When did you arrive at the 449th?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\ngotta put my thinking cap on. That was a long time ago!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you remember where you were\nstationed when you got there?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah,\nat Chengkung [Chenggong].<\/p>\n\n\n\n What were the living facilities and\nfood like?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nfood was good because I turned out to be mess officer after I was there about\ntwo weeks. I flew fifty missions in the P-38 over China and Indochina and\nThailand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You also flew over the Hump to\nferry Lightnings to China?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah.\nI made about three trips over the Hump. One time we were ferrying about six\nP-38s to India and on takeoff at Myitkyina one of our pilots lost an engine and\nhe had to crash land. He was ok, but the plane was destroyed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n How did flying the Hump compare\nwith the combat missions you flew?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well,\nflying the Hump was kind of treacherous, but we made it alright. We had a B-24\nescort us doing the navigating while we kind of tacked on and just followed him\nin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Did you have any run-ins with\nweather on any of these flights?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We\ndidn\u2019t run into any combat aircraft. Down in south China, around \u2013 golly, I\u2019ve\neven forgotten the name of it. But down around Canton \u2013 that\u2019s on South China\nSea area \u2013 and Hainan Island, which was right off the coast of southern China.\nWe ran into quite a bit of opposition in that area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you remember when or what those\nmissions were like down in south China?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well,\nthere\u2019s quite a few to remember. But they were like airdrome sweeps; we\u2019d go in\nand try to destroy the aircraft on the ground before they could get in the air.\nWe had several of those down around Canton \u2013 south China. The biggest one we\nran into was at Hainan Island when they sent up possibly twenty to thirty\naircraft to intercept us. But I think we outscored \u2018em on destroying aircraft\nthat day. That was one big mission that we flew in on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Was that the Hainan Island raid in\nJanuary 1945 or July 1944?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Probably\nJuly of \u201944 because \u201945 that was just about all over [unintelligible] because August\nof \u201945 is when the war ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Right. There was a big mission to\nHainan Island on July 29, 1944 and another one on January 5, 1945.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s\nabout right. That should be about right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You were also involved in the last\nmission where the squadron encountered enemy aircraft during July of \u201945 when\nyou and your wingman were attacked by four Japanese Oscars. Do you remember\nthat mission at all?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\ndo indeed! Yes sir. My wingman and I, we were down on the deck looking for\nrailroad engines and that\u2019s when the four Oscars came in on us. Luckily, we\ncame back with just my wingman having one engine shot out. We made it back to\nbase. I just had to escort him and ward off the Japanese Oscars. They must have\nbeen low on gas or something because they never followed up to try and catch\nus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That must have been pretty scary to\nhave been caught low, outnumbered.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh,\nthat was a pain in the butt because we were outnumbered, you know, two-to-one \u2013\nfour Oscars. That was their latest aircraft. You really should never get caught\nwith your pants down \u2013 or your flaps down, so they say. But we made it back\nalright without any casualties though \u2013 just the two of us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you remember any of the missions\nyou flew out of Yunnanyi?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yunnanyi\nwas \u2013 there was another squadron there and I\u2019m not too sure, I believe it was\nthe 16th Fighter Squadron? [sic] They flew mostly P-40s. I had a few missions\nin P-40s there from Yunnanyi because that was the westernmost used airport for\nthe 449th. And \u2013 I think it was the 16th Fighter Squadron, I\u2019m not sure. They\nwere in our group though. They were in the 51st Group. We did fly into\nThailand. That was another big mission where they sent up about a dozen [sic]\n\u201cNates.\u201d They were a wheels-down type of fighter. They were maneuverable as\nhell, but slow as hell!<\/p>\n\n\n\n That must have been an interesting\ncontrast with P-38s being pretty fast and \u201cNates\u201d being pretty slow?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah,\nit was interesting. I think we got our share. One fella in this other squadron\n\u2013 I think it was the 16th if I\u2019m not mistaken \u2013 last they heard of him he says,\n\u201cI\u2019ve got one trapped in the valley down here!\u201d And that was the last we ever\nheard of him. On that mission we had eight P-38s and about eight \u201840s and \u201851s.\nAnd one of our P-38 guys kind of panicked because there was a \u201cNate\u201d on his\ntail. And he held the mic button down and was hollering into the mic, \u201cSomebody\nget this Jap off my ass!\u201d And he got his right wingtip tank caught on fire from\nthe action. And our flight leader at the time was Dale Desper \u2013 it was Captain\nDale Desper, D \u2013 E \u2013 S \u2013 P \u2013 E \u2013 R. He said, \u201cWell if you\u2019ll stop it in\nmidair,\u201d he says, \u201cI\u2019ll get out and piss on it for you.\u201d He was madder than\nhell because he had to leave the fight and head back to base and escort \u2013 the\npilot he escorted was Flomer, F \u2013 L \u2013 O \u2013 M \u2013 E \u2013 R. They got back to base ok,\nno problem, but Desper, the flight leader, was so pissed off because he had to\npull out of the scrap and escort this guy back. So a couple of good memories,\nyou know, lucked out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What were the facilities like at\nYunnanyi compared to Chenggong?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Very\nmuch the same. They had decent mess halls. I know the flight surgeon stood\nthere at the doorway and you had to take your atabrine to prevent malaria.\nBefore you could go in the mess hall, they\u2019d always make you take your\natabrine. We were starting to look like the Chinese \u2013 a little bit yellow\naround the gills! Atabrine would make you discolored toward the yellow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How did those facilities compare\nwith Mengzi, later in the war?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Later\nin the war in Mengzi we really had no ready room. We just had, like there was\nan ambulance that was used as a tower for us for the takeoff and landing. It\nwas really very primitive. We slept in tents and it was primitive compared to\nChengkung and Yunnanyi. At both places we had decent barracks and it was a\ndecent mess hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The unit records mention you\nspecifically on several bridge missions. Do you remember how you guys would\nattack the bridge and what happened exactly?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well,\nbecause the B-25s weren\u2019t quite as accurate, they had P-38s go in with two\nfive-hundred-pounders or two thousand-pound bombs. And they would send us on\nskip-bombing missions where you\u2019d go in, pass the target on the way down at a\nhigh altitude, and then drop down on the deck and go over the river \u2013 or\nwhatever the bridge was there for \u2013 and go hop over that and just before you\nhopped over, you dropped your bombs and then they would skip-bomb into the\nabutments of the bridges. And that\u2019s the way we were able to do more damage than\nthe \u201825s from a medium altitude \u2013 since we were right on the deck, just aim the\ndamn airplane towards the bridge and let \u2018er go, you know? They would skip off\nthe water or the ground and then it had a three- to five-second delay used on\nit \u2013 not very much time to get your ass over the bridge and back down on the\ndeck! We ran quite a few of those missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your squadron was fairly successful\nat taking out bridges then?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah,\nbridges and sampans \u2013 we\u2019d go down to Hanoi and Haiphong, the harbor at\nHaiphong. We did pretty well on getting the larger sampans that haul Japanese\ntroops up and down the coast. We did a pretty good job on the air-to-ground\ntype support and we also supported some of Stilwell\u2019s campaign in Burma. He was\ncoming down from northern Burma into the southern area. We did some\nair-to-ground. The funniest one that we had was we had one BT-15 in the\nsquadron and we used that one and there were four L-5s \u2013 little puddle jumpers\n\u2013 and four P-38s and a C-47 transport. The four P-38s escorted all these mother\nhens and the extra little L-5s that went. They were picking up \u2013 the L-5s had\nto go in there to land, they were the only things that could land because there\nwas no runway. There was just a grass levelled area. And they were picking up\nForeign Legion espionage people that had been held prisoner down in Hanoi, but\nthey were released. And then that\u2019s what we were doing, was picking them up to\nbring them into Mengzi. That was an interesting mission with the C-47, the\nBT-15, the L-5s, and the P-38s. It was kind of like a circus! <\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s quite the range of aircraft!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well,\nit was the only way we could get in. We escorted all of them. We had to do 360\ncircles around the whole group going into this place \u2013 I can\u2019t remember the\nname of the little village where we landed \u2013 well we didn\u2019t land, I was flying\na P-38. But the little L-5s had to land on this real small little grass strip.\nAnd that\u2019s how we got the French Foreign Legion spies out of there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you remember when about that\nmission took place?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n That\nwas early \u201945, before the war ended. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Are there any other missions that\nstand out in your memory? Did you fly any to Tengchong?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well\nI can\u2019t really be too specific there because the missions we ran, we ran an\nawful lot of missions trying to help Stilwell\u2019s campaign because the Chinese\nwouldn\u2019t do much fighting unless they had air support, which is what we did was\nair-to-ground support to the Chinese troops. No discredit to the Chinese, they\nwere outnumbered too, but they needed a little backup help from the aircraft,\nwhich is what we did. But I can\u2019t specifically remember a date or any activity\nthat happened. Now, there was air-to-air activity involved, but nothing of any\nsignificant consequence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had read that the Chinese didn\u2019t\nhave any heavy artillery, so you guys were pretty much providing that heavy\nfire support for them.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah,\nwe did. That\u2019s why I say that Stilwell needed some air support so his Chinese\ntroops \u2013 he had a lot of Chinese troops \u2013 they were hesitant to continue\nfighting on the front lines unless they had air support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, I very much appreciate your\ntime sir! I\u2019m hoping to finish this project this summer.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well\nin the meantime, if you can just mail me a little questionnaire. Do you have my\nhome address? My current address, I\u2019m living with my son because my wife passed\naway about a month ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, I\u2019m sorry. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well,\nI\u2019ll tell you what; let me have your address and I\u2019ll mail something to you. It\nwas good talking to you and I\u2019ll just send you something \u2013 maybe a couple of\npictures and stuff like that if you\u2019d like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ok, I\u2019d appreciate that, sir, thank\nyou very much!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Alright,\nmy friend, and good luck to you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you very much, sir, you have\na nice day!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ok,\nbye bye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Interview by Daniel Jackson, June 21, 2007 When did you arrive at the 449th? I gotta put my thinking cap on. That was a long time ago! Do you remember where you were stationed when you got there? Yeah, at Chengkung [Chenggong]. What were the living facilities and food like? The food was good because…<\/p>\n