POSTAVENO

HISTORY

The Savior: Dean Elmer Hess

Major Dean Hess in the

cockpit of his Mustang

photo: U.S. Air Force

Dean Hess, at the time of the attack on Pearl

Harbor, was a priest and preached to his parishioners in Cleveland. After the attack, he came to

the realization that he couldn’t ask them to fight

for their homeland without leading by example.

Since he had been fascinated by aviation from

an early age, he signed up for the Aviation Cadet

program and became a pilot. In 1944, he was assigned to go to France, where he flew 63 combat

missions in a P-47D. After the war, Hess returned

to the priesthood and also started his postgraduate studies. In July, 1948, he was recalled for

active duty and at the time of the North Korean

attack on South Korea, he was serving in Japan.

He voluntarily accepted the command function

for Bout One, which became the first USAF air

combat formation in Korea, at Taegu. By June,

1951, it had flown 250 combat missions. During

this period, they also launched an unofficial program to evacuate orphaned Korean children and

escort them to safety ahead of advancing Chine-

se troops. Among the reasons for this initiative

was the unhappy event that occurred in December, 1944 during a raid on Kaiserslautern, when

he and Bill Myers attacked a railroad station with

their P-47s. While dropping their two 1,000 pound

bombs each, one of Hess’s failed to separate

from the rack, and only did so a few moments

later. Hess learned a day later that the bomb hit

a nearby building that was an orphanage, and 37

children were killed. His guilt then followed him

for the rest of his life. His Thunderbolt carried the

Latin inscription “Per Firem Volo” meaning “With

Faith I Fly”, and in Korea, his Mustang carried the

same slogan in Korean. From out of the number

of his bold actions, we will mention a solo act

he performed that rescued an eighteen-strong

American patrol from a North Korean siege with

some “extreme” close air support. He repeatedly attacked in a manner that would open up an

escape route to safety for the soldiers. For this

action, he received the Silver Star. But perhaps

an even bigger praise came from the communist

radio propagandists called “Seoul City Sue”, who

dubbed him the Barbarian from Chinhae (from

the time when Bout One flew from this base).

Dean Hess published his memoirs in 1957 under

the title “Battle Hymn”, and on its basis, a film

was shot with Rock Hudson in the starring role.

The royalties from the book and the movie were

used to build a new orphanage near Seoul in 1961.

Hess ended his active service career in 1969 as

a Colonel and passed away at the age of 97 on

March 2, 2015, and two years later, the South

Koreans built a monument to him on the island

of Jeju, where the orphans had been evacuated

to. Next to his name on the monument are the

words:

Hero of the Korean War

Godfather of the R.O.K Air Force

Father of War Orphans

South Korean president

I Sung-man awarded Dean

Hess for service above and

beyond the call of duty

during the Korean War.

photo: U.S. Air Force

July 2022

INFO Eduard

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