dog fight, stay high, always use speed to fight (Boom & Zoom). Caiden wrote that Major McGuire forgot his rules trying to help out one of his pilots during an engagement and got shot down.
ReplyDeleteDan Kurt
Per the Wiki article on Maj. McGuire: "As Sugimoto approached from behind, McGuire rapidly increased his turn rate.[11] This extremely dangerous maneuver, performed at an altitude of only 300 ft (90 m) (contrary to McGuire's own dictates never to engage at a low altitude[12]), caused McGuire's P-38 to stall. It snap rolled inverted and nosed down into the ground. Despite the low altitude, McGuire nearly pulled out successfully; had he jettisoned his drop tanks at the start of the dogfight, he might have managed it.[13] McGuire was killed on impact.[14] "
DeleteKnife is an early Randall model 1, made in Springfield, Mass. I have one just like it, Dad carried in the pacific WW2. Navy fighter pilot.
ReplyDelete