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
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