Hi, P‑38 Fans:

Lots of great content for you this month.

New videos and photos -- so, don't forget to click on the Photos/Videos link in the nav bar above. We also have news about an event you're not going to want to miss, coming up in April.

You'll also find quite a few P‑38s going down for the count, which I don't think you will have seen before, because they are from a family's private photo collection.

Don't forget to mark your calendars for April 3. You'll see why below...

So, have fun!

Blue skies,

PS - Reminder that many links will open in a separate window, and if there is a larger version of the photo, just clicking it will bring up the enlargement for viewing and the "back" button will return you here.

Table of Contents

	Glacier Girl Presentation in Palm Springs
	Should P‑38s Be Flying in Air Shows?
	P‑38 A-2 Jacket Extraordinaire
	The P‑38 in New Guinea
	New P‑38 Hangar at Chino Museum
	P‑38 Panel with Combat Pilots & Flight Demo
	P‑38 Tech Book Download
	Tangerine & Oscar
	"Pigs" Article Rebuttal - and How!
	P‑38 Annihilation

Bob Cardin to speak at PSAM

The Palm Springs Air Museum is putting on a nice P‑38 event the weekend of Jan 29-30.  Bob Cardin, the Project Manager in charge of the recovery and restoration of Glacier Girl will be there, and Jack Croul's Allied Fighters P‑38L will be flown by Jeff Harris. It's a great 2‑day event and you can read all the details at the PSAM website. (Click on the "Coming Events" tab.)

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New Photos/Videos on the Web

VIDEO: The Fight for the Sky.  A good vintage video presented by the 8th Air Force Fighter Command, showing what it was like to be an airman in Western Europe in 1945.  It also covers three of the top American fighter planes, including the P‑38.  Well worth the watch, but settle in because it's 41 minutes long..

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VIDEO: San Diego Underwater Footage

If you've never seen underwater footage of the P‑38 wreckage off the coast of San Diego, there's some new video of it here.






VIDEO: 23-SKIDOO WALKAROUND

PHOTO: Edward Air Show

Nice shot of Steve Hinton flying the Allied Fighters P‑38 during the recent air show at Edwards AFB.  This plane is most typically flown by Jeff Harris, but this was the exception.

New 475th Exhibit

If you live in the Southern California area and haven't been out to the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino recent, this is a great time to go (after the floods subside, of course!).  They've recently had the Grand Opening of the new P‑38 Exhibit, built and sponsored by the 47th Fighter Group Historical Foundation -- and boy is it a beauty. It's the new home of the PoF's own P‑38 Lightning, 23 Skidoo, named in honor of Perry Dahl's plane - he's the President of the 475th FGHF.  You can select the picture and see a larger version of the hangar.
[Photo by Mormillo]

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P‑38 Event

Speaking of the Planes of Fame, they are hosting a huge P‑38 event on Saturday, April 3, from 10A/12P.  The P‑38 National Association will also be participating in the event and will be bringing a bunch of P‑38 pilots, who will be speaking all about their love of and experiences with our favorite plane. 

Participating P‑38 Pilots (so far!)
Jack “Fox” Olson – 475th FG
           (& Current P‑38 Assn Docent)
Tom “Ox” Oxford – 475th FG
Bob Waggoner – 54th FS, 343rd FG
           (& Current P‑38 Assn Docent)
Everett Miller (Ace) – 94th FS, 1st FG
Burt Torrey – 49th FG
Joe Onesty – 14th FG (& Current P‑38 Assn Docent)
Everett Farnham – 96th FS, 82nd FG

They will be posting all the details on this page of their website, and we'll keep you updated as we hear more details.

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Tangerine & Oscar

While that sounds oddly like a movie title to me, it's actually referring to some great photos that were sent over to us by Christian Gurling who is the Museum Curator at the Tillamook Air Museum.  I have only included one here (enlargeable by clicking on it), but will be adding more to our revamped website. Soon!

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TAKE THAT!

For those of you who have seen that RIDICULOUS article about the P‑38 called "A Tale of Two Pigs" there is a very nice rebuttal article here where the author, Eric L. Palmer, basically says the writers of that original article must have failed their history class.  (I'm not including a link to the original article just cause it pissed me off so much, but you can easily find it online if you care to.)

To fly or not to fly?

Fans usually have strong opinions about this topic.

Should P‑38s be flying (in air shows or demos) so that everyone can see them in the air in all their glory?

Or should they be tucked away safely in the hangar to guarantee they will be there for future generations to enjoy and appreciate?

Some feel it's too dangerous, with so few remaining P‑38s in existence, while others believe that people should be able to see them doing what they were designed to do – fly.

How do you feel?  Vote now on our new poll here. (Only one vote per computer will register.)
 

Holy a-2 batman!

If you've ever seen a more beautiful piece of artwork on an A-2 jacket, I'd like to see it.

Just click on the photos to see the larger version.

These photos were sent in to us by P‑38 Association member, Steve Krick, with his "special thanks and recognition to Mr. Britt Dietz (by way of fellow Association member, Martin Potts), whose photos provided the emphasis of the artwork."

We'll be adding all of Steve's photos once the website is finished with its redesign.

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New P‑38 Book on New Guinea

This new book about the P‑38 in New Guinea during the war is due to be released in March, but you can read about it and pre-order it here.

One of the attaboys it gives the 38 is: "Its speed, firepower and range made it a formidable opponent, and one for which the Japanese never had an answer; the P‑38 was ultimately credited with destroying more Japanese aircraft than any other USAAF fighter."

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P‑38 Book Download

Not sure why this book is available as a free download because they're still selling it on Amazon, but if you go to this website, you'll be able to download a copy of it at no cost. 

I did the download and scanned the file before I opened it, and it was free of viruses or spyware.  So, if you'd like to grab up a copy you can do so. Make sure you download the .pdf version and not the .txt version in order to get the photos, diagrams, etc.  You'll need the Adobe Reader to view the book.  You can download the free software at Adobe's website.

[ED NOTE: Please don't ask us for any technical assistance on this download, as we're not qualified to solve tech problems of this sort. Thanks.]

P‑38 annihilation

Many of you may have seen the photo we have on our website of the crumpled up P‑38s, thrown away like trash after the war.  But these two photos come from the family archives of newsletter reader Robert Osheim, who was nice enough to give us permission to reprint them here.  Robert was stationed on the Pacific island of Tinian, which was the staging area for the invasion of Japan.

P‑38s Being Destroyed on Tinian Island
CLICK TO ENLARGE

Here is an accounting in Robert's own words: 

"When the war ended, and while waiting to return to the United States, the orders came through to dispose of the aircraft. There were hundreds of P‑38 Lightnings involved. I was assigned as a crane operator. The planes were towed to the pit and were dropped over the edge by the crane. Some I understand were fueled up so as to help generate enough heat to melt the metal; only the batteries were removed." 

A real heartbreaker, as he says in the last part of his email: "The memories of this episode still bothers me today. To destroy such beautiful machines and their history is a dishonor. I hope these pictures will add a page to your history of this fabulous aircraft."

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Hardstand
By John Stanaway

It is difficult to keep up with all the various accounts now becoming available that detail the lives and experiences of WWII pilots.  Happily, a number of P‑38 people have written in the recent past, and we have the pleasant task of wading through the accumulated mass of verbiage to find some interesting tomes.

Herbert “Stub” Hatch was a St. Paul, Minnesota kid who considered that he was lucky enough to go through pilot training in the U. S. Army Air Forces in 1942.  He eventually got assigned to the 1^st Fighter Group in Italy, and had the unique distinction of claiming five enemy fighters in one combat with his P‑38 during the infamous Ploesti raid of June 10, 1944.  A book of vignettes – AN ACE AND HIS ANGEL – resulted in 2000. [ED NOTE: Can be back ordered here through Amazon.]

Hatch never implies in any of his stories that he was anything exceptional as a pilot.  In fact, his tone is rather self-effacing, and his praise is both for his fellow pilots and the angel (or angels) of the title.  Nevertheless, Hatch is eloquent in his writing, giving the impression of knowing well the subject of AAF flying in WWII as well as the background of the war itself.

The very nature of Hatch’s service with the P‑38 is that he was every bit an ordinary P‑38 pilot with one distinguishing moment in the fighter.  There were only about five traditional P‑38 pilots who claimed five or more aerial victories in a single mission (plus several others who unofficially claim the distinction) during the war.  Colonel Bill Leverette was finally credited with seven Ju-87 Stukas in one mission to top the list for USAAF pilots in Europe, and Hatch got his five about eight months later.

As it is, the mythical status of fighter ace is unique in itself, while those remarkable fellows who got their five in one mission are indeed one of a kind.  Hatch was initially credited with five of the formidable Fw-190 fighters.  Subsequent research indicated that his adversaries were actually Rumanian IAR-80 fighters, a fact that makes Hatch’s feat even more extraordinary, considering the limited number of contacts between Rumanian and American fighters.

Just a passing note of interest on one of Hatch’s anecdotes is his vignette on flying the P-63 “Pinball” target fighter at a training base in the Mojave Desert later in the war.  He describes the process of flying the armored and overweight aircraft in the heat of the area with all the apparent apprehension of a young pilot trying to get an overloaded airplane into the thin air of the desert.  It is not impossible to imagine, even for the non-flying reader like me, how daunting the prospect must have been.  Like everything else that Hatch writes, it gives a concise idea of wartime flying perils.

To read more about the Aces of the European Theater of Operations, check out John's book:

P-38 ACES OF THE ETO/MTO
Takes the story of the P‑38 to Europe and North Africa, tracing the careers of many previously unknown aces and helping to redress the balance which has in the past seen all the "glory" for the fighter victories in the theater shared between the pilots of the P-47 and P-51. 96 pages including 12 pages of color profiles and portraits. 90 photos. 

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Donations

If you'd like to support the P‑38 Association (any donation at all will help), just click the button below.  Thanks! We appreciate it.

The generous donations from our Association and P‑38 Newsletter members as well as the "legacy" donations made to us by the families and friends of those who have folded their wings, have enabled us to continue our mission of keeping alive the memory of the P‑38 and all those involved with her throughout the war years and beyond. And we thank you.

(A new, secure window will open where you can enter any donation amount. Thanks!)

This Month's Donors

Thanks to all of you for helping to keep us thriving. The supporters with a star ☆ by their names are our special donors, who have made exceptionally generous donations.

Rick Barrett ☆
Also upgraded to Life Membership!

John F. Durant ☆
(in memory of Bruce Bauer)

Mr. & Mrs. John S. Garbett

Bob Hawes

Barrett Haynes

Drew Jackson ☆
(in honor of his father, Mike Jackson, P‑38 pilot Archie Jackson's son.)

Steve Krick

Roger Naylor

Ernie Newman

Robert E. Perry ☆
(in memory of Bruce Bauer)

Robert Post ☆

Rupert Sparks

Michael Terry

Victoria B. Tucker ☆
(in memory of Bruce Bauer)

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P‑38 Mugs

This unique P‑38 artwork was from one of our recent events, and everyone liked it so much, we decided to make it available on a mug (regular or large size).

Click on mug to enlarge picture

The mugs are both discounted for this month.