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Bengel

Lifer
Sep 20, 2019
3,116
14,243
Lovely! Ettrick. Hope you get better quick, I have been down with it for awhile, also looking forward to a pipe as well ?
 
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OldWill

Part of the Furniture Now
Feb 9, 2022
690
3,877
74
Blanco, Texas
As we approach Father's Day, I would like to honor my late father-in-law, who was also a good friend and who would have been 98 years old last Tuesday.
Capt. John B. Lee, USAAF, 20th Fighter Group, 79th Squadron, King's Cliffs Airfield, Northamptonshire, England, 1944-45.
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At 20 years of age, he became a combat fighter pilot, field promoted to Captain before the age of 21. He flew the North American P-51D fighter on his first mission, 11/09/1944 until his last mission, 04/25/1945, a total of 52 combat missions. He encountered the German ME-109, the Fock-Wulff 190, and even the ME-262, the first operational jet aircraft, and never got a scratch.

He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Criss, the Air Medal with oak leaf cluster, and 3 battle stars, including Battle of the Bulge.

After the war he became an engineer for NACA, and transitioned to NASA as one of the original 32 engineers handpicked to man the Johnson Space Center in Houston. While there, he was part of the team that was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition for successfully bringing safely home the endangered crew of Apollo 13.

He passed away in 2012, and after graveside devices with military honors, myself along with his younger brother (himself a retired Cold War B-52 pilot) were approached by members of a secret pilot's society to participate in their own remembrance ceremony. We were all given generous portions of Famous Grouse, faced the setting sun, and quietly saluted another downed pilot who has "gone west".

Here's to you, John my friend, a hero, an officer and a gentleman.
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