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Charles R. Queen
CHARLES R. QUEEN All good fighter pilots discuss ad nauseum their 'kills' and their superior prowness in violating the skies.
The only 'kills' I have are two FW 190's that
were inadvisedly parked on the apron in front
of a hangar in central German in 1944. I was
briefed to bomb the hangar with my two 500
pounders and as instructed, took careful aim
and with absolute concentration on the task
at hand, missed the hangar and hit the two
defenseless FW's. The closest I came to shooting anything down in the air was at dusk on my first mission while flying the squadron
commander's wing. Attempting to impress
him with my airmanship I remained 'tucked
in' until suddenly he went into a steep climb
away from me (a wise move). In my peripheral vision I saw the reason; a flight of bogeys in our midst but at that very instant I stalled and
at the bottom of my recovery found one of
them filling my redicle. As I flipped the
switch to arm my guns a sudden flash of giant
English circles filled my awareness and a
flying career was saved (actually two careers.
There was a fellow by the name of Willie
Friend from Sioux City in my squadron who,
in retrospect, had the most realistic appreciation for the entire war of anyone I had run across. He, as I also, was convinced that the
Germans were going to kill us, or at least
make the supreme effort to do so. We spent a
great deal of our time between bouts of
diarrhea considering our immediate demises
probably to the detriment of our flying
aggressiveness.
My superior flying skills were demonstrated by an incident that occurred on a day when Germany was socked in except for a few
moving holes. My squadron was following
one of these holes and when it passed over a
marshalling yard our fearless leader cut out
three other squadrons in the queue and down
we went to glory. Both sides of the yard lit up
and to my everlasting distraction the tracers
flew by scaring what little hell was left, out of
me. After dropping my bombs and spraying
the local pastures with 50 calibres, I pulled
up to find that the hole was behind me and I
was in the clouds with caged gyros. Two loops
later, the bottoms of which were down in the
muck of the yard smoke eliciting the best
shots of very Kraut in the country, I leveled
out at 500 feet, uncaged my gyros, poured
the water on, and climbed straight ahead at
150 mph. The squadron leader in the meantime demanded, 'The wise acre who is doing aerobatics over the target will get his ass up
here, now!' I never admitted to a thing.
In 1975 while serving as a flight surgeon
in Germany my wife and I were invited to eat
Christmas dinner with the parents of a German couple we had met previously in Alaska. During the evening I found out that the
father had been a locomotive engineer during
the war. As I drank his cognac and we
discussed the world of the seventies, I
couldn't help but think of the number of
locomotives we shot up, considering it as a
sort of one-sided deadly sport; now thirty
years later I was his house guest and the
USAFE 'NATO Commander For Air' was a
German general.
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Pilot Name
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Biography Summary
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John Abbotts
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P-47 transition followed at Pocatello, Idaho and Greenville, Texas after which he was assigned to the 56th Fighter Group in England. When the news of his arrival reached Berlin, Hitler retired to his bunker with his cyanide capsule and revolver. Eva found the news equally depressing.
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Asa A. Adair
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He returned to the States in August of 1944 after participating in the invasion "D" Day. He flew P-63's, P-51's, F-80's, T-33's, F-84's, T-38's, P-47's in numerous assignments during the following twenty years in in, Japan, U.S.A. and Europe before retiring after twenty-six years of Active Duty.
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Edward B. Addison
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The 507th Fighter Group, equipped with P-47N's, won the Presidential Unit Citation for destroying 32 Japanese aircraft in the air on one mission to Seoul, Korea. The average flying time for raids to Korea and Japan would be 7 to 9 hours flying time. In a total of 31 months, the 507th not only provided top cover for B-29's, but also
dive-bombed, napalm-bombed and flew low-level on strafing missions.
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Levon B. Agha-Zarian
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It is rumored that he, took his primary training on a flying rug. He flew Spits, briefly, in England, but as the, war moved to the East, he was sent to India as a Sgt. Pilot and first saw action from Ceylon, flying the Curtiss P.36, the Brewster Buffalo, and the Hurricane. At this point he might have opted for the rug! This was at the time of the fall of Singapore and the sinking of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse.
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George N. Ahles
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Posted to A-20 light bomber squadron Barksdale Field, Louisiana. . Group moved to Hunter Air Base Savannah, Georgia. Qualified for Pilot training November 1940. Entered Aviation Cadets January 1942. Presented wings November 1942 class of 42-J. Married Mary Louise while in Advanced Pilot Training at Craig AFB, Selma, Alabama, September 1942.
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Roy J. Aldritt
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Shortly after the group moved to France he ran into some unseen flak and was forced to make a nylon descent behind the lines; some evasion and a lot of luck had him back with his unit
in 24 hours.
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Eugene J. Amaral
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After graduation from Stonington High School he enlisted as an Aviation Cadet in December 1942 and was called to active duty in March, 1943. He received his wings and commission at Spence Field, Georgia as a member of the Class of 43-C.
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Talmadge L. Ambrose
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Flew 84 missions thru VE Day, was downed by 22mm ground fire over Siefried Line. He destroyed 11 enemy aircraft, 9 known confirmed in air and on
ground, including 4 FW 190-D's in one afternoon over Hanover, Germany, April 8, 1945. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross,
Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, 17 man, Oak Leaf Clusters, Good Conduct Medal, Pacific Theatre and European Theatre Meda1s with 5 Battle
Stars and Unit Citation Medal.
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John C. Anderson
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After P-47 transition he was assigned to the 406th Fighter Group, 512th Fighter Squadron. (E.T
.0.) He flew 56 missions through January, 1945 destroying supply routes, bridges, and railroads; he also flew close support missions with the ground forces, with attacks on tanks, artillery and enemy positions.
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William Anderson
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It was not always flak,two ME-109's beat the hell out of me one day. The central controller called me and said "Basher-Red Leader do you have contact Bandits," I replied, "I sure do, I'll bring them over the field in 3 minutes, they're chasing me home." Got all the usual medals including two Belgium and two French but one I'm most proud of is the Silver Star -it is the greatest.
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