Maid Marion,
The good General Yeager and I hunted, fished, and flew together for the better part of a year at George AFB. We have stayed in contact but haven't been face-to-face since he remarried a couple of years ago and moved to Klamath Falls, Oregon, which is sort of off the end of my maps. When you've read through all the junk on the WBG site you will know how much time I spent with him, and some of the things we did together. (I AIN'T gonna tell NOBODY the other stuff!!)
Chuck Yeager was always 100% West Virginia farm boy, and more interested in how things were put together and how they ran, than in running them. He had a black '29 Model-A coupe when he was CO of 1st Fighter Day; had restored it so it looked like it had just now rolled off the production line in Detroit, and drove it to work just like any other car. The Fastest Man In The World and his Model-A Ford. It is to laugh. Glenna was still alive then, and a 1st Fighter Day party was always the biggest hit of the Century.
I didn't get a lot of P-51 time before moving up to the F-80, but loved every minute of it. On the other hand, I always wanted to fly the P-38 and have always regretted I never did get to do that. Your father-in-law was obviously a Tail Hooker, and I wonder if he knew any of my Navy friends from Air Group 11? My cabin mate, Cdr. Bob Bennett, USN Retired, flew Turkeys (TBF's) during the Korean War and my Skipper in VA-113, Cdr (Capt. USN Retired) Bob Gallatin flew the same aircraft as your father-in-law, starting with the Hellcat. I made 136 total traps, 102 of those aboard USS HANCOCK and the rest aboard USS MIDWAY, plus one aboard HMS ALBION, a British aircraft carrier, but your father-in-law's ride through the crossdeck pendants scares the hell out of me!, and I'm damn near fearless. WOW! I'm looking forward to seeing the photos.
Not having a website, I am unable to include any photos from my misspent youth and my speaking acquaintance with various fighter aircraft. Give me an email address and I'll send along some, including a set of The Stingers, a USN flight demonstration team I led while we were in WESPAC. Gene Cernan flew left wing, and he's our youngest daughter's God Father.
Da, ya govoril po Russkii, no builo dolgo dolgo tamoo nazad kogda ya uchilsa v shkole razviedke, i teper ne mozhno govorits, chitats ili pisats po Russkii.
I haven't spoken Russian for about 40 years, and when the salesman who sold us some furniture last week told us he was from near Kiev, Urkania, I tried to hold a conversation with him in Russkii. Bob Hope never got a bigger laugh.
I wish I had your husband's touch with model airplanes. I have lots of photos of just about everything I ever flew but no desktop models. Oh, I built a few, (you can count the number on my scarred and almost-severed fingertips) but the wings or tail always sort of, well, you know ... fell off.
I know who Zenji Abe is, of course, having read about him but never met him. I was a charter member of the International Fighter Pilots Association, back in the '50s, and met some of the Japanese pilots who made Pearl Harbor, but Saburu Sakai is the only one with whom I spent more than a few minutes and he wasn't in the Pearl Harbor attack. He was merely Japan's leading ace. *sigh*
Yes, I am indeed Burr Smith's brother and Susan Smith Finn's uncle, and couldn't be prouder of filling those two slots.
So there, too.
Unk John