You asked for this, Marion, so don't blame me if it ruins your day. "Mr. Clean" and Susan Smith Finn are known all over the world, and that is as it should be. Moi? Not even the dogs know me, once I'm beyond the front door.
I didn't start out as a fighter pilot, I began my 29-year military career as a frustrated Aviation Cadet. They closed my pilot training Class in 1944 while I was in Primary, so I was trained as an enlisted radioman/gunner who wound up on B-24's of an 8th AF Special Operations Bomb Group known as The Carpetbaggers. I re-enlisted and spent 3 years with SHAEF/US Military Government in Europe as an Interpreter Interrogator after WWII ended, then back home and back to school. I joined the Air Force Reserve and reached the rank of M/Sgt (E-8) flying as a radioman on C-46's and C-47's of a Reserve Troop Carrier Squadron in Northern California, doing additional duties as NCOIC of the Radio Shop and as Group Public Relations.
Re-enlisted in the newly-reopened Aviation Cadet pilot training program in 1949, graduating just in time for the Korean War. Flew P-51's and F-80's in that one, then was with the 20th Fighter Wing for 5 years in the U.S. and the UK flying F-84's. Spent 2 years flying with the US Navy on Exchange Duty (VA-113, Air Group 11) flying A4D-2's and 10 1/2 months deployed to WESPAC aboard USS HANCOCK (CVA-19) for the opening of the war in SEA. Went back to SEA in F-100's (309th Tac Fighter Squadron, DaNang and Tui Hua) then with F-4-C, D, E of the 433 & 497th TFS.
When I returned to the Air Force from Navy Exchange duty in 1962 I was assigned to the 1st Fighter Day Squadron, 31st Fighter Wing, George AFB, California, commanded by then Lt.Col. Chuck Yeager. I remained with that squadron as Operations Officer until 1966, although Chuck Yeager left for Edwards AFB before the 31st Wing moved en masse to Homestead AFB, Florida before and because of the Cuber Thang.
Retired with a little over 5600 hours of cockpit time in a grungy mixture of aircraft, starting with the Piper J-1 and J-3 when I was 16, flew with all services, and with several foreign countries, including Holland, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, The UK, Australia and Japan. I'm a graduate of the Army School of Languages (Russian) European Branch, Oberammergau, Germany, 1955, and slipped in and out of Intelligence assignments off-and-on throughout my career..
I hadn't quite reached my 17th birthday when I entered Aviation Cadets the first time in 1943, but the Army Air Force read my forged enlistment papers and believed I was 18, as reflected in my service dates and Retirement orders. If they ever found out I flew under false colors they never mentioned it to me. I was integrated into the Regular Officer Corps in 1957 as a Captain and retired in 1972, having held every rank and grade from Private to Colonel, missing only Warrant Officer.
My first experience with Combat Engineers was while riding a French freight train from the coast of France to Germany in June, 1945, a couple of weeks after Willie Willie Deuce ended. The train would run along for 10 or 20 miles, then sit still and puff away for a few hours while the Combat Engineers rebuilt the railbed and railways. It went that way for almost two weeks, the route being from Le Have, France to Namur, Belgium to Bonn, Germany, then to Frankfurt for a few days before finally reaching our destination of Nurnberg and Feurth/Erlangen via Furstenfeldbruk. The CE's also kept us alive by pulling up alongside our 40/8 boxcars and tossing in cases of K and 10-in-one rations. We'd trade B-bags full of Calvados for 6x6 truckloads of food, keeping both us and the Engineers happy. Good bless the Combat Engineers.
See? And it's all your fault!
Unk John