Jetrader - Summer 2014 - 43

B-24 was hit by flak over the target and
had to drop out of formation. One engine
supercharger was out on the right wing
and another engine was completely out of
action on the four-engine aircraft. He had
no navigator and the bomber was losing
altitude at 500 feet per minute, yawing
heavily to the right. Crossing the Swiss
Alps toward Italy was out of the question.
The now 19-year-old airplane commander
tried valiantly to get his damaged aircraft
and eight crewmen to safety in liberated
France. He tried to slip through a corner of
Switzerland unnoticed but fighter planes
from neutral Switzerland had other ideas.
Literally at gunpoint, Tom reluctantly followed their instructions to land at the
Dubendorf Airfield near Zurich. Tom and
his crew were interned for a week and then
trucked to American lines in France. As
released internees, they had to become
noncombatants and sent home. After a
whirlwind trip through 15th Air Force
headquarters and barely time to pack their
belongings, Tom and his crew went home.
After returning to civilian life, Tom completed college, married, had two children,
had a successful career and recently wrote
a spy novel. Despite these achievements,
the nagging question about the 28th
Mission-"had he done it right in landing
in a neutral country, was his patriotism
in question?"-led to a string of physical
illnesses, fitful sleep and mental torment
for 68 years.
Dan politely and respectfully discussed Tom's memories with him, which
he soon backed up with actual combat
reports of Tom's mission and found his
U.S. government-archived military personnel file. "Tom, you dropped your bombs,
flew a severely damaged aircraft without a
navigator, and saved your plane and crew
by safely landing in Switzerland. You are
a hero and the records confirm it. They
owe you a Distinguished Flying Cross!"
Tom processed Dan's detailed reports and
a clear picture emerged that was very different from his ancient, ingrained doubts.
Dan and I decided to get the United
States Air Force (USAF) to present Tom his
Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC)-68 years
after it should have been awarded. But
we did not yet tell him of these notions
lest he be disappointed if we failed. The
miracle came a couple weeks later when
Dan found a set of official 1945 US Army

15th Air Force "General Orders" awarding the DFC to Tom after he and his crew
returned home, which until July 2013, Tom
never knew anything about. It was simply
lost in the end-of-war shuffle until Dan
found the records. Because of the obvious
physical and mental strains, the spry but
frail lieutenant simply had to be told. We
decided to let his children tell him, and
at first he didn't believe it. He thought
Dan had made it up, but then it sunk in
after looking at the official documents.
Later, at a dinner we held at our club, Tom

and his wife of 65 years, Ann, such close
friends of my parents, said the DFC record
was like "68 Christmases."
Emboldened, Dan and I decided to push
the USAF to formally, in a proper military
ceremony, pin the DFC on the 88-year old
lieutenant. I worked the Texas military and
political networks relentlessly, along with
Dan. Driving my own sense of urgency was
my own father, a WWII naval aviator and
carrier pilot, who died suddenly at age 63.
Life is fragile. Honors that are late need
bestowing quickly.

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Jetrader - Summer 2014

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