Interview by Daniel Jackson. June 11, 2007
Richard Maddox:
Hello? After the sound of the tone, tell us your name and if we’re available, we can talk. Or you can leave a brief message.
Daniel Jackson:
Hello, sir, this is Daniel Jackson from the Air Force Academy. I spoke to you yesterday and you said that now would be a good time to call back. If you have a chance—
Richard Maddox:
I’m here. Hello.
Daniel Jackson:
How’s it going, sir? How are you today?
Richard Maddox:
Well, we’ve made the day so far today.
Daniel Jackson:
That’s good.
Richard Maddox:
And I’ve been trying to think a little bit, trying to refresh my memories. I know you’re going to ask me some questions that took place a long time ago and I haven’t dwelt on them in a number of years, but I’ll do the best I can.
Daniel Jackson:
Okay, I appreciate that very much, sir. You came into the squadron in late 1944, is that correct?
Richard Maddox:
Yes, right at the end of ’44 and stayed until the end of the war in ’45, September ’45.
Daniel Jackson:
So when you arrived at the squadron, were they still based at Chengkung?
Richard Maddox:
Say that again because your volume is not quite very clear. Ask me again.
Daniel Jackson:
I’ll try speaking a little louder. When you arrived at the squadron then, were you still based at Chengkung?
Richard Maddox:
Well, first, of course, the planes landed at Kunming, but my first assignment was Chengkung, which is right south of Kunming.
Daniel Jackson:
Do you remember anything about Chengkung, like what it was like, what the Chinese were like there, the food, the facilities?
Richard Maddox:
Of course, once we got into China, the Chinese government provided all of our maintenance and upkeep. And incidentally, while I was in China, I was intrigued—I had been all of my life—I had been intrigued by the Orient, because, after all, that’s where civilization began a long, long time ago. And China’s provided the rest of the world with a lot of improvements.
But I was intrigued by the way the Chinese lived. I spent as much free time as I had to learn about their day-to-day life. They were a very friendly nation—obviously, it was the reason we were there. But they were very industrious, hard workers. And had, by our standards, didn’t have anything at all in the way of modern day-to-day life existence.
Daniel Jackson:
Okay. Yeah, it’s actually not a lot different. I was just in China over spring break, and it is a lot more Westernized now, and there’s a lot more technology, but the people are—
Richard Maddox:
It’s changed considerably, but keep in mind we’re talking about a number of years ago. Plus the fact that Yunnan Province was the most backward province of all of China. And in fact, was probably considered as a place to just send their undesirables from the rest of the country, kind of like Great Britain treated certain elements and sent ne’er-do-wells down to Australia.
Daniel Jackson:
I would imagine that there were a lot of refugees there, though, from the war.
Richard Maddox:
Oh, it was overrun completely. Yeah.
Daniel Jackson:
What kind of stresses did that put on their society, though? I would imagine that’d be pretty hard on them to be able to have enough food for everybody if there were that many people there.
Richard Maddox:
Well, of course, like I said, they provided all of our maintenance.
Let’s see, I may be getting Mengtze mixed up with Chengkung. But Chengkung, we were housed in, I’m going to call them barracks. I don’t know what they were originally for the Chinese. But we had a mess hall. We had barracks, but there were three buildings assigned for upper and lower bunks for enlisted men to live in.
We did have three meals a day, and they did provide our food for us. They cooked food. We had eggs—seemed to be the quite prevalent food over there. And of course, there was rice. And I guess beef from the water buffalo. Maybe a lot of chicken and pork, seemed to be most of their staple foods. And it was adequate.
Daniel Jackson:
Good. Were you ever stationed at Yunnanyi with the detachment out there?
Richard Maddox:
Say that again, sir?
Daniel Jackson:
Were you ever stationed out at Yunnanyi? The squadron had a detachment out there until March, I believe, down further south?
Richard Maddox:
I don’t think I’m understanding your question, I apologize.
Daniel Jackson:
Oh, that’s okay, sir. The 449th had another outpost at Yunnanyi that they used for strikes into Burma and Indochina before they moved to Mengtze.
Richard Maddox:
All right. Now, I wasn’t stationed there, but the 449th Fighter Squadron had several detachments. One of them was, of course, as you said, at Yunnanyi. There was another couple of planes at a place called Simao. Then later on the squadron began to get located at Mengtze, China, even south of Chengkung, just twenty kilometers north of the French Indochina border. And that’s where I wound up at the end of the war. That’s where the 449th Fighter Squadron finally became all together in one location.
Daniel Jackson:
Do you remember how you were transported out there, sir?
Richard Maddox:
Well, by train from Chengkung to Mengtze.
Daniel Jackson:
Okay, so you didn’t have to drive trucks or anything, they actually did have a railroad out to there?
Richard Maddox:
Most of us went by train. But, yeah, we had to move the equipment, as well. And those had to be driven and planes flown down there. But basically, the main consignment of the personnel went by train.
Daniel Jackson:
Okay. Sir, if I understand it correctly, you were an armorer. What did your duties consist of in day-to-day life?
Richard Maddox:
Well, to begin with, can I go back to stateside a little bit, or not?
Daniel Jackson:
That’s fine, actually. I’m trying to cover as much ground as I can.
Richard Maddox:
Well, when I first went into the Army, of course, even though it was wartime, the military was using indoctrinations, and IQ tests, and aptitude tests to see how best the untrained civilian could be utilized in the military. And I qualified for the Army Air Force. And then took some more aptitudes and IQ tests in Kearns, Utah, and qualified, and was assigned as a student in Denver, Colorado, in the armament aircraft school. That was an eleven-weeks course. Do you need to know anything about that course or not?
Daniel Jackson:
I think you actually provided some information in your written material about that course at Lowry?
Richard Maddox:
Yes.
Daniel Jackson:
So I should have enough information on that if you want to continue.
Richard Maddox:
Well, okay. After I completed the course, I was immediately assigned as an instructor for eighteen months in an eleven-weeks, highly-concentrated, condensed course that had ultimately, began during peacetime, and that’s a two-year course in War College. And it consisted of small arms, and ammunition, and field training, bombs, fuses, electrical circuits, anything having to do with the armament of aircraft, that was fighters or bombers.
After eighteen months, then I was assigned for overseas duty. And I left Newport News, Virginia, across the Atlantic, through the Suez Canal, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, docked at Bombay, transported across India to Calcutta. Took some more processing before we went up into northern Assam and flew the Hump into China. And that’s where I was assigned to the 449th Fighter Squadron as an armorer.
The 449th Fighter Squadron consisted of P-38s. In fact, it was the only tactical P-38 squadron in China during World War II. And the P-38 fighter had four caliber-.50 machine guns and one 20-millimeter cannon. We also had to process—we had to take care of the gun cameras. We had a little photo shop, some minor developing, the gun cameras. And the bomb racks and the, well, the moving of the bombs and the fuel tanks.
Am I answering any of the information that you’re asking or not?
Daniel Jackson:
Oh, that’s what I’m looking for, sir. That’s what I’m wondering is what your job was. So you were mostly responsible for loading up the aircraft with the ammunition, and bombs, and rockets for normal day-to-day missions?
Richard Maddox:
Yes. We had an armament shack at each of the air bases that we were stationed at. And, of course, we had the bombs: fragmentaries, 100-pounders, 250-pound bombs. We even did some loading of napalm on one or two rare occasions. We had to maintain the caliber-.50s at all times. We had to do boresighting and firing-in with the guns and the cannon. After each mission, of course, the guns had to be serviced again. Sometimes the pilots got a little bit overexuberant and ruined the gun barrels. We had to replace those if they had been burned out.
Daniel Jackson:
Okay, yeah, that is definitely the information I’m looking for because you did provide a lot of good information. And I was hoping to put some more background on you, yourself, though, since you provided so much.
One thing in particular that I was interested in is that you talked about the surrender. I thought that was fascinating. And that must’ve been very exciting to be at after having been at war so long.
Richard Maddox:
Are you talking about the incident that took place at Mengtze on September the 2nd?
Daniel Jackson:
Yes, sir.
Richard Maddox:
Yes, it so happens that the 449th was greatly involved with a very important, significant conclusion of World War II in China. The orders were that the Japanese dignitaries located in southeastern China and south of there, in Burma and areas, the Chinese were insistent that when surrender papers were signed on the Missouri in Tokyo Bay, the Chinese were insistent that the local dignitaries that had been in the Southeastern part of China sign the surrender papers simultaneously when they were done on Missouri with MacArthur.
So on September the 2nd, our Squadron received orders for the pilots to fly south and escort a Japanese bomber. The bomber had to be whitewashed, painted white, to obliterate the Japanese insignia of the rising sun. And they escorted the plane from Hanoi to Mengtze with the local Japanese dignitaries, and they landed at Mengtze. And the actual signing of the papers took place at a Chinese encampment a few miles from there. And there were a couple of pilots that flew their L-5 in to escort those men to that particular Chinese encampment. And then they brought them back.
And, of course, the plane was heavily guarded while it was there at Mengtze. We really couldn’t get too close to it.
And I may have mentioned this, or maybe I wrote part of this: When the Japanese plane landed, they landed downwind, which is not the proper way to land a plane. But they landed downwind in Mengtze. And we learned later from the translators that, they, the Japanese, had expected to be shot immediately after they landed because you usually think of other people treating you the way that you treated them. And when that didn’t take place, they were quite surprised and startled that we were not going to execute them. But then they looked and saw that we were not dressed in any dress uniform. There was no red carpet affair there. And they said that we were in our fatigues and battle attire to insult them, which was not the reason at all. It was just the ending of the war. We were glad that the war was over. There was no dignitary affair at all, as far as we were concerned.
And after the signing of the papers and they got ready to go back to Hanoi and they had to be escorted back. They did pass out a few bottles of Japanese beer, a few of the guys that were close enough to be there when they embarked and flew back to Hanoi.
Daniel Jackson:
This leads me into my next question, sir. With events like that, that the 449th took place in, what do you think the legacy of the 449th Fighter Squadron is?
Richard Maddox:
I’m sorry, I don’t seem to be understanding that one.
Daniel Jackson:
What do you think the legacy of your squadron is, sir, as far as the lasting value to history or to the Air Force?
Richard Maddox:
Well, for one thing, one of the commanders of the 449th Fighter Squadron happened to have been Rex Barber. Rex Barber was one of the four killer pilots assigned to the shootdown of Yamamoto. Are you familiar with any part of that history of World War II?
Daniel Jackson:
Yes, sir. I read Carroll Gline’s book on it just recently, actually.
Richard Maddox:
Well, of course, as you know, when Japan made the mistake of bombing Pearl Harbor, one of the—and it was a unwritten rule, but it was one of the government’s prime goals—they were definitely going to go after Yamamoto because he was the Japanese admiral that did the architecture for bombing Pearl Harbor, based on that part. So he was one of the primary people that the United States was definitely going to locate, and they did. Once the Japanese code was broken, it was learned that Yamamoto’s bomber was going to be near an area in the Southwest Pacific, Borneo area [sic]. And General [sic] John Mitchell was assigned the task of flying from somewhere in Borneo [Guadalcanal], don’t recall the name right now.
Daniel Jackson:
I think it was actually from Guadalcanal up to Bougainville.
Richard Maddox:
Well, wherever, my memory’s a little bit jiggy right now. But at any rate, that bomber was shot down and credit was given to two men: Lieutenant Lanphier and Lieutenant Rex Barber. Rex Barber later came to China and became a squadron leader of the 449th Fighter Squadron.
One of the other main features of the 449th Fighter Squadron is that, even though we didn’t—the pilot didn’t know about it until fifty years later, but Captain Billie Beardsley happened to shoot down a transport on one of his missions. And that particular transport contained the ranking air force general that was the architect for setting up a tremendous operation in China to overrun all of the rest of China that hadn’t been invaded by the Japanese air force. But the shoot-down of that transport, with that Japanese general, completely disrupted the whole operation. The Japanese program just completely fell apart. And that captain was one of the pilots of the 449th. So those two things made the 449th Fighter Squadron rather unique in its assignment of what took place during World War II.
I hope I’m making myself clear.
Daniel Jackson:
Oh, yes, sir, actually, this is definitely what I’m looking for.
One last question: Do you have, well, actually I’ve got two more questions, but the last one’s pretty brief. Do you have particular memories that stand out in your mind of things that happened in day-to-day life at any of the bases that you were stationed at?
I talked to Jim Hyde, who was one of the original members of the squadron, and one of his stories was about buying some fireworks in Lingling, and setting them off on the porch, and scaring everybody inside, thinking that there were paratroopers landing or something.
Do you have any stories like that, that stand out in your memory, sir?
Richard Maddox:
No. That must have taken place prior to my getting assigned to the 449th Fighter Squadron. But you’re right, Jim—incidentally, of all of those original pilots and personnel that came from North Africa, and are still currently members of the Fourteenth Air Force, they’re five members still living, Jim Hyde being one of them.
Daniel Jackson:
That actually brings me into my last question, sir. Do you know anybody else that might be available for a phone interview like this that I would be able to contact from the 449th?
Richard Maddox:
Did I mail you a current list of the current members of the 449th Fighter Squadron?
Daniel Jackson:
No, sir.
Richard Maddox:
Jim Heitkotter lives in California and was quite active and still has an alert mind, I would think. Joe Fodor also lives in and around the Los Angeles area. Those are two pilots that flew on several missions.
I’m trying to think.
Daniel Jackson:
Would it be possible for you to mail me that list, sir?
Richard Maddox:
Mail you what?
Daniel Jackson:
The list that you have of the people from the 449th that are still around?
Richard Maddox:
Oh, I didn’t mail you one?
Daniel Jackson:
No, sir, you didn’t, contact information for the people that are still around.
Richard Maddox:
I’m sorry. I don’t understand, sir.
Daniel Jackson:
You didn’t mail me any contact information or a list of the people that are still around from the 449th.
Richard Maddox:
I must not be getting a good contact with your voice. It seems to be breaking up a little bit.
Daniel Jackson:
It might be the cell phone reception here. There’s a couple of thunderstorms that are just moving out. I was just trying to say that, that you didn’t mail me a list of people still around from the 449th or their contact information.
Richard Maddox:
Oh, well, yes, but I’m embarrassed to say I have misplaced your address. I know that it’s somewhere here. But this is not a formal apology, but I’m deeply engrossed in some complications with my wife, and I’m more concerned about her wellbeing, and what’s going on. I just don’t know what I’ve done with even the copy of the works that I sent you, or your address.
Daniel Jackson:
Oh, that’s fine, sir. I understand. If you want, I can just mail you my address again. That’s not a problem.
Richard Maddox:
I would appreciate it. And if—I’m trying to think—the list that I have of the current members of the 449th is probably maybe eight or ten months old, but that would be as close as currently as I would have.
Daniel Jackson:
That should be—
Richard Maddox:
Are you aware of the fact that the Fourteenth Air Force formed a veterans association in the early years right after World War II and they disband this past May? That ended that veterans organization.
Daniel Jackson:
I did hear about that. That’s really too bad, actually. I know that the Air Force Academy here is working with them to get a lot of their records stored here at the Air Force Academy so that information isn’t lost.
Richard Maddox:
You know, it was ironic: I got, in one of the Air Force military magazines, there was an advertisement to try to get in touch with all of the former personnel that had been assigned to Lowry Field. And I answered the response to find out why they were trying to get in touch with the personnel, former personnel, at Lowry Field. And they said, “We’re trying to locate where all of the toxic materials might’ve been buried.”
Daniel Jackson:
Oh. That’s not good. Great. That’s great.
Richard Maddox:
Well, to begin with, I said, “Well, probably most of it was off”—of course, I couldn’t remember because I left there long before it was disbanded. But anyway, I said, “Most of it was probably on Lowry II.” And whoever I talked with said, “Lowry II? We were not even aware of the fact that there was a Lowry II.”
Daniel Jackson:
Oh, no.
Richard Maddox:
There was a Lowry I Air Force Base and a Lowry II Air Force Base. And most all of the armament training schools was on Lowry II. That’s where I was assigned for eighteen months as an instructor.
Of course, we did have a lot of toxic materials. There was chemical warfare training—I was a non-commissioned chemical warfare officer–plus all of the cleaning compounds, and usual fuels needed to clean, and work with aircraft, guns, and ammunition.
Daniel Jackson:
Well, I hope they got that figured out because there’s a bunch of houses built there now.
Richard Maddox:
Yeah, that’s what they were trying to do. In other words, the city or whoever that was developing that area, they needed to know—if they were going to sell the land for residential purposes, they needed to know where any toxic materials might’ve been buried.
Daniel Jackson:
Yeah, I would imagine that’d be pretty important. Now, however, if you haven’t been there recently, they actually have one of their hangars turned into an air museum that’s pretty neat. So a small bit of Lowry is left. But most of it is housing developments now.
Well, sir, I appreciate your time. And thank you for all the useful information that you’ve given me. I’ll get a letter off to you with my address. And I appreciate all your help. You can bet that when I get done with this project, I’ll send you a copy.
Richard Maddox:
Well, I appreciate it and I hope this has been beneficial for whatever your goals are. I know that World War II, as far as I’m concerned, was a very important period in our lives back then. And the fighting personnel were comprised of, really, just young civilians. For example, just let me just say one thing and then I won’t take any more of your time. One of the phases that we had to teach young men, which were coming out of civilian life—of course, I grew up in Texas, and I was familiar with firearms and guns. But we had a lot of students that came through the armament class that were from Hoboken, New Jersey, and Brooklyn, didn’t have the faintest idea of what a gun was to begin with.
And secondly, after we took them out and taught them how to handle a gun, then we took them out for skeet purposes, to teach them how to lead a target, because most of them, in addition to being ground armorers, a lot of them are going to go to four-engine and become aerial gunners. And even though some of the power-operated gun turrets had the computer gunsights, a lot of them just had to aim their guns at the planes and they had to learn to lead a target. So that was one of the interesting things I thought that young men, at the phase study where they were getting ready to go into, had to be trained in.
And for those eighteen months, I considered myself a very thorough and well-trained instructor. It was important to teach these young men about survival.
Daniel Jackson:
Yeah, I would imagine so. It’s interesting what’s going on these days, much smaller military than back then. We’re seeing the consequences of that, now, too. So, it’s an interesting contrast back then, definitely.
But thank you very much for your time, sir. I appreciate it greatly. And I’ll let you go.
Richard Maddox:
All right.
Daniel Jackson:
I hope things go well and get better with your wife. And I will be in touch with you later.
Richard Maddox:
Well, I’ll get that—when I receive your envelope, I’ll get that current list of personnel off. And if there’s any other information that we can share, I’ll be glad to do what I can to recall something that I can remember.
Daniel Jackson:
Appreciate it much, sir. You have a good day.
Richard Maddox:
Thank you.
Daniel Jackson:
Thank you. Bye.
Richard Maddox:
Bye-bye.