Have been going to Line Dancing classes with the senior citizens at the church. During a break, found a guy there that flew P-40s and P-47s in WWII. He has pics of his planes and would be happy to show them to me and talk about his experiences. YaaaaaHooooo. Jim is as happy as a pig in [censored]. Swapped phone numbers. On the way out, he stopped me in the parking lot and said “How about tomorrow morning”? After a couple of stutters, I said Certainly. I’ve been writing down questions for him since I got home. This is the first time I’ve stopped. Don’t think I’ll get much sleep tonight.
If you get a chance (and he says that it is ok), bring a tape recorder. Memory is one thing, but to havethose stories on record, in his own words, are invaluable!
I have a few stories that my Uncle Larney told me before he passed, as well as some from other family members and vets.
What do you all think about using this thread to pass on stories that you have been told?
RadMax8+666Irish Sorry guys, in my excitement yesterday, I didn’t think of a Camera or Tape Recorder. BUT, there is some great news. This was only the first of our visits. Joe said he was very happy to sit down with me and talk. And talk we did. 7 hours worth. I’ll bring the camera and tape recorder next time(possibly next Friday, that’s a good day for him). On my list of people I like and admire, he shot very close to the top of the list (my wife being at the very top of course). When I entered his “Hobby Room”,(one of his converted extra bedrooms [just like mine]) the first thing I saw was a room surrounded by glass display cases. In them were Franklin Mint cars, Danbury Mint cars, and cars he has collected from all over the world. All scales from 1/43, 1/32, 1/24, 1/25, 1/16 and others I didn’t even know existed. There was also a collection of P-47s of all sizes. Most of them were made by friends and relatives for him. A georgous stick and tissue P-47 that you had to look close to see the frame as the tissue was so tight. They were not of his plane though. Only one was of his plane and that one was made by his son who is a present day fighter pilot. Models of P-40’s, which he also flew. There were also models of NASCAR cars and OLD Indy open wheeled racers. On the walls were pics of various P-47s. I’m not an expert on P-47s so I don’t know the names of the different types. He explained to me the ones I asked about. Now if I can remember them, there were those with no external fuel tanks, then came the belly tank, then came the wing tip tanks, razorbacks, bubble tops, and others. Those of you who know the P-47, please excuse me if I’ve made mistakes. I was on information overload today. Talking about these got us on the subject of how you actually fly a P-47. Because of my experience with Flight Simulator programs(not really that much), I understood what he was saying though and that seemed to make him very happy that he was talking to someone who did understand the planes and what it took to fly them. He is 84 years old but doesn’t look it. When he shook my hand, it felt like it was in a vise. He had to stop once in a while to remember something, but he remembered it. He said most of his flying was around Australia and New Guinea. Some bomber escort work(thats how he put it). The few times he encountered Japanese fighters while escorting the bombers, he said when they saw the Jugs they turned around and ran for home(where ever that was at the time). He talked about going on quite a few straffing runs but hedged on where they were. He had to crash land a couple of times running out of gas returning from missions. Went into detail about those crashes. Ended up in a hospital once after one of those crashes. Bounced in and out of conciousness and each time he came to he was on a different truck or jeep and on a different stretcher. As they carried him into the hospital, he came to and saw a sign saying “Heavenly Hospital”. He looked at it and said “Oh S—, I’m dead, but thats the way I’d wanted to go. No pain”. Then he passed out again. They kept waking him up to make sure it was not a concussion or something worse. He was there 3 days. The plane, however, did not recover from the mishap. He had “landed” from a clearing into the woods. Sheared off the wings, spun around, ripped off the tail section (one of the cables [I can’t remember which] fractured his foot as it was ripped out through the cockpit), spun around again and ripped off the forward section ahead of the cockpit. Nothing left but the pit upside down in a ditch with him in it. Saw a hat on the desk with 40th Fighter Wing. He goes to reunions every year with other groups too. Oops almost forgot to put his name here. It’s Joe Potts. He has a license plate with “P-47” on it. Says that no matter where he goes, there is always a P-47 watching his back.
WOW! Cool! If you haven’t already, make sure to ask him why he joined, what his boot camp experience was like, what life was like where he grew up, what he REALLY wanted to fly when he became a pilot, etc. Good Luck with this. That is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!!
Having done few of the interviews for EAA Timeless Voices, I’ve learned that most of these guys have a story to tell. They know what they want to say and do it very well. It is best to listen first then ask questions. Phrase your questions to continue the story down the path you seek answers about, but let the person do the talking…it is much more rewarding and they don’t feel like they are being interogated. Suggest they contibute their story to the Timeless Voice program, they can do it at AirVenture, request a visit or tape it on their own with a camcorder.
Great story. Thx for posting. My GF is transcribing reminisenses from people during the war. The blitz in particular. Ive only managed to catch a bit of it as its dictated (On a tape) but it really pulls you in and fires your interest. Shes doing this for a joint project for Bournemouth council and Bournemouth Univercity. Shes doing it voluntarilly and already has had thx and a picture in our local paper for it.
I just hope that more of the people like your freind and of his ilk, get thier memoirs down for generations to come. As has been said more than once…‘Lest we forget’
Hi guys. Things that Joe told me in those 7 hours are trickling back at a slow rate. I’ll ask him about the tape recorder the next time I see him (Thursday morning at Line Dancing class). He said that he was just very happy to sit down and talk about cars and planes. Evidently he hadn’t done this before. I’ll try to ask about the recorder without scaring him. We spent half the time talking about cars (his collection is out of this world). The second half was talking about all kinds of planes. Those he flew and those he knew a lot about. Some of them were variations of models that you guys build and I know nothing about.
One thing that sprung to mind yesterday was the fact that he said they were always running out of fuel on the return trip from a mission. I don’t remember the exact date, but he said that in 1945 Lindberg came to where he was stationed. He told them that they were flying the P-47 all wrong. (Here’s where my lack of knowledge will show up). He told them to lower the RPMs of the motor but keep the speed up. Does that make sense? That would let them use less fuel on the return trip and therefore make it back safely. Joe said they did and it worked.
Another story was when he was where there were a group of PT boats stationed. Him and a few others in his group went down to the dock just to look around and see what they could see. This one boat was just completing an installation of the center motor (burned up the original). They got to talking with the skipper and asked if it would be possible to go for a ride(that’s the way they put it). The skipper told them that because they were pilots, if they showed up at 06:30 they could go out on the test run with them. They showed up and went out on the boat. Joe said he couldn’t believe the power in those engines. That was a ride that they will never forget.
Most of the time he talked about actually flying the P-47 and P-40. How cramped it was. He would practically crawl down the wing walk after a long mission his legs were so cramped up. They were so tired and sore they did things they shouldn’t have when coming to land at their base. They always buzzed the tower before landing. He did this one time and pulled his turn too close to the tower. He made a very sharp turn to port while climbing very steeply. The engine quit on him. He wasn’t watching the fuel light. He tried for a restart but it was a no-go. Saw a section of unfinished runway that the engineers were putting down the metalwork. It was the closest place to go so he went. Blew a tire when the wheels touched down and almost hit someone in a jeep on the runway. Lucked out and didn’t do too much damage to the plane. Got his butt chewed out anyway. There were a few little incidents like these but he didn’t say anything about actual missions except for a couple of straffing runs. More about how it was done in relation to the plane than what he was shooting at and where and did he hit his targets.
That’s all I can remember for the moment. If I remember more, I’ll post it later. If not, I’ll post it after my next talk with Joe. I can see why a recorder would be nice to bring along. At my age, the first thing that went was … I forget.