HISTORY

Easy come easy go

Ironically, Pappy in fact was not authorized to fly Army airplanes since he did

not possess USAAF pilot license. In that

hectic wartime no one questioned him

but one day Gunn approached General

Kenney and asked: “General, where can

I get those wings you have pinned on?”

General answered that he could go to the

officers’ mess and buy them but Pappy

explained to him what he meant, that in

fact he had been flying the Army airplanes “illegally”. Up until then Kenney was

not perhaps fully aware who he had dealt

with and only now found out that Pappy

was a former Navy pilot flying since 1925.

So, he immediately dispatched a request

to General Arnold’s office that Major Paul

Irvin Gunn was to be issued the USAAF

pilot’s license retroactively as of December 7, 1941.

However, the message reached some

bureaucrat in Arnold’s staff and so two

days later Kenney, to his great surprise,

read a message stating that Major Gunn

was to return to the USA where he will be

admitted to seven months long pilot training and if successfully completed will

be dispatched back unless he requested

another assignment.

“As soon as I had calmed down, I sent

a personal wire to Arnold marked Eyes

Only, which told Hap the story of Pappy’s life, suggesting a suitable disposition

of the staff officer who had sent me the

answer to my original wire, and inasmuch

as I believed that Major Gunn knew more

about flying than any instructor he had in

the United States, I was again asking that

Pappy be rated an Air Force pilot.”

recalled General Kenney. Arnold immediately entertained his request and so

soon enough, in his office Kenney could

pin the pilot‘s insignia on Pappy’s uniform. Pappy wasted no time, rushed to

the financial department and claimed

around four thousand dollars as a back

pay for the pilot‘s position…

Then he requested time off and decided

to fly to New Guinea where, as he believed, could become a millionaire in the

local casinos. He sat on the right seat

of a B-25 headed there, all that money

stuck in buttoned pockets of his shirt.

December 2022

During the flight the sun was hitting the

cockpit hard, so Pappy tucked away his

shirt on the back of his seat. He lit a cigarette and decided to let some fresh air

in. In one move he jerked the side window

open and an immediate pressure drop

sucked the shirt out. It disappeared in the

blue of the sky and ocean … Pappy looked

out hoping that it at least got caught on

the tail surfaces, but no luck. So he took

over the controls, turned Mitchell around

and searched for the shirt on the water

the Philippines. The landing was to take

place on October 20 on Leyte Island near

Tacloban port on the eastern coast. In the

meantime, the USAAF focused on the oil

refineries and fuel dumps in Balikpapan

on Borneo where the Japanese sourced

most of their aircraft fuel for their Philippine bases with approximately three

thousand airplanes located there.

As soon as Pappy learned about the

planned landing, he started to devise his

own plans. His first thought was to fly one

A little later, while already in Dayton USA, Kenney met with a group

of engineers and designers from the Air Force Materiel Division who

explained to him that all was wrong, the aircraft had an upset center

of gravity, it was too heavy and in fact could not even fly …

surface. Nothing again … He dragged from

his cigarette a couple of times, closed the

window and after a moment of silence he

stated: “Well then. Easy come, easy go

…” Shortly after, on May 10, 1943, General

Kenney signed the paperwork for Pappy’s

promotion to a Lieutenant Colonel which

could have been for him at least a small

compensation for this loss.

The Philippines on fire

In the middle of September 1944, the

American Strategic Command of the US

forces in the Pacific decided to reclaim

of B-25s rebuilt to version with twelve

machine guns to Manila and shoot to pieces hundreds of Japanese aircraft lined

up on both sides of two miles long Taft

Boulevard Street. The Japanese used it

for both the take offs and landings as well

as the storage. It was not a bad idea with

one problem though, the Americans did

not control any base from which a Mitchell could reach Manila. Pappy, who was

eager to liberate the Philippines as soon

as possible and rejoin his family, was

however willing to fly despite the risk of

running out of fuel on the return journey.

photo: Bill Swain

After that Arnold practically ordered

Pappy to show up in Dayton as soon as

possible to teach his experts something.

Roughly a week afterwards Gunn flew

to the USA and reported directly to the

boss of North American Aviation, “Dutch”

Kindelberger. The following three weeks

Pappy literally lived in the Los Angeles

factory and day and night worked with

the designers on further improvements.

When they were finished Mitchell featured not four but six machine guns in the

nose and the whole airplane was better

balanced.

A dramatic view of para-bombs drop.

INFO Eduard

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