Jetrader - Summer 2014 - 42

A Long Overdue
World War II B-24 Bomber pilot presented
Distinguished Flying Cross after 68 years
By Charley Cleaver

Airline treasurers, at least those of us who
practiced our trade during the turbulent
1990s to mid-2000s, are driven to close
transactions. Two of us recently had the
good fortune to help close a long overdue,
forgotten project, that was 68 years late. A
good long-time friend from our respective
days at Northwest and ATA, Dan Matthews
was always professional and a role model.
No one did it better for his airline in
terms of aircraft acquisition and corporate
finance: toughness mixed with fairness.
Quite by an accident of fate, we worked
together on a World War II project for a
family friend of mine, the youngest (age 18)

B-24 Liberator four-engine bomber pilot-incommand in the World War II United States
Army Air Force (USAAF), Lt. Tom Faulkner.
As fate would have it, I was speaking
with Dan in March 2013, and he said that
he had just finished a research documentary about his father and uncles' United
States Army and Air Force service in World
War II. Those of you who know Dan will
not be surprised to know that his research
methodology is on par with military history
graduate students. I know, as I was once
among their ranks. As a personal interest
over many years, he learned the arcane
world of military archives research for WWII

Charley Cleaver, Lt. Thomas Faulkner, Dan Matthews and Air Force Major General John Nichols
in September 2013.
42 The ofﬁcial publication of the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading

unit histories and personnel records comprising the "when, where, what and who"
that form the building blocks of history.
During that phone conversation, Dan
mentioned that his uncle was killed when
his B-24 was brought down by enemy fire.
I asked, "Which theatre of operations?"
"15th Air Force operating from bases in
Italy," he said. I mentioned my family
friend, Tom, who also flew B-24s in the 15th
from the same base as former senator and
presidential candidate George McGovern.
Dan quickly responded by saying he had met
George McGovern on three occasions during
his research over the years regarding his
uncle with the 15th Air Force. Following the
call, Dan went online and quickly found an
actual photograph of Tom's final B-24 that
made an emergency landing in Switzerland
in February 1945. Dan, who was known at
Eastern and Northwest for his thoroughness and determination, took this research
opportunity and ran further with it. As the
days became a week or two, many details
of young Tom's 28 bombing missions came
alive from military archives. Suffice to say
that Dan's research led to dramatic and
miraculous events. At this point, I realized I needed to introduce Dan to Tom,
whom I have known all my life as one of
my parents' closest friends. I called Tom to
explain that a total stranger in Minneapolis,
Minn., found lots of historical information
that might be of great interest to him.
Many phone conversations between them
followed as more details of Tom's missions
were revealed until one day Tom expressed
discomfort in talking about his final mission and Swiss internment.
For the last 68 years, Tom had nagging,
even paralyzing doubts over his actions
that day over Augsburg, Germany. His

Jetrader - Summer 2014

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