Doolittle Raiders Gala

[xcrmckenna]

 

I've never flown into Pendleton Oregon. If the weather lets me up and over the mountains I think I'll make the short xcountry to KPDT. And this makes for a good excuse to burn some 100LL. Looks like it should be a pretty good time. It would be great to see and meet some Mooneys and their pilots. There is a casino close by with transportation at the top of the hour, not that I have a craps problem or anything..

 

https://websites.godaddy.com/blob/820f6c92-8a6d-4eb3-b6fb-351a7f2af1f3/downloads/Gala%20TIMELINE%20OF%20EVENTS%2029%20APRIL%202017-reg%20time.docx?d88bb872

 

 

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[thinwing]

Looks like fun...isn't there one Doolittle raider left....copilot of dolittles #1.... I feel so lucky to meet Gen Doolittle with my father Col Alex P Couch introducing his smart Alec  youngest son to an aviation great.

[xcrmckenna]

Looks like fun...isn't there one Doolittle raider left....copilot of dolittles #1.... I feel so lucky to meet Gen Doolittle with my father Col Alex P Couch introducing his smart Alec  youngest son to an aviation great.

That would be cool, did you know who you were meeting at the time?


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[thinwing]

12 hours ago, xcrmckenna said:

That would be cool, did you know who you were meeting at the time?


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Not really at the time ,they had met prewar ,both attended Berkeley,dad was a transport pilot in North Africa and Gen Doolittle was the theater commander.When my dad had him over to our house,he was retired air force reserve ,and a head of trw...he was visiting McClellan for them and my dad was the base IG.Dad loved to play cribbage and he invited Doolittle and the base commander and some other officers that I don't recall.I was into early radio control models and control line and as usual my dad was complaining about the smell of the butyrate dope I was using to shrink the silk wing covering on the model.They all came into my room to checkout the model I was building ,and I was too occupied to pay too much attention to them.It was only much later that I realized the significance of meeting the little guy standing next to my dad.

[thinwing]

Oh and remember  just prior to loading the B-25s on the carrier ,they had flown them all to McClellan where the Army mechanics retuned the carburators to spec which really pissed Dolittle off as he had them set really lean for max range.My dad was stationed there as a first lt starting in 1939.It was big maintenance depot just completed as a buildup for the coming war.

[MooneyMitch]

Such terrific history Kelly!  

[thinwing]

Yeah ,your right Mitch...but the thing Ithink impresses me about these men...they were completely laid back ,the stuff they did ,they never ever bragged about how great pilots they were...which compared to right now is so completely obvious....one of my favorite stories from my dad is about the generals fur coat.Apparently an unnamed high ranker obtained a beautiful mink coat that he wanted to send to his wife.The coat was loaded on my dads dc3/c47 along with a bunch of stuff and over the coast of Tunisia he is jumped by a German bf109 who promptly shoots out and engine.Because of the yaw and slide slip ,it is apparent its throwing off the Germans aim.(I love this part)dad can see the bullets scooting up the wing  but can't quite connect with the engine still running.Dad  after numerous passes says screw this...and does a water landing close to the harbor.The German flys off and a Tunisian harbor boat comes and picks him up...he grabs his B4 bag (it is in my attic)...he doesn't even get wet..the c-47 floats for hours and the harbor guys shoot it up and sink it as a hazard to navigation.The problem my dad talked about was when the General wanted to know where the fur coat was.....general not happy with the answer...