Haulin' Gasoline to Patton

My life as an airline pilot has allowed me to meet many interesting people. That would include sports stars, movie stars, politicians, captains of industry, etc.The most interesting of all, though, are folks that have done extraordinary things, yet are unknown and uninteresting to the populace.

For instance, the Doolittle Raider I met in Denver, crew chief of the aircraft behind Jimmy, as the old warrior told me.

Or the little old man, a passenger on one of my flights, waiting for a wheel chair. I recognized a Mighty Eighth patch on his jacket... He was a ball turret gunner. Back then, a little young man crammed into a B-17 belly turret with a Ma Deuce on each side... Freezing in the slipstream at 25,000 feet and sucking oxygen to stay conscious.

And just last week, I met an elderly gentleman, a friend of my father, whom I have known for years, but not really...

You're the airline pilot?

Yes sir, that would be me.

I regret not doing something like that... I was a pilot during the war. You know that?

No sir...

I used to haul gasoline to Patton, among other things...

Did I hear that correctly...  You hauled gasoline to General Patton?

Graduated from flight school in 1943 at the age of nineteen. He wanted to be a P-51 pilot, but was forced into C-47s because that's where the need was ... At twenty, he was an aircraft commander stationed in England. He and his classmates towed gliders, hauled paratroopers, flew gasoline in five gallon cans to Patton and landed in fields at night to unload. They also died in large numbers, mostly from accidents. His C-47 was damaged many times from ground fire, but kept on flying.

I asked him specific questions about the C-47, the navigation methods, weight and balance, engines, required crew members, performance numbers... Pilot-to-pilot stuff.

His answers came quickly, pulled from the deep well of time... Sparkling eyes as his youth resurfaced, ever so briefly. The great adventure of his life told to me in my father's kitchen.

Hauled gasoline to Patton... I am embarrassed that I did not know. I need to pay more attention.

Life on the Line continues...