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P-38 Pilot


WWGeezer

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One of our inactive members is a friend of mine in the workplace.  He retires this month and he gave me this image as a gift ( not sure why I was getting a gift for his retirement!).   His dad was a P-38 pilot station in Panama during WW2 and this silhouette is him with his aircraft.  His dad passed away a few years ago, but I did have the honor of going with him to the Sacramento airshow one year when they were going to have seven P-38's flying at the same time.  I think in the end they only got four of them in the air that day but it was a great experience.  Two stories about his dad

The first was when his family offered to buy him a ride on a B-17 at one of the Heritage Flights locally.  The response from a 90 plus year old retired P-38 fighter pilot....."Why the hell would I want a ride on a bus like that?"

The second story was when I met his wife on the day we picked him up to go to the airshow.  He had a very worn and dirty WW2 Vet baseball cap on.  His wife stopped him at the door, took off the ratty old hat and brought out a brand new identical hat that she bought for him to wear to the show.  He reluctantly took it from her.   As we all climbed into the van and buckled up, he got this little smile on his face and pulled the ratty old hat that he had concealed in his back pocket and put it back on, smiling from ear to ear. 

I asked Chris for a little more of his service history, will share it here when I have it.  

Chris Dad.jpg

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