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P47 Pilots Guestbook
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Welcome to the P47 Pilots Guestbook.
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 668)
I was with the 371st FG, 406th FS,9thAF,ETO.Bisterne, England thru Tantonville,France-Feb 1945.Please see my website at ’gene.madore.net’ for info.
Posted By: Francis (Gene) Madore
(gene.madore@dexis.net)
on 06/18/1999 12:38:44 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 667)
would like to here from anyone that was in the 391 st fighter squadron, 366 fighter group, looking for my dad, like to here from anyone
Posted By: roger drabyk
(rwdra@aol.com)
on 06/16/1999 9:22:28 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 666)
In September 1996, I had the unique experience of meeting the Luftwaffe pilot who shot me down on my 58th mission over Wietzen, Germany near Steinhuder Lake. His name is Jorge Hans Guthenke. He turned out to be a fine gentleman and has become a good friend. If anyone would like more details of our encounter, please e-mail.
Posted By: Sidney Hewett
(sidhewett@worldnet.att.net)
on 06/15/1999 8:22:23 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 665)
Graduated from Luke Field, class of 44D, then to the ETO where I joined the 390th squadron of the 366th Fighter Group at Leon France sometime in September of l944. From there to Hasselt, Belgium and finally to Munster, Germany. Wonderful to have this website available .
Posted By: John T. Picton
(jugpilot@heartnet.com)
on 06/15/1999 4:30:49 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 664)
Great web site. I’m a longtime life member of the Association. 43-E grad , joined 377th Sqdn, 362nd Ftr. Grp at Westover in June-43. Went to England on QE-2 in Nov-43. Stationed at Wormingford near Colchester. Flew 8th AF escort missions until end of Feb-44. Participated in experimental dive-bombing program at Middle Wallop for about a month. Program terminated when program leader didn’t pull-out in time. Transferred to 390 sqdn, 366th Ftr Grp at Andover-Thruxton RAF station. No more excort, all air to ground. Primary objective, cut all bridges between Le Harve & Paris. We were first group to arrive in Normandy at A-1. Later we moved south to Dreux, then up to Laon where I finished my tour in October-44. Would like to hear from anyone that happened to have been there also.
Posted By: Roy J Alldritt
(gog25@aol.com)
on 06/14/1999 7:29:42 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 663)
In 1944, at Carlstrom Field near Arcadia, FL, there was a civilian flight instructor by the name of Ricard Wells. We were flying PT-17’s. He was married and lived in Punta Gorda. Would anyone know anything about him? If you have any information, please send it to me at cplapp@juno.com.
Posted By: Charles D. Plapp
(cplapp@juno.com)
on 06/11/1999 2:47:51 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 662)
I flew the Jug in WW2. I graduated in the Class of 43I and joined the 69th Sq of the 58th Group in Saidor, New Guinea in the early summer of 1944 - I was nineteen years old and already had about 400 hours in the Jug. We went up through Dutch New Guinea ( now called Indonesia ), through the Phillippines - on Mindoro and Luzon. We then moved to Okinawa and were flying against Japan when the war ended. I had my 21st birthday on July 28, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, I shot down a Zeke 52 fighter over the Inland Sea on August 8 and the war ended a few days later. I think it was the last Jap plane shot down. By this time I am one of the pilots with the most missions in the squadron and a flight leader. So here is the kicker - I didn’t have a driver’s license!!! My father in Chicago had a car but I wasn’t allowed to use it - until I went into the service. Times have sure changed. Sure loved that airplane.
Posted By: Robert C Hansen
(rchansen@wmonline.com)
on 06/09/1999 2:47:02 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 661)
I’m a life member enjoyed the web site. Wanted to get another mention of my WW2 outfit The 368th Group 397th Sq. Keep up the good work.
Posted By: Harry K Barco
(hkblee1820@aol.com)
on 06/09/1999 10:35:03 AM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 660)
As a longtime member of the P47 Pilots Assoc,I am happy to see that we have our own website.I was a pilot in the 318th sqdn. of the 325th ’Checkertail’ Gp. in N. Africa and Italy from Oct. ’43 thru Apr. ’44. On April 12th 1944 I ’bailed-out’ ocer Austria, and spent the next 13 months at Stalag Luft III in Sagan Germany, as a POW. I have a website that I think will be of interest to a lot of visitors to your site. It contains a diary of my months with the 325th, and a lot of memorbilia that I collected as a POW. The address follows....’http://www.net1plus.com/users/deno47/’ Keep up the good work with your excellent website Dennis ’Denny’ Parker
Posted By: Dennis Parker
(deno47@net1plus.com)
on 06/08/1999 6:44:57 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 659)
I am thrilled and excited to find this wonderful website. My husband, Vern Luber Lt.Col,USAF (ret)and Life member of the P-47 Pilots Association, flew the P-47 with the 27th FG, 522 Sqd. at Fritzlar, Germany in 1946. Although he flew P-38s in England in 1942-43 and in China in 1944-45, he loved flying the ’Jug’ in the Zone of Occupation. Said it was a terrific plane. He graduated St. Charles, La, 42-E
Posted By: Elsa L. Luber
(Elsall813@aol.com)
on 06/08/1999 12:44:37 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 658)
I am a lifetime of the Association and am just checking in. I was a member of the 510th Fighter Squadron, 405th Fighter Group, Ninth Air Force. I flew 63 fighter bomber missions with the 510th between October 1944 and the end of WW-11.
Posted By: M. Eeugene Johns
(jampip@aol.com)
on 06/07/1999 6:46:30 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 657)
Surely I am not the first RAF P47D pilot to sign in? After training with the US Army Air Corp, class of 43a I joined RAF 135 Squadron in Madras India. We were the very first British squadron to convert onto the P47. This in May 1944 at Mineriya in the middle of the island of, then, Ceylon. We converted from Hurricanes and when moved back to the Arakan Burma did similar type of ground support to the army, bombing, strafing and napalming the Japs when we could find them. Also frequent five and a half hour high altitude escort to Mingladon for both US and RAF Bombers. Mixed it up with the Japs when they could be enticed upstairs. We did not do missions by numbers as with the US. We were continually on operations from mid 1944, working down the Arakan coast, finally to Akyab Island until Rangoon fell. The Squadron was replaced just a few weeks before VJ Day. I would love to hear from other RAF Thunderbolt pilots, I travel to England each 4th July for a reunion of all available ’Arnold Scheme (ex) Kaydets.’ We have a ball with a fly in of different warbirds including a number of PT17’s belonging to our group. One of our group also helped prepare the Stearman hanging in the American Air Museum at Duxford an ex American P47 base. Duxford is now the home of the Imperial War Museum where a P47 can be seen flying regularly during the summer weekends. This together with many international group of WW11 planes including a couple of ME 109’s Keep up the good work and don’t let the interest wane.
Posted By: Robert Walker
(reklaw23@naples.net)
on 06/07/1999 5:16:17 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 656)
hello ! i’m the only french website visitor on your’ page. Mon père était pilote de Chasse sur P-47D en 1944-45 dans la célèbre escadrille GC 1/5 du commandant Marin La Meslée. il a suivi une formation de pilote de chasse aux states à Selma graig Field en 1943-44 puis à Oscoda et enfin il a pu participer à la WWII en France lors de la Bataille d’Alsace. je lui dedie mon site ainsi qu’a tous les valeureux pilotes, héros vivant ou morts oubliés qui ont défendu la liberté sur leurs Jug Amicalement et respectueusement à vous tous : Un Fana du P-47 Laurent
Posted By: Gensonnet Laurent
(jug@genso-net.com)
on 06/05/1999 4:04:53 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 655)
I am looking for information concerning my great uncle Lt. Willard Nagelstadt. He was a Squadron Leader for the 362 FG, 377 FS, 9th AF. He was shot down over Trier, Germany on Feb 14, 1945, on his last mission, 13 days before his 22nd birthday. I have pictures of him and his plane and some buddies. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Metal, Purple Heart and several others for valor. If anyone knows of him, please, please let me know. Thank-you, Steven Linehan email: Stevenlgts@worldnet.att.net
Posted By: Steven Linehan
(StevenLGTS@worldnet.att.net)
on 05/31/1999 8:39:10 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 654)
In remembrance of all of you guys who flew and took care of the Thunderbolts during World War II, and in memory of those guys who didn’t come back but are still flying high in the good Lord’s arms, THANK YOU on this Memorial Day, 1999. From one who remembers and cares. Dave Piscitelli
Posted By: Dave Piscitelli
(CoachPisco@aol.com)
on 05/30/1999 11:11:52 AM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 653)
I am looking for information on Lt. Robert N. Greene, 351st FS, 353rd FG, who was KIA in the Netherlands on September 17, 1944. Lt. Greene was flying a flak suppression mission in support of the airborne landings at Arnhem (Operation Market Garden) and was lost after bombing flak positions.Any information is welcome!
Posted By: frederik paauwe
(fcpaauwe@hotmail.com)
on 05/30/1999 10:29:19 AM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 652)
I am a Royal Air Force veteran who served with 74 Sqn (Spitfires), but my buddy here, Bob O’Neill, served with the 406th USAAC P47s, and was shot down near Pais just after D-Day, but evaded. He has no email so I am signing for him, as I also served on TDY with the USAAC and am now a proud American.
Posted By: Doug Tidy
(Tigermantidyman@webtv.net)
on 05/21/1999 5:34:33 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 651)
Former Crew chief P47 9Q-D of the 371st fighter Group 404th fighter WW2 Europe 1944 & 1945 I located the family of Lt Col Gradel for Mr. Roger Feller of Luxumbourg. He has Lt. Col. Gradel,s Parachute and wants to give it to him. Mr. Feller,s message was on this website. Happy to help a former P47 pilot. gradel,s
Posted By: Allen O. Anderson
(Budrosemary@webtv.net)
on 05/18/1999 10:28:39 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 650)
Whilst I was too young to remember, I’m full of admiration for those brave Yanks who helped us Brits in our time of need. Incidentally, I live within a mike of a former wartime airfield on which jugs were stationed. More power to your association and those like it.
Posted By: mike martin
(mike.martin1@tesco.net)
on 05/15/1999 5:01:57 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 649)
I was a ’jug’ pilot in WWII, with the 513th Ftr Sqn.406th Ftr Grp. in Europe. I flew 50 ground support missions for Generals Patton & Simpson. Was in the ’Battle of the Bulge’, the Rhine Crossing, and Central Europe. My plane was named the ’wolf’ after a movie cartoon by MGM. I’m so glad to hear that so many people love the ’jug’ as I do.
Posted By: John Bazan
(jabazan@gte.net)
on 05/13/1999 1:21:08 AM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 648)
This is posted in memory of Gordon Blake, a fine pilot with a memorable sense of humor. I still remember his attempt to be stern,waggling his finger at me after I had chased a buddy too low over ’his’ airfield.
Posted By: Robert Bean
()
on 05/11/1999 10:32:44 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 647)
Yes, I, too, fancy the P-47 and have since I was 13 years old living in East Syracuse. That spring, the newly formed (in 1947) 138th Fighter Squadron, of the New York Air National Guard, accepted 25 P-47D-40 Thunderbolts and started flying them from the Southeast corner of the old Syracuse Army Air base - now Handcock International Airport. Things were loose in the early days and I used to ride my bike to the base and hand tools to mechanics working on the Jugs. At 17 I joined the 138th - now part of the 174th Fighter Wing flying old F-16s. As an aircraft mechanic and jet engine technician, I worked for a couple of years at Republic Avaition Corporation in Farmingdale, L.I., N.Y., in hanger 3 on early F-105Bs and 105D airplanes in production test-flight. In the Air Guard I knew a lot of pilots who flew the Jug during the war, and at Republic many mechanics who built the airplane with pride. At Republic, Robert S. Johnson worked when I did but I never had the intestional fortitude to go to the corporate offices and meet him. Johnson, by the way, was 78 on Dec. 27 when he left us to join his wife, who died in 1995. I have always felt that despite all the Mustang hoopla about that airplane winning the air war over Germany, people like Johnson, ’Gabby’’ Gabreski, ’Hub’’ Zemke and the others, paved the way for the Mustangs. Those guys of the 56th, 78th and 4th Fighter Groups - kids in their 20s - arrived in England knowing how to fly the Jug but green to combat. The British pilots laughed at the size of their fighters they would fly over the continent against German pilots who had four years of experience fooling with the Spitfires and Hurricanes over the Channel. At first the Jug pilots lost at a 3 to 1 rate to the Nazi pilots, but in a few months turned that around shooting down three ME-109s and FW-190s to the loss of a Thunderbolt. By the fall of 1943, from all I’ve read, the Jug pilots were taking a heavy toll of veteran German fighter pilots to the point that, when the Mustang became active, many of the German pilots they encountered were green rookies. Not all, of course. So it’s great to find by chance this excellent web site about the men who flew the airplane, and the P-47. Keep up the work and maybe, someday, those - you P-47 pilots - will get the proper recognition on the tube you deserve. My sincere thanks to those who’ve created this P-47 web, and to those who helped preserve world peace by risking everything flying the fighter into combat.
Posted By: John D. Hill
(writerhill@a-znet.com)
on 05/11/1999 5:31:50 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 646)
My father William Roy Brewer Jr, A P47 Pilot Flew with the distinguished 36th Fighter Group, 22nd Squadron. He was born October 6th, 1922 and left to reside with God on May 18, 1996. He has over 80 missions to his credit. He always understood and taught his 7 children to always love God, Country and Family. My Mom Joan has attended his fighter squadron reunions since his passing. I know that his children, Susan, Cindy, Debbie, Dawn, Roy III, John and myslef all miss him and love him and have the same admiration for all of the other heroic pilots of the P47 Thunderbolt and other members of the military that fought and that continue to fight for our freedom. Anyone that was either a part of the 36th Fighter Group, 22nd Squadron, please feel free to contact me and share their experiences. Peace and God Bless to you all. For if you are anything like my Dad, you are truly my heros as well.
Posted By: Connie Fiandaca
(CFiandaca@aol.com)
on 05/05/1999 10:26:48 PM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 645)
Have had THE JUG as my business card logo, (GHOSTWORKS) since the late seventies. I have always been fascinated with the airplane and it’s fantastic performance numbers. Found this website by chance this evening and am pleased to see all the great comments and messages. God Bless You All. Over th eyears I have worked on a lot of older aircraft but have yet to work with a Jug.
Posted By: Don Rishel
(docdon@gateway.net)
on 05/03/1999 3:41:06 AM EST
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Guestbook Entry (msg id: 644)
My Uncle Robert Daniel flew the P-47 in WWII. He was killed in France. I have a photo of him and 6 other flyers standing in front of a trainer. The back of the photo is stamped ’6th Army Air Force Flying Training Detachment Thunderbird Airport Glendale, Arizona. I will email a scanned copy to anyone interested. I know he was at Luke Field on April 4, 1944. He was in Class 44-D.
Posted By: Robert Daniel
(rcdann@jax-inter.net)
on 05/01/1999 5:26:20 PM EST
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