"Train Number 5 leaving the station..."

EVERY MAN A TIGER:

Squadron Calendar

1 AUGUST 1951 - 31 DECEMBER 1951

AUGUST 1951

August 1 to October 31 - United Nations Forces launch limited attacks to consolidate lines. United Nations Forces involved in Bloody Ridge.

August 9 - An RF-80A from 15th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron piloted by Capt. Joe Daly is intercepted by four MiG-15s near Sinuiju and badly damaged. "No friendly aircraft were in the area and the enemy jets were able to circle above him, diving down at will to fire upon him. Somehow Daly managed to escape, after five firing passes had ripped a gaping hole in his plane." (Pacific Stars & Stripes)

August 14 - 68 B-29s launch a massive strike against a supply center near Pyongyang, North Korea.

August 22 - The 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing and its squadrons move from K-2 Airfield at Taegu to K-14 Airfield at Kimpo in the vicinity of Seoul, South Korea.

August 23 - Communists break off talks charging U.S. violations of neutrality.

August 25 - 35 medium bombers are dispatched against the marshalling yards at Rashin, North Korea.

SEPTEMBER 1951

"By September 1st, 1951, the Communist Air Forces' order of battle included 525 MiG-15s, and the Reds judged that the time was ripe to launch their new air offensive. The MiGs began to appear in greater numbers than ever before, as many as 90 crossing the Yalu at one time. They were also better led, better organized and displayed superior tactics--clear evidence that the ‘honchos', as the Soviet and Soviet-satellite pilots were nicknamed, were in full control." -- Robert F. Futrell, The United States Air Force in Korea.

September 4 (?) - B-29s bomb bridges on the Chongchon River vicinity of Sinanju.

September 5 to 23 - Battle for Heartbreak Ridge.

September 22 - There is a "Bedcheck Charlie" air raid at Kimpo airfield. An RB-26 of the 12th TRS fired on by Kimpo anti-aircraft guns while attempting to land; no one is injured.

September 25 - An RF-80A mission is flown over Saamcham Airfield.

September 28 - Another "Bedcheck Charlie" air raid occurs at Kimpo airfield at about 0200. A "Blue Alert" is sounded after dark and lights are extinguished.

September 29 - "...pouring rain [at Kimpo] so all flying is off."

September 30 - RF-80A mission flown over Saamcham Airfield.

OCTOBER 1951

The first *Honeybucket* F-86As were returned to Kimpo in October of 1951 and the first operational missions were flown. These missions were usually flown with the Honeybucket aircraft as the lead ship of a four-ship flight of F-86s.

October 2 (Friday) - 1LT Bruce Sweney, 15th TRS, was shot down over North Korea and listed as missing in action. His plane was attacked by two enemy MiG-15 aircraft and his RF-80A appeared to explode at an altitude of 20,000 ft. A parachute was seen to open. An F-84 aircraft made a low level pass an observed a parachute in a rice paddy with the pilot lying face down. He made no sign of life or recognition. The next morning when a fighter cap was dispatched to cover the area, the pilot and parachute were gone.

October 14 (Sunday) - An RF-80A mission is flown over Saamcham Airfield.

October 17 (Wednesday) - An RF-80A mission is flown vicinity Antung Airfield [?]; escorted by 336 FIS. "There was another mission of escort of photo reccy and I suppose it's just as well we didn't get mixed up in a fight as the responsibility of keeping track of those boys is enough of a job."

October 18 (Thursday) - An RF-80A mission is flown over Saamcham Airfield.

October 19 (Friday) - B-29s bomb bridges on the Chongchon River vicinity of Sinanju, North Korea.

October 23 (Tuesday) - Black Tuesday. Three B-29s of the 307th Bomb Wing limp in to Kimpo with wounded aboard after being shot up by MiGs during the Namsi Raid.

October 25 (Thursday) - Peace talks resume at Panmunjom.

October 31 (Wednesday) - Missions scrubbed at Kimpo due to weather. Colonel Edwin S. Chickering assumes command of the 67th Tactical Reconnaissance wing at Kimpo.

NOVEMBER 1951

"Although customarily escorted by 12 to 16 F-86s, 15th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron RF-80s were bounced by MiGs 11 times during November. Some photo missions had to flown five or six times in order to procure requisite photographic coverage."

November 1 (Thursday) - Missions scrubbed at Kimpo due to weather; "frigid weather".

November 4 (Sunday) - "[A.M.] Miserable Siberian cold...[P.M.] There was an air raid alarm, so we trooped outside to watch the flak display down Inchon way."

November 7 (Wednesday) - Bridge photo recon mission.

November 13 (Tuesday) - Weather: No-fly.

November 14 (Wednesday) - Weather: No-fly.

November 15 (Thursday) - Weather: No-fly. "Siberian cold outside." USO Show with Danny Kaye and Monica Lewis at Kimpo.

November 18 (Sunday) - F-86s strafe Uiju airfield; B-29s bomb Uiju airfield.

November 20 (Tuesday) - RF-80A mission over Taechon and Namsi Airfields; escorted by 336 FIS. Weather: "The nights are bitter now and the days rarely come up to what you care to endure for long in the open..."

November 22 (Thursday) - Weather: No-fly. Vice President and Mrs. Barkley, Generals Ridgeway, Van Fleet and Everest visit Kimpo. 10 B-29s bomb Uiju Airfield.

November 23 (Friday) - RF-80A mission to Uiju; escorted by 336 FIS, 4th Fighter Group.

November 25 (Sunday) - "It's 9 a.m. right now and snowing". Two inches of snow...the cold was intense last night.

November 27 (Tuesday) - Truce talks resume at Panmunjom and a cease-fire line was agreed upon at the line of contact.

November 1951 to April 1952 - Stalemate along the 38th Parallel. Peace discussions at Panmunjom continue.

DECEMBER 1951

December 2 - Weather: "Cold as blue blazes..."

December 16 - RF-86 mission over Namsi and Taechon Airfields.

December 18 - Exchange of POW lists between U.N. and Communist forces.

December 25 - Weather: "Rain"

December 26 - Squadron Leader Ron T. Susans takes over No. 77 Squadron (RAAF) from Wing Commander G. Steege at Kimpo.

December 27 - RF-80A mission to Uiju.

Dearest Louise Jay and Jan:

Nearly two weeks has gone by and I'm still in the good old terra firma of U.S.A. Sometimes I wish they would ship me out and get it over with. This is a miserable place to be. I've heard so much about California. I don?t like it at all. It's actually a very depressing place to be. It's cold at night and foggy.

It's a very hilly country and practically all wasteland. Arizona was lush in comparison to the dry burned grass that covers the hills. Trees are a rarity.

I have found it hard to write to you because I try not to think about you. I miss you so very much and the prospect of not being able to see you for quite a while is even harder to realize.

This is a heck of a way to live, but it?s the only thing I know. I'll work hard to make good at it so's we can live half way comfortably when I get back. I feel so all alone without you and the kids. It was fun living in South Carolina.

Good night for now.

Love Daddy

Today is Friday. Received your letters today. It was good to hear from you. Glad to hear that you are learning to drive. Who is teaching you? I wish it were me.

7:40 P.M. Things have finally broke. I received my orders this afternoon. We’re going to Japan. Supposed to leave tomorrow. We’re being flown over by Military Air Transport Service. I might end up flying F-86 fighters. I’ve got to repack all my stuff tonite. I got my jump boots and gloves and heavy socks. Good thing [Roger] Miller has an extra bag with him.

Six more men from [51-] Baker arrived here today. They had been assigned for duty in the states from Williams [Air Force Base].

Well Honey, I’ve got a lot of packing and checking out to do so will say so long for now. l'll try and write again before I leave. Got Jay’s letter. I love you and Jan very much too. I miss you honey.

Daddy

Dearest Louise, Jay and Jan'

Arrived Tokyo 2:00 A.M. Wednesday (Thursday our time). Stayed there at a base in Fuchuo, about 17 miles west of Tokyo, until 6:00 P.M. Friday (our time). They loaded us on a train and we took a 25 hour ride to Onagawa, Ashiya AFB, which is just across the channel from Korea. We'll get on to a plane this afternoon that will take us to Korea. They don't waste a bit of time.

Last nite was the first good nites sleep I had since leaving the states.

I'll tell you about the trip when I get settled over in Korea.

I've got to go over for processing and draw some equipment before we go. So long for now. Love you.

Daddy

"August 1951. Old home week, about half of my old Norfolk/Langley Field Reserve Squadron is here. It's good to work with old friends. Our commanding officer, Col. Clyde B. East is a likeable guy and a well-known WWII recon and fighter ace who won fame in North and Italy. I was looking forward to working with him but he is leaving the squadron for the States in a few days. The Operations Officer, Major Fish, is taking over as C.O. and also seems to be a good type. An old friend, Joe Daly, is now our Ops Officer.

August 17th. I've been here at Taegu a little over a week and flown a T-33 and an RF-80 each on a local hop. The F-80's are some of the first production jets the Air force bought, and then converted them to recon by removing guns and putting camera noses on them

The squadron is packing up to move up to K-14, near Seoul, where we will be right up on the enemy lines. I decided to fly up there and get the lay of the land. The ceiling is a little low here but supposed to improve and they call for broken to scattered clouds up on the front lines. The tops of the hills are in the soup and we have an unusual take off procedure. These aircraft have water injection which I never saw in the states, so this is something new to me and the procedure sounds pretty weird. I line up on the runway and run the engine up to 100%, switch the water on, and suddenly everything gets quiet. You lose pressurization and all the gyro instruments when the water injection cuts in. I can feel the extra power and everything is in the green so I release the brakes. The water lasts about 30 seconds, and we have to keep an eye out for a drop in pressure, then switch off before running out of it. I'm just barely in the air by this time and with this low ceiling I have to stay ground contact for about three minutes in order for the gyros to spool back up before going on instruments. I stay down along the railroad track waiting for the gyros to spool up, we have a good head of steam by the time the instruments are back working and I bore on up through the clouds to top out at 23 thousand heading north.

There are some pretty good breaks in the clouds where I can check visually against the chart. We're using old WWII charts with English words overlaid. All the Japanese writing is in red and ours in black. It's not the easiest thing to read so I have to concentrate on matching the chart with the terrain when I can see through the breaks in the clouds.

About the time I reach the enemy lines I notice my fuselage tank is reading less than full - I'm in trouble. This means that I have a fuel problem because the wing tanks keep the fuselage tank full at all times. Fuel must feed by gravity from the fuselage tank to the engine. A quick check tells me that I've lost my electrical system, both generator and battery. I have 150 gallons showing, and at one mile per gallon I'm about 15 miles short of getting back to Taegu where I will have to make an instrument approach, so forget that!

I turn west towards Kimpo airfield (K- 14) and wonder if the field is open because the last we heard they were repairing bomb craters so we can move up there. One more option, there is a new 6,000 foot strip at Suwon, 30 miles south of Kimpo near the coast, so that?s where I decide to go.

The cloud deck is now solid below me and I'm clicking off time versus distance because I don't want to overshoot and let down over Inchon where the Navy ships have orders to fire at anything coming near them. I have to face the fact that I might have to bail out if I don?t break out of the clouds by 4,000 feet because of the mountains. Only the fighter F-80's have seat ejection and I've never heard of a successful bail out of an RF-80A so I'm thinking about trimming full nose down, blowing the canopy, then rolling inverted before releasing my safety belt while hoping to miss the tail.

Someone is watching over me because I start to get some breaks about 4,000 feet and much to my surprise I see one end of a new concrete runway sticking out of some low rain clouds. I don't want to lose sight of it so I pull the power off and make a tight spiral down through the hole.

A couple thousand feet above the ground my canopy suddenly fogs up and I can't see out at all. It happens because the air down low is hot and humid and the airplane is still cold from having come down so fast, especially with the power fully retarded. All I can do is set up a constant bank and circle until the defroster can take care of the problem. I luck out and see the end of the runway again so I drop the gear and as I line up on final most of the runway disappears into the mist under the low ceiling.

I see the F-86's of the 4th Fighter Group lined up to the left of the runway, these are the guys I flew with at Langley Field not long ago. Just before crossing the end of the runway I see Koreans on the runway with wheelbarrows and piles of gravel. When they see me they drop everything and run towards the edge of the runway, it's too late to go around and luckily they're only working on the approach end and I have enough speed to clear the junk on the runway. I give the stick a hard jerk fore and aft to break the float and touch down.

A feeling of relief hits me as I turn off at the end onto the taxi strip. A mechanic waves me into a parking area and who should be the first person to meet me but one of my old reserve squadron mates who was called up with the 4th. He tells me that the reason they are working on the runway is that the commies have been shelling them and all the communications have been knocked out. This also means that they are unable to contact my base to tell them where I am. It turns out that they are surrounded by enemy troops south and west of the base.

A few hours pass while the mechanics fix my electrical system and I take off again, arriving back at my base seven hours after leaving. I've already been reported missing and I haven't flown my first mission."

"August 18th. First mission, Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea. The briefing map shows that there are about 160 flak guns protecting the city and I have to make six camera runs across the place flying a mosaic pattern. They tell me I don't have to worry about MiGs because they seldom venture down that far. It's a beautiful clear day and I get to see everything that I missed seeing yesterday. There's Suwon again, and 30 miles north is Kimpo, where we'll be moving to in a couple days. Kimpo is outside of Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and was the municipal airport for the city. I can see from here that the administration building is now just a bombed out shell.

The enemy has been pushed out across the Han river, about 17 miles north of Kimpo, but below Suwon to the south and west are several thousand troops which were bypassed when MacArthur went into Inchon. Our troops moved up the central and eastern side of the country to cut them off.

Here I am again, it's been 7 years since I've been fired on by an enemy and this time I'll be flying alone and without guns to fight back. The only shooting I'll be doing is with my cameras. It's a new feeling and this time I'll have to rely on seeing the MiGs first and if they attack I'll have two choices; break into them and pretend that I am a Fighter F-80, or open my speed brakes and head down for the deck in a vertical roll. I'm a 100 miles per hour slower than they are but I can out turn them so those are the options. Only time will tell.

Pyongyang comes into view so I bear left and fly up to the northwest side of the city to start my runs. This way I'll be working my way towards our lines with each run. I have to hold exact headings, altitudes, and speed so the 9" by 18" photos will overlap 60% to give the photo interpreters a stereo view of the area. Here we go, camera ON, intervolometer ON, speed 350 mph, altitude 18,000 feet. The camera clicks every three seconds. Each time it clicks I swivel my head around to have a quick look for flack or an enemy plane. I can't believe it, I'm on my last run and still nothing. This would never have happened in Germany. Oh, oh, there's a pulsing buzz in my earphones which means radar is tracking me and I can expect some flack as soon as the buzz becomes constant. There's the flak bursting back and to the side which means it isn't wind corrected. I'm at the point where I can cut the cameras off and get the heck out of here so I roll off to the south in a shallow diving turn and know that they can't get me now unless they put up barrage flack, which isn't likely against one lone plane. Somebody was sure asleep down there to let me make all those runs, but then I'm told that the F-80 has a poor radar return so that may be what the delay in spotting me was. I hope that's the reason. It's a good trip home with a little sightseeing on the way. The flight was one hour and fifty minutes."

August 20th, moving day. Murph and I ferried two RF-80's up to Kimpo, our new base. Looking down at it I see that there is only one patched up runway on a northwest southeast heading. There are low hills on the south end and it looks like rice paddies on the other three sides. There are a lot of rough looking barren hills in all directions beyond the rice fields.

Murph goes in first, touching down on the left side of the runway, and I follow close behind touching down on the right side. Boy, the runway is rough, it's a mass of tar patches. We land on the south end and there is nothing but sky showing at the far end of the runway making it look extra long, so I'm in no hurry to get on the brakes until I see Murph's airplane sink out of sight momentarily. The runway must drop off so I get on the brakes and when I come over the rise I see Murph's tail go into the air and stop tail up. There's a 15 to 20 foot drop off on the end and only his nose wheel went over it. He really lucked out because the airplane was barely scratched.

I taxi off to the west side and a mechanic signals me in to a parking area. I see that we have a couple Nissen huts and several rows of six man tents. It's going to be a dusty, muddy place because the dirt is like powder and turns into a real goo when it's wet. I wait for Murph to get over to operations and have his talk with the powers that be. We're taken over to the bombed out terminal and grab a C-47 ride back to Taegu.

When I first arrived in Korea via Tachikawa in Japan in the Summer of 51, we landed at Taegu Airfield, known as K-2, on the outskirts of the City of Taegu. My Squadron, the 15th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, was stationed at K-2 but had moved the day previous to my arrival up to Kimpo, known as K-14. Armies and Air Forces, both friendly and enemy, had marched and fought up and down the Korean peninsula four times in the past year.

A few of the 15th Squadron administrators were still at K-2 but things were moving pretty fast in the Summer of 51. I had to remain at K-2 overnight until the administrators could arrange a Gooney Bird (C-47) Flight for me up to Kimpo the next day. That night at Taegu we had an unexpected visitor.

The air raid sirens screamed about 2 AM, all of the lights on the base were doused, and the night sky was pierced by a couple of dozen shafts of the searchlights from the perimeter of the base, searching crazily across the black void above trying to locate the aircraft engine noise being emitted by what sounded like an old fashioned Stearman, two-seater, airplane.

Soon the whine of an F-82 night fighter airplane was heard screaming overhead, also in search of the night intruder. The F-82 was an airplane in the USAF inventory which was a modified version of the P-51 Mustang and consisted basically of two P-51 airplanes interconnected side by side by their adjoining wings. It had the two P-51 engines and two tails but just one cockpit. Kind of an abortion but quite functional for its day and purpose--a night fighter. The whine of a single P-51 engine in the air was always an impressive sound, but two inline, Merlin engines whining at high speed in the middle of the night is awesome to say the least.

With the night fighter in the air, no antiaircraft weaponry was used by our forces against what became known to me at that instant as "Bed Check Charlie", a lone enemy airplane of ancient vintage, used to harass our forces on the ground at night; a sleep disturber. His weaponry consisted of an armload of mortar size bombs which were manually dropped at will by the guy in the back seat of the craft, whenever they thought they might be able to inflict some damage or disturbance onto some unknown, unseen object below.

Not many troops on the Air Force Base took the night intrusion very seriously, so they remained in their bunks and grumbled at the inconvenience of having been rudely awakened again by the sirens, lights and furor. The milieu continued for about thirty minutes, until the night sky was again its quiet self, sans war, a quiet that only a night time in the Korean countryside can hold. A black, serene stillness, only disturbed by thoughts of what had just happened and wonders about what tomorrow would bring.

In the Korean air war today there is a special brand of combat that requires a special brand of courage--the kind of courage that pays big dividends to the Air Force and Army but offers little chance for personal glory. This special combat is unarmed tactical reconnaissance.

No headlines acclaim a successful "recce" mission because there are no victories over MIG-15s, only narrow escapes, no bombed out bridges and airfields to claim, no destroyed tanks to report.

The fruit of reconnaissance is vitally important photographic and visual information, often so highly classified that it can not be discussed, even among the recce pilots themselves.

Tactical reconnaissance is a tough, lonesome business. Even so, pilots of the photo-jet squadron of Fifth Air Force's 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, which provides the bulk of all UN daylight photo-reconnaissance, take aggressive pride in their work and their squadron. "Every man a tiger," is a squadron by-word, and when the pilots say it you know they mean it.

Day after day these pilots fly their unarmed RF-80 Shooting Stars deep into enemy-held North Korea. Up MIG Alley to the Yalu River they go, where sleek swept-wing enemy jets can be seen leaving trails of dust as they rise from their Manchurian sanctuary to attack a slower target that cannot shoot back. Low level mission [s] through the flak-infested valleys along the front lines are routine, as are maximum flights up to the hostile juncture of Red China and North Korea.

In most cases these "photo Joes" are alone. Seldom is there a wingman to warn of attacks from the enemy planes. Seldom is there a buddy to circle protectively overhead when one makes a crash-landing in enemy territory. When the MIGs close in, sometimes nearby fighters come to help, but often there is only the pilot's skill and a highly maneuverable aircraft to save him from disaster.

Most of these photo-recon pilots in Korea are veterans of World War II, some alumni of B-17 and B-24 squadrons, some from fighter commands. Now they are recce pilots and are sold on the importance of their new job.

Take Capt. Joe Daly, a fighter-pilot veteran of the air war in Europe. Capt. Daly has 70 combat missions over North Korea to his credit. Three times on this tour he has brought back nearly destroyed planes, Shooting Stars riddled by flak and 37mm fire from the MIGs.

On 9 Aug., Daly was caught by a flight of MIGs near Sinuiju while on a photo mission. No friendly aircraft were in the area, and the enemy jets were able to circle above him, diving down at will to fire upon him. Somehow, Daly managed to escape, after five firing passes had ripped a gaping hole in his plane.

Twice before it was flak that caught Daly, yet both times he was able to return safely to his base and land the badly damaged plane.

Daly has been lucky, and he knows it. He is the first to agree when Maj. B. B. Fish, squadron commander, points out that a recce pilot is no good if he doesn't get home, that the best photographs in the world are not worth a nickel unless they are brought back to be developed.

"There is no room for a glory-seeker in this squadron," Major Fish says. "It is a job that takes brains as well as guts."

Fish, a veteran of reconnaissance missions over Germany in WWII, is the only pilot in the 67th who has flown combat missions in every type aircraft assigned to the wing which includes RF-80s, RF-51s, RB-26s and C-47 Fire-flys.

He constantly reminds his pilots that they are only part of the highly specialized reconnaissance team. When you look around the wing area you understand what he means. Each mission sets in motion a rapid-fire process that requires an army of specially-trained technicians. As the numerous pre-mission details are worked out in operations, as the pilots are briefed and maps drawn, camera repair technicians and engineering personnel prepare the aircraft for the job ahead.

Each mission involves special problems. Different cameras are needed for different type targets, with varying exposure settings and different quantities of film. Delicate adjustments must be made on dust-sensitive instruments under conditions which are always less than ideal.

Nor does the work end when the mission is completed. Even before the pilots are debriefed, exposed film is removed from the aircraft and rushed to the laboratory.

Another group of specialists take over then: developers, printers, enlargers. And as the pilots sleep, photo-interpreters study the results of the day's work gleaning information that ground and air commanders must have to successfully carry out their missions.

To date, the photo-jet recon squadron in Korea has flown over 5,500 combat sorties amassing thousands of photographs of every important airfield, ...[unintelligible] ... railyard... [remainder of article missing]

"August 22nd. I fly a mission up to Chinnampo from Taegu for the last time, and land at Kimpo, our new base. It takes a few days to settle in and we learn that Major Fish has orders home and a Major Ruffin Gray is taking over.

I've been in the squadron less than three weeks and Major Gray asks me to be Assistant Operations Officer. I'd just as soon fly out my missions like the others but he points out that I have more experience than anyone in the squadron since I was both a recon pilot and a fighter pilot in WW2. I also have more fighter time than anyone here, even after being out of the service for so long. I take the job, but three days later Joe Daly is transferred up to Group and now I'm the Ops Officer. There could be a problem because I'm still a First Lieutenant and there are Captain flight leaders. I should have taken that post war promotion when I got out of the service in WW2 but at the time I didn't think that I'd be going back in, so didn't fill out the papers to the Adjutant Generals Office. Now I find my former students outrank me and one of them checked me out in the RF-80 before coming over here to Korea. Major Gray says the job is the most important thing right now and he'll put me up for a spot promotion soon."

Hello again.

I’m in Korea now. I checked in with the outfit yesterday. We’re stationed just a few miles from the front lines. We could hear the artillery all day yesterday. The weather is lousy here. It’s been raining since morning. We’ll get a couple of days of lectures and a couple of local flights then start flying our combat missions. It will take about 6-7 months to get them in, if nothing comes of the Kaesong conference.

7:00 P.M.

It rained all day. This is a muddy hole. We’re pretty well settled in our tent. It has a wooden floor so we’re quite comfortable. We have a bunk, mattress, sheets, blankets and mosquito nets. We were issued a raincoat, forty-five pistol, steel helmet and flight gear. About three fourths of the stuff I brought, I’m going to send back. About all I need are the khakis, boots, heavy socks, underwear and my G.I. blues.

Got a meeting so will say good night for now. Love you

Duke

Dearest Louise, Jay and Jan--

Lt. Norman E. DuquetteThis is Sunday. Though shalt keep holy the Sabbath day, but the fighting don't stop on Sunday. As a matter of fact it never stops night or day. I'm at a field up north west of Seoul. It's called Kimpo. I've been into Seoul a couple of times with a truck to pick up supplies. The town was probably very pretty at one time but it's beaten right to the ground now. The field is about 14 miles from town.

We're living in large tents. They have wooden floors. We've had considerable rain and cloudy weather. When the sun does shine it dries everything right up. Ten minutes of rain can turn this place into ankle deep mud. Those boots I got were about the wisest purchase I ever made. They'll come in handy if I ever have to hoof back to Pusan. If the Chinese start to push that is.

Living over here is a racket. Financially that is. Everything is combat rations. Free quarters, cigarettes, candy, liquor, beer, razor blades. We pay for meals at the end of the month. About $20 a month. I won?t draw any money until the 10th of the month. As soon as I get it I'll send you a money order. Should be about 2 or 3 hundred dollars. I sent all of my good uniforms home today. As soon as the rest of my gear gets here, I'm going to turn it right around and ship it back. All I'm going to keep is my underwear, khakis, socks, towels and a suit of G.I. Blues. I put Miller's clothes in the box too. Hang on to them till I get back, or tell you where to send them.

I haven't started getting mail yet. They say it takes about 3 weeks after you get here before it starts to come through. It'll be good to hear from you again. The last letter I got was about three weeks ago. I think about you all the time and wonder how you are getting along. Is Jan talking now? Jay will be 3 in not very long. I've been to just one of his birthdays.

I get five days off every six weeks. They fly us back to a rest camp in Japan. I'll see if I can get him something while I'm there.

Did you receive those water paintings I sent? I thought they were kind of pretty. Probably look atrocious hanging in a frame. I thought Jay would get a kick out of the horses.

They have some very nice china in the Tokyo P.X. Do you want me to get some? It's inexpensive. It costs about 3 times the price in the states. It will be nice to set up house keeping again. Sure could go for some pie. I'll bet the apples are getting just right. The chow here is pretty good considering the facilities we have.

Hey guess what. I'm growing a mustache. It seems to be squadron policy for everyone to have a bushy upper lip. Nothing gigolo about them, they're just a great big walrus type. I should have quite a growth by the time I get home. As soon as it progresses I'll send you a picture (if you promise not to laugh).

If you have Joe's address, please send it to me. We can probably arrange a meeting in Japan when I go back to rest camp.

The sun will go down soon. We haven't any lights, candles or flashlights so it makes for early to bed. I think that they're going to have a movie over in our out door theatre tonight. That's really a novelty here. The Chinese are about 15 miles from here so watching a movie is a rather nervous affair so we go armed to the teeth with steel helmets on. They have a screen about 8 foot square and everyone brings their own box to sit on. Box seats you know. I saw "The Lemon Drop Kid" with Bob Hope the other night. Pretty good. Mosquitoes got rather thick though.

I've been wanting to write the folks all week but haven't been able to get around to it. I sure miss my secretary since I left you. This having to do my own nails and laundry and letter writing is really rough. Darkness is slowly closing in, so will hang up the writing stick for now.

I love you very much.

Daddy

Hi family'

Lt. Norman E. Duquette Another day of sitting on my big fat butt. It's been awfully cloudy today. Went to ground school this morning and learned all about escaping and evading the enemy. I haven?t started my combat missions yet but by the time you get this letter I should have 3 or 4 in. We're supposed to have another session of school this evening.

Yesterday we dug slit trenches around the area. Last night I went to a movie called "Hollywood Affair". Pretty good show. The generator broke down a few times and the film broke twice. It took 3 hours to show an hour and a half film.

Just got back from chow. We had meat loaf, corn, boiled potatoes, bread and butter and cake.

I should make 1st Lt. by Christmas. The only trouble with promotions now is that they are field promotions and as soon as a guy gets transferred from the outfit he goes back to his old rank. The extra money will be fine though. It comes to about $80 a month.

I've got to go to this pilots meeting at 6:45 so will say goodnight for now. Lots of smooches for Jay and Jan and Mommy. Love you.

Daddy

"September 4th. One of the first missions I have to send out is to the Russian border near Vladivostok. If we do it the way the 5th AF planner wants it done we would run out of fuel before reaching our lines. We've changed from JP- 1 fuel to JP-4 and in doing so we've lost about 20% of our range and someone up at AF didn't think of that. I give them an argument then decide to take the mission myself and do it my own way. It's about 450 miles up there and if the Migs jump me towards the end of my run I'll wind up in the Sea of Japan out of fuel even with the best of planning.

This is only my 4th mission, so I'm a little on edge, but things go smoothly and here I am looking down at Vladivostok where I know there are plenty of Migs based. I make my run and still no one jumps me but I don't feel the pressure is off until I'm about a 100 miles down into Korea again.

I climb to over 30 thousand to save fuel and a strange sensation comes over me as I look out across the rugged land below. There's not a sign of civilization and I get the feeling that I'm looking at the world before humans had started to leave their mark. Powered back some to save fuel, there's no sound, even the slipstream noise is muted in this thin air. The air is so smooth that I'm hardly aware of movement, I feel a sense of detachment and find it hard to picture people even being down there, much less fighting each other. I'm at peace with myself and the world, and think; if only those who send us off to war could see and experience this moment.

The second hand on the aircraft clock is the only moving thing and it brings me back to reality. I check my fuel and flight chart, there hasn't even been a sound on the radio because I've been on squadron frequency all this time. I switch over to base frequency and hear that the weather at Kimpo is going sour on me and I'll have to make my first GCA in this mountain country instead of the flat country of South Carolina. All goes well and once on the ground I don't tell anyone what I've experienced. (Much later I hear another pilot describe a similar experience so guess I wasn't hallucinating after all)."

Dearest Louise Jay and Jan--.

Lt. Norman E. Duquette Today is Wednesday. Another warm sunny day. I went to mass confession and communion yesterday. Last night I saw a movie, "The Fighting Coast Guard".

We received a news bulletin from Peiping, China this morning to the effect that Kimpo Air Base was destroyed by the most devastating air attack ever witnessed. The sun bleached windblown airstrip is now in communist hands, according to the propaganda that they are feeding their people. We got a big laugh out of it. We had dug some slit trenches a couple days ago and the bulletin says that we "didn't get a chance to use the hastily dug slit trenches." It doesn't take long for news to travel.

It's 8:25 P.M. The sun is throwing its last glow on the horizon. It'll be dark in a matter of minutes. I'll continue this tomorrow. Goodnight for now. I love and miss you very much.

Duke

[September 1951] "...One morning we discover that the enemy has been in our midst. They have destroyed several thousand feet of film and stolen most of our airmens' rifles from the armament section. Then we find a loose cap on one of the F-80 wing tip tanks and a further check shows that dirt has been dropped in them and this would soon flame out an engine. Now they all have to be checked and a better security guard set up. The base doesn't even have a fence so that's now in the plans, and there will be one guard for each two planes with orders to shoot anyone approaching the planes at night without proper identification. We haven't had anyone killed in their tents yet, but have heard about it happening nearby, so we now sleep with our 45's under our pillows and each tent rigs up their own booby traps before hitting the sack. Even the fence doesn't fully do the job. Another morning, in dense fog conditions, I'm walking down the flight line to operations and see a Korean, dressed in white, dive under the fence. They had dug out a place where the ground drops away and he was gone before I could do anything. We found that they were carrying 50 gallon oil drums off on their backs on a wooden 'A' frame. The amazing thing is that one of these full fifty gallon drums weighs about 300 pounds.

Rumor has it that the Communists now have a buildup of paratroopers across the Yalu, in Manchuria, so we make bug out plans for the planes and Group personnel in case of an attack. Each night, before leaving the flight line operations, I assign a pilot to each flyable aircraft and it's his job to fly it out to Japan. Those pilots without an airplane will help the crew chiefs blow up the grounded aircraft, and then join the rest of the squadron in ground evacuation, leaving behind blown up bridges. We hang helmets and backpacks over our bunks at night so as to be ready at a moments notice. A good test for how quickly I can get into my gear comes when Bed Check Charlie gets us up in the middle of the night."

Well I've finally finished all of my schooling. I've learned all about camouflage, flak evasion, evading enemy fighters, radio procedures, instrument procedures, photography techniques and a complete engineering course in the F-80. Tomorrow I'll get to fly around the area all by myself and Saturday I'll get my first mission over the lines. I'll need a hundred missions for rotation.

I'll be glad when my mail starts coming through. I'm anxious to find out how you are. It's been 3 weeks since I've heard from you. I suppose that with all of the APO nos. I've had in the past month, my mail will bounce back and forth across the Pacific a couple of times before I get it. Send lots of pictures will you.

We've picked up a bunch of young Korean kids for houseboys. We've got a little skinny kid that works like a son of a gun. He makes bunks, sweeps and washes the floor, shines our shoes, gets water for us and runs errands. His name is Hiak Tong Pok. He's about 12 years old. The government pays them 1100 wan per day. Wan is valued at 6,000 to the dollar. It costs the kids 1,000 wan a day for chow. That leaves them 100 wan a day clear, or about two American pennies.

They're having two or three movies a week now. Anything for the morale of the troops. I'm going to pack up my seat and blanket and take off for the main feature. Goodnight for now.

Love.

Duke

"The 4th Fighter Group has moved to Kimpo to shorten the distance to Mig alley and increase the fighting time. We now have quite an important concentration of specialized aircraft on one base, which I believe could be bad if the Reds should launch an attack. We now have all the F-86’s which are based in Korea, thirty six of them, they are the only aircraft which can hold their own against the Migs. Our RF-80’s are the only jet recon aircraft in Korea, and the RF-5 l’s are all the front line recce aircraft here as well. We’re only 17 miles from enemy territory so I’d say that we’re pretty vulnerable. Looks like poor planning or overconfidence to me."

Dearest Louise Jay & Jan:

I got my first combat mission the day before yesterday [9 Sep]. Ninety-nine more to go. The guys have been getting 20 missions a month. That should get me out of here by February.

I ran into Shepherd the other nite. He's flying F-84s. He's the guy from Iowa that I introduced you to at Willie Field. Our class has had some bad luck since graduation.

Solyom & Wakefield got it in the states. Roundtree got it over here in July, Bruce Wilson got it over here in August along with Hammonds, Tabazinski, and Lacy. O'Donnel's instructor got it over here. His name was Captain Brockmire. He was a member of the Acrojets at Willie.

Our squadron has been lucky. We've had a lot of ships shot up but they always get back all right. We get 4-8 fighters for escort on the tough missions.

Still no mail. I think that today will be the day. It's about 9:45 A.M. Mail call is at 11:00.

We had a party last nite to celebrate the opening of our squadron club.

We have two canvas Quonset huts hooked together lengthwise. It has a wooden floor. We've been working on it all week. We've begged, borrowed, built and stole chairs--even a refrigerator, a bar, electric lights, whiskey, tables and material for reupholstering the beat up chairs. The inside of the club is a pale green canvas padding that serves for both color & insulation. I took upon the task of upholstering the seats on the straight back chairs. Ten of them in all. I went to Seoul to get some material. I searched through the whole town & couldn't get any cloth of any kind.

I finally contacted a black marketer who had a piece of material about 2 ½ feet wide & 21 feet long. It cost me 36,000 wan ($6.00), which is a tremendous amount of money over here. The material was a bright red cotton plaid, which really clashes with our bright green interior. I had about a yard left when I finished all ten chairs. They look pretty good.

I'm sending a picture a guy took of me last week. Note the right hand ready to draw my trusty .45. I sleep with it under the side of my mattress in easy reach.

Love Duke

The 15th Tac. Recce. Sqd. moved from Taegu to Kimpo (K-14) in late August, 1951 continuing its full combat operation without a break. It was immediately noticeable that, consonant with our aircraft moving into Kimpo, the MIG air operating area also changed. The MIGs began operating much farther south than ever before and it became a common occurrence to encounter them in the vicinity of Pyongyang and somewhat south. These encounters had an adverse affect on the satisfactory completion of the recce missions and the need for armed protection on certain ones of these missions was noticed immediately.

I was scheduled to photograph the MIG airbases along the Yalu river on September 11, 1951 and I was informed on the day prior to the mission that arrangements had been made with the 49th Fighter Bomber Wing to provide escort and they they were awaiting my telephone call to set up rendezvous and mission procedures. I found this a bit unnerving since the 49th FBW was equipped with F-84s and their primary mission was air-to-ground and they had limited experience in air-to-air combat. I was informed that the F-84 escort was all we could get at this time and that I should accept it as it is.

I called the 49th FTW late afternoon on September 10, 1951 and spoke with the Group Operations Officer who was awaiting my call. He advised that He would provide eight F-84s but was very reluctant to do so. He explained that they had no air-to-air experience with the MIG. I explained that I understood his feelings but that we need some help. I informed him that I had a scheduled 0810 Kimpo departure and would like to rendezvous 20 miles south of the mouth of the Yalu river over the Yellow Sea at 0835, at 35,000 feet. He advised that eight F-84s would meet me on schedule and their Call Sign would be "Langtree". I advised him that my Call Sign would be "Ashcake Dog One". He wished me good luck.

The next morning, September 11, 1951, I received my briefing from Intelligence, departed on schedule and climbed out over the Yellow Sea towards my rendezvous point on a most beautiful day. The sky was so clear and you could see forever. I easily made visual contact with my escort as we both neared the rendezvous point and we both acknowledged having each other in sight. It felt rather good having eight escort aircraft along for a change and I could pay more close attention to getting the pictures we needed. I advised that I was proceeding to the mouth of the Yalu and preparing for the photo run along the east side of the river. "Langtree Able" acknowledged my transmission and stated, "Roger, I’ll stay 300 ft. above you and cover your tail". Things looked O.K. so far but as we neared the mouth of the river, I could only see four F-84s providing cover and I asked "Langtree Able" where the other four aircraft were. He replied that the other four would orbit off shore until the mission was complete. This should have given me a clue, but it didn't register at the moment.

I had a special rigged K-38, 36-inch focal length camera positioned to shoot out the left nose window of the aircraft and I checked it out and tested it just before I started my camera run along the river. I advised my escort that I was starting my run and had no "Bogies" in sight. The escort leader acknowledged my transmission and advised they were above and slightly behind me. Camera all set and the intervalometer working OK. I looked across the Yalu at the Antung MIG airbase and thought, "My God, Look at those MIGS, there must be at least 200 of them parked there".

The one word you just don't want to hear in aerial combat because it has such an adverse affect on your personal body systems and here it came, "BREAK!", "BREAK!" and no identity of the caller. I yelled into the mike, "Whose calling? Are you Langtree?"

"Roger, Langtree", he replied. "Ashcake, Break!" Calling "Break" without stating who the message is for is a sin of the worst kind; it is unforgivable. Worst yet, it can cause death in a hurry. Looking ahead, I saw nothing; looking off my left wing, there they were. Four flights of four each, with a flight of four MIGS already bending in to get on my tail. Another quick look around and no F-84s in sight but lots of orange balls from 37mm MIG guns and they were close. Nothing left to do but evade and escape. MIGs closing on my left rear quarter so I broke hard left, power to idle thrust and popped speed brakes still holding full left aileron. It was the most violent spin maneuver I’ve ever been in. Besides the buffeting, the airspeed indicated well beyond the red line that indicated Maximum Safe Speed. The 37mm orange tracers ceased as I passed through about 10,000 feet, and I leveled off at about wave top level crossing the shoreline headed back out over the Yellow Sea. I increased power back to normal and headed back to Kimpo.

Leveling off just above wave tops and now headed for Kimpo, I called my escort and they replied, "We’re heading back to base; we lost sight of you; are you OK?" You can imagine what I would like to have said at the moment but I talked myself out of it and decided to save it for the debriefing when I get back to base.

After checking out with JOC crossing the bomb line, I changed to Kimpo tower frequency and called for landing direction. Kimpo tower advised landing runway 13, wind southeast at 10 and cleared me to land. I turned onto final approach at the normal indicated airspeed but couldn't slow the aircraft down to land. I added power and made a go around. The second try was same as the first, I couldn't slow the aircraft down enough to land safely. On the third try, I disregarded the airspeed indicator and flew the aircraft solely by feel and attitude and made a normal landing. Taxiing back to the ramp while completing my after landing cockpit check, I noticed the airspeed indicator showing 125 MPH when it should be showing 0 MPH. I knew something was screwed up.

After parking, my Crew Chief jumped up on the wing and chided me for having to take three shots at the runway before I could land. I told him I just couldn't slow the bird down and now look, the airspeed indicator is stuck on 125 MPH. His reply was, "hm-m-m, that ain't good".

When I completed my debriefing with the Intelligence section and stepped outside, my Crew Chief was waiting for me. He said, "Captain Bill, I don't know what the hell you been doing but you’re going to have to use another airplane for a while; the static system is shot and both tip tank attachments are sprung and must be replaced. Why you didn't lose the tips, I’ll never know". I said, "Sergeant, I want you to come with me. You and I are going to have a cold beer because I need one now and you’re going to need one while I tell you what happened."

Dearest Louise --.

Got your letter dated the 5th of Sept. It sure was good to hear from you. I hadn't heard from you since the middle of last month so was surprised to put it mildly, having not received the letters in between, to hear that I was going to be a proud papa again. I wish that I could be with you now. I'll be home before the blessed event this time. Shall we wait till then to decide on a name? How do you feel? Have you seen the doctor yet?

I got my second mission today & am scheduled for another in the morning. Missions are going to come faster now as we are flying escort for one another on most missions. I should average five or six missions in seven days now. I can finish up in 4 or five months that way.

I've got an early morning hop & it's getting late so I'd better get to bed. I had a rough day today. I love you Louise. God bless you & Jay & Jan & No. 3. Goodnight.

Duke

Got another letter from you yesterday also more pictures. Glad to hear that the twirps are coming along so nicely. I suppose it’s starting to get chilly up that way too. The nights here are getting rather miserable already. Two blankets is hardly enough in our fresh air haciendas. I put on a pair of fatigues at night for sleeping. It’s raining to beat heck again today. We’ve spent most of the afternoon thus far in putting our little pot-bellied tent stove into operation. It is now in the process of heating itself into a comfortable robust glow. It sure makes it nice & comfy in here. We’ll have warm water for shaving now. What luxury. The chow here is still very good and our beer ration is starting to come through so we’re all set for a winter siege now. Just like Valley Forge with a few modern conveniences.

I got tangled up into a game of chess last night then started to read and found myself in bed for the night. Our stove sat silently but robustly all the night through, forming an impenetrable barrier to the cold wind & rain that batted our tent and made it lurch and shiver occasionally. The thunder awakened the household several times. It's still raining. The mud on the way to chow this morning was nearly knee deep in spots. I've got another miserable cold. I went down & got pills, penicillin & nose drops yesterday. Feel a little better today, however the left side of my posterior is sore.

We probably won't fly again this morning. Mayhaps this P.M. I can get get a mission. This weather has really slowed us up. I should have 10 or 15 [missions] by now.

I went down to Suwon Air Field the other day. It's a few miles south of here. There are a lot of my classmates there. A few of them got shot up the day I was there but they all got back all right. Shepherd got shot up day before yesterday. He came back with a few holes in his right wing. That F-80 can really take some punishment. It takes an awfully lot of shooting to get one down. An F-80 can outturn a "MIG" so we have some advantage in that we can just keep turning inside of them & bring them right down to the deck. That is just about the time that the MIGs start back up to the Yalu River because they are restricted to low altitude flying as they don't carry enough fuel for a lengthy flight near the ground. It's an almost foolproof maneuver provided you see the MIG first.

I've got an 8:30 briefing so will close for now.

Love Duke

Hi '

The rain finally stopped about noon today. I got a mission late this afternoon. That makes four. They're coming rather slowly. Weather should start turning for better soon. This rain has left us with an epidemic of yellow jaundice in the embryo stage.

There's a big squadron gathering at our drinking hut this evening but I don't feel quite up to it. I stayed in barracks & read for awhile. I finished off a book called "Midnight Lace". It's about a gal from a small town in Iowa. Very colorful. I enjoyed it. I'm now involved in reading "Jassy". That also seems good.

Most of our squadron is made up of X-Shaw field pilots. The majority of whom were there while I was.

I flew up to Pyongyang today. I took pictures of the railroad between there & Sariwon. If you have a map of Korea you can probably find a lot of the places that I tell you of. This rain has kept the mail plane down south for the past couple of days. It should get through tomorrow. Mayhaps a letter for me.

I got assigned to an airplane or rather got an airplane assigned to me yesterday. I'm going to have my name put on it tomorrow along with a name for the plane itself.

I'm going to call it "Lovely Louise".

It's getting late again so off to my downy miserably lonely cot. Goodnight again.

Love you,

Duke

1. NED: "RF-80 #440 is the bird that carried me to a "safe", but very bumpy, landing and that I left in a very bent state, both the bird and me, up in North Korea if my memory serves me correctly. Oddly enough, the other RF-80 bird in the photo , #433, is the plane that was assigned to me for "naming", and for which I selected the name "Lovely Louise". That is the number which appears on the RF-80 Model which I had made in Japan while on an R&R in the Fall of 51, and the model is now sitting in my trophy case, somewhat the worse for wear after nearly 50 years of being pawed by many little fingers. Strange that both of those birds would appear in the same photo. I can identify many of the people in the photo. Perhaps we should number them and identify them also for our Web page."

Got two letters from you this afternoon. They were dated the 13 & 14 Sept. Fast service.

I just got back from my sixth mission. I'll get one & possibly two more tomorrow provided the weather is good. The one I had today caused a bit of a sweat as they had a lot of flak in the area where I was. Miller and his wingman got jumped by 12 MiGs this morning but got home all right.

I guess people back in the states find it hard to realize that there is actually a war going on over here. Americans are being killed by the thousands every month. Just because this so called peace conference is going doesn't mean that the fighting has stopped. It makes me mad to think about it. I felt the same way as most Americans do when I was back in the states. I used to think of it as a fracus or the Korean mess or situation.

Actually it's a pretty damned big affair & it's downright serious when you think about it in terms of the men and material that are being expended...You get an altogether different picture when the facts are presented to you in the bold terms of so many killed in action, so many wounded & so many missing in each previous 24 hour period. We get briefed every morning on activity in the lines & enemy movements. The enemy is well organized and is an efficient soldier contrary to everything I heard before...

Marco & Marston got here from Shaw Field today. Marston is the guy that came about to the apartment a couple of times with Miller. He brought a bunch of picture that he took of me at Shaw. I'll send them to you with this letter.

I could sure go for some of that apple pie and would like to be the guinea pig on that new recipe for spare ribs. I'm drooling. Stuffed pork chops or a hot dish of con-carne pops into my head. Such delushishness. Glazed potatoes and fried chicken.

I don't need much stuff over here. However I could use a sweater. A heavy one with a collar if available. Also some wool socks, high ones & some long underwear, not wool, & two piece with pull over tops. Also a wool hat like the one Charles wore to exasperation, blue, gray or olive drab. The chook type I believe they call them.

I just got back from the party. I stopped in for about twenty, long enough for a beer. I went to a religious discussion by Father O'Brien over at the Chapel before going to the party. It was very interesting & informal. It was on the life of Christ. Four of the five in my tent are Catholic.

I'll try to have some pictures taken to show you my bushy up lip. If I let it grow as you suggested until I get home I'll really have a growth.

It's about nine thirty now. The heat from our pot stove is making me sleepy? Goodnight. Tell Jay and Jan that I'll be home right after the snow is gone. I miss you all so much.

Daddy

Got my 9th mission today. It was really a corker. Between the MiGs & the flak I had a very exciting time the like[s] of which I wouldn’t care to indulge in again. They really had my number on the flak they were throwing at me. They were chewing off my tail before I knew what was happening. I had to go down through it to get some pictures of busted bridges and trains. It takes all the fun out of flying and makes it strictly business, what you know and can do against someone else’s knowledge and ability.

It’s been very nice here as far as flying weather goes. Last night we had to crawl out of our warm beds and jump into foxholes while a lonely enemy plane came over and tried to drop a few missiles into our midst. He got over the area all right and dropped his bombs but was shot down by a night fighter on his way home. "Bed Check Charlie" is the name tagged on these lonely two o’ clock in the morning visitors.

Got to run off & see some training movie so will knock off for now.

Goodbye for now.

Duke

"September 22nd. The area of North Korea known as Mig Alley is a radius of about 100 miles out from Antung, Manchuria, on the Yalu River which is the border between China and Korea. Flying into this area at any time you are sure to come into contact with enemy fighters because there are over 200 Migs based at Antung and 400+ at other fields further north. Fifth Air Force decides to give our recon 80's escort when they need photo recon targets in Mig Alley since we always get jumped and are run out before getting the job done. I take the mission today and have an escort of eight F-84G's. Rendezvous is at 20,000 feet over Chinnampo, which is just short of the Alley. We join up on schedule and head north to Sonchon where I start my photo run of the rail line up to Sinanju. Radar calls that many bandits are approaching and I soon see the twinkle of silver wings high above headed our way. The Escort Leader of the 84's knowing that they are no match for the Migs calls for me to break off my run and advises me that I'm on my own.

I cut the cameras off but continue the run as I watch 12 Migs pass high overhead and start a turn. The leader and his wingman break out of formation so I know I'm spotted and am about to be attacked. I decide to let them think I haven't seen them and watch them continue with their pass. I wait up to the point where the leader starts pulling his lead on me. I watch over my shoulder until he should be getting ready to fire, then I pop my speed brakes open and break left into his turn. They overrun me, and as they pass to the outside of my turn I close my speed brakes and roll hard back towards them into a position where I'm looking right up the leader's tailpipe. If I only had guns it would be scratch one Mig. The pilot looks back at me and there is a puff of smoke out of his engine, I guess he firewalled the engine. Apparently he didn't know that I didn't have guns because the two of them pulled almost straight up and climbed out of sight heading back north. I decide to go back and start my run over and get the job done by myself. If the escort can't even take care of themselves we sure don?t need them. They just alert the enemy radar where the F-80 might not.

After the mission I talk with the C.O. about using a new procedure. When we have missions in the Mig area I suggest that we use two RF-80's, one for the photo run, and one as escort and eyes. The escort will watch for Migs and flak but won't call them unless there is a threat. This way the recon pilot can concentrate on the run and not have to break off as often. If we go all the way to the Yalu we should have F-86 cover to run the Migs off or nothing will get done. I'm given a week to prove it out and sure enough we get the job done better, the guys like having a friend out there acting as their eyes while they have their head in the cockpit and the procedure is adopted."

Today is Monday. The weather was bad today so we didn't get many pictures. I've got a weather mission early tomorrow morning. 6:30 A.M. is take off time. I'll have to fly up the west coast to just north of Pyongyang then clear across North Korea to the east coast, Wonson I believe. Had to crawl out of bed twice last nite and jump into a muddy, cold foxhole, so didn't get much sleep. They kept us up the nite before for a couple of hours. Bombs dropped on [the] other side of the runway so no sweat.

Tomorrow morning will be my 10th mission. Coming along huh. I got my first one on the 12th of Sept. If I keep this up I should finish early. I wish that I was getting my 100th tomorrow. It would be nice to know that I?d be able to see you in a couple of weeks.

I'm over at our squadron club now. It's about 8:30 P.M. For some reason there isn't a soul here tonite. Catching up on lost sleep I guess. Our club is called the "Cotton Pickers Club." We got a new phonograph and a bunch of good records. Indian Summer is now playing. It's very quiet here this evening.

I guess I'll close shop and get some sleep. I'll have to get up at 5:15. I hope that Bed Check Charlie doesn't come around tonight. See you in my dreams? nightie nite.

Love you & miss you & the twirps.

Daddy Duke

"Part of my job as jet recon Operations Officer is to assign and brief any daylight recon missions which will fall inside 100 miles of the Mig bases. This includes Navy and Marines. One day two spotless new Marine Banshee recon jets pull up in front of Operations, a full Colonel is leading the flight with a Master Sergeant pilot in the other ship on his wing.

The Colonel proudly invites me to look over his aircraft which I do with real envy. He has a drift meter, a sighting screen, and a camera position control, none of which we have. All we can do is set the shutter timing and turn the camera on and off. We had to learn how to correct for drift and when to start the camera by watching the target passing under the leading edge of the wing, then counting off one and two before starting the camera.

I ask the Colonel what kind of targets he would like to take and he says, "We have guns, we'll take anything you have". I tell him I have a couple airfields up in MiG Alley which he jumps at. I brief him and he starts out the door so I stop him and tell him that the F-86's only left a few minutes ago and he might get into the middle of a dogfight. I suggest that they wait until the F-86's and the Migs have to return for fuel. He shrugs and goes out the door.

I keep a radio on emergency frequency when the fights are on and about 20 minutes after the Banshees leave I hear the Marine Colonel come up with a MAYDAY. They are in trouble. It isn't long before the two ships come back in and the Colonel's new airplane is ripped up badly. The right wing is full of holes and the right engine is melted from a fire, one round has shattered the canopy and torn up the instrument panel. Luckily he was okay. The wingman came through without damage.

The Colonel is livid with rage saying that some F-86's had shot him up. I tell him they were Migs because the damage is caused by a 37 mm shell into his engine and the other holes are 23 mm. I explain that the F-86's have only 50 caliber guns like his own. He won't listen so I get the 4th Fighter group C.O. to come over and he confirms my assessment of the damage. It turns out that a flight of four F-86's spotted the two blue unidentified jets and made a pass, breaking off when they saw the US insignia. Some Migs apparently were tracking the F-86's, saw the Banshees when the 86's broke away, and opened fire on them."

Dearest Louise Jay & Jan --.

Got your letter today. Thought that I'd drop you a few lines to let you know I'm still O.K. It's 10:30 P.M. and everyone is in bed. I got my 13th mission today. No sweat. They threw a little flak at me but [it] was inaccurate.

Back again. 10 minutes pause for an air raid warning. It didn't develop into anything so the "all clear" sounded right away. We had two alerts last night. It kinda keeps a guy in & out of bed all night. From warm bed to cold fox hole. What a transition.

I'm writing by light of my flashlight. Indirect lighting you know. Got a letter from the folks yesterday I guess it was. I wrote to them the day before I got [their] letter.

I'd better get to bed & try to grab a couple of hours sleep before Bed Check Charlie comes around. Goodnight sweethearts. I love you.

Daddy Duke

67TH T.A.C. RECON. WING, Korea. — Parking his RF-80 Shooting Star on the busy flight line of an advanced Fifth Air Force base in Korea, Capt. Richard A. Stearns of Augusta, Ga., recently completed his squadron’s 5,000th photo reconnaissance mission over enemy territory.

The squadron, a unit of the 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, flew its first sortie on June 29, 1950 just a few days after the outbreak of hostilities.

The RF-80s have provided Fifth Air Force and UN ground forces with the bulk of all daylight photos of enemy installations, rail and road lines, bridges, tunnels and supply storage areas. Captain Steam ‘s mission was to photograph the road and rail lines from Sinanju south along the western Korean coastline; lines which are vital to the enemy for supplying their frontline forces. These aerial photos will be used by tactical fighter and light bomber units in planning future operations.

The unarmed Shooting Stars have had frequent encounters with enemy MIG-15 jet aircraft while photographing important targets in "MiG Alley." Of approximately 20 aircraft of the 67th which have been attacked by MiGs, only three have sustained damage of any sort, and no pilots have been lost.

"At first we considered ourselves lucky to escape damage," said Major Clyde B. East of Chatham, Va., the squadron commander, "but our success in evading them so many times definitely points to pilot skill and knowledge of the enemy’s capabilities."

The RF-80s combined with RF51’s and night flying RB-26’s provide round-the-clock photographic and visual coverage of enemy activities and have earned the 67th the nickname, "The Eyes of the Far East Air Forces".

Captain Steam’s wife, Dorothy, and children, Richard and Carolyn reside at’ 1302 Highland Avenue, Augusta.

"Tactical Reconnaissance is a tough, lonesome business, requiring a special brand of courage and self-reliance."

ONE LATE SEPTEMBER afternoon in 1951, an unarmed Lockheed RF-80 winged north toward the Yalu on a mission since recorded as one of the most vital in the Korean War. Its lonesome job was to photograph battered railroads on the Communists’ western supply route. In addition, the pilot was briefed to search for suspected new airfields between the Chongchon River and the Yalu, the area known as "MiG Alley."

In recent weeks, MiG Alley had been under aggressive Red air patrol. Long range photographs of Manchurian bases at Antung and Ta-Tung-Kou indicated hundreds of new swept-wing enemy jets there. If these could be moved south of the Yalu, they would be within striking distance of our lines and air bases. Operating from Korean soil, they could attack U.N. positions without risk of retaliation against Manchuria. U.N. air supremacy would be in jeopardy. Intelligence officers were worried.

Only sporadic flak was encountered by the RF-80 over its rail targets, and the photo runs were completed without interception. Nevertheless, the pilot was nervous. The sun was a blinding red ball, low over the Yellow Sea, perfect concealment for attacking enemy fighters, and contrails were lacing the northwest.

Despite imminent danger of attack, the unarmed recce pilot began an intensive visual search of MiG Alley almost within sight of the Manchurian jet bases. Suddenly, he found what had been suspected…a new Red airfield near Namsi, complete with concrete runway, taxi-ways and revetments in final stages of construction. The pilot streaked for home with films of his discovery.

Recce was concentrated on the area. Two additional jet bases under construction were uncovered, at Taechon and Saamcham.

Swiftly, Far East Bomber Command units in Japan and Okinawa were alerted. An additional group of F-86 Sabres was rushed to Korea. Daily reconnaissance of the new bases was ordered with flights of Sabres to escort the recce ships.

The bombers knocked out the new bases and made headlines around the free world. The escort role of the Sabres was documented vividly in the toll of enemy jets destroyed. As for the unarmed recce pilots who found the enemy bases, there was the satisfaction that they made possible the destruction of a dangerous enemy threat.

This is not an isolated example of reconnaissance in Korea. Several weeks later at Uiju, another unarmed RF-80 secured photographs of the first MiGs based on Korean soil…photographs which drew a strafing attack by U.N. fighters that drove enemy air back into its Manchurian sanctuary, where it remained until armistice was signed.

A similar photo mission revealed dummy MiGs on a dummy airfield near Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. Had not these photographs revealed the ruse, a costly air raid would have been staged to destroy sheaves of rice straw stacked to resemble swept-wing fighters in an empty field!

A vital section of railroad between Pyongyang and Sariwon was believed to be out of business. Pilots could see where rails had been cut in recent air attacks. Vertical photography verified these claims. Allied fighter-bombers ranged everywhere, leaving the "destroyed" railroad to rust unmolested—until an RF-80, "dicing" at tree-top level with a forward oblique camera revealed that multitudinous rail-cuts observed from higher altitudes actually were removable piles of straw. The real cuts had been repaired. The railroad was in nightly use transporting supplies to the front! Fifth Air Force fighter-bombers in possession of these revealing photographs put the quietus on another Communist trick.

Until mid-1952, enemy areas immediately in front of U.N. troops were reconnoitered visually at low altitude by propeller-driven RF-51’s of World War II vintage. Despite concentrated automatic weapons fire, the Mustang recce pilots became so familiar with every nook and cranny of the enemy front that they were able to detect every new track or sign of movement. The RF-51’s, later replaced by jets, performed heroic service marking targets for fighter attack and adjusting long-range artillery in areas too hot for light spotter aircraft.

Reconnaissance by jets during daylight hours was matched by night-flying RB-26’s, equipped with flash bombs and special night photographic and electronic gear. Throughout the war they prowled North Korea from dusk to dawn, checking nocturnal repairs at enemy bases and watching important supply routes. C-47’s with loads of parachute flares to light up targets for night intruder strikes, rounded out the Korean reconnaissance picture.

Of this ‘round-the-clock effort, the 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing flew approximately 90 per cent of all combat recce missions. Planes of the 67th ranged from the static battle line to the Yalu on the Yellow Sea and to within sight of frozen Siberia on the far northeast coast.

Every city, town and village in enemy-held territory, every airfield, bridge, railroad and highway, every enemy position facing U.N. troops at the front, every conceivable target and suspected target was covered and re-covered by aerial photographs. "Hot" targets were photographed daily, sometimes twice daily, so that photo-interpreters could keep up-to-the-minute tabs on enemy activities.

Literally millions of prints were processed and examined. These included mosaics (parallel overlapping photo strips) of enemy front line positions from coast to coast for Ground Force Commanders, post-strike photographs for FEAF Bomber Command, and surveillance pictures upon which new strikes were planned. A complex 24-hour production and distribution system enabled distant Commanders to receive important photographs and detailed reports painstakingly compiled by photo-interpreters within hours of the times the recce ships crossed their targets.

Without these photographs, U.N. Forces would have been blind. With them, Allied Commanders were able to "see" beyond the desolation of no-man’s land into the enemy rear areas where supplies were gathered and troops were concentrated.

What of the men who performed this vital service? They are selected for maturity and judgment. Tactical reconnaissance is a tough, lonesome business requiring a special brand of courage and self-reliance…the courage to go alone and unarmed…the judgment to forego heroics.

"Alone, unarmed and unafraid" is a recce motto, but it is a motto with reservations. Bugging out to avoid enemy attack is good sense. Getting shot down is a cardinal sin. As Maj. Ruffin W. Gray, Commanding Officer of a day jet recce squadron, put it, "The best photographs in the world are no good at the bottom of a rice paddy."

In war, however, there are times when the most careful plans and tactics go astray, when a man has to fall back on sheer courage. Capt. John D. Monaghan, who "cornered" 18 MiGs and then completed an important photo run in a badly crippled RF-80, is a case in point.

Capt. Joe Daly, who survived four firing passes by a sextet of MiGs and brought home his photos despite a hole in his right wing big enough to crawl through, is another example.

Lt. Hallet P. Marston, his aircraft burning and almost out of control, brought his pictures back, along with 80 feet of steel cable snagged on a low-level run near Sunan.

Maj. George McKay completed a photo run near Sinuiju with tracers from a swarm of enemy jets arcing his canopy. Two MiGs were shot off his tail by Sabre pilots, who pleaded with McKay to break off what they considered a suicide run.

These are examples, matched repeatedly day after day throughout the war. Then, there were those who failed to return. For most of them in reconnaissance, there are no stories to commemorate their valor. No wingmen were there to mark and report the points of disaster. No friendly fighter caps were overhead to keep watch until help could arrive. They went out alone and disappeared in silence and the way of their going was marked only by the remorseless hands of the Operations clock that told of another aircraft overdue.

The valor of the men who flew recce was matched by the determination of the ground crews, the camera repairmen, the laboratory technicians, the photo-interpreters, and others who carried out the complex duties of a reconnaissance organization. Once when the 67th Wing moved to a forward base, the officers and men were faced with a critical water shortage. Some 60,000 gallons, the entire daily supply, were needed in the photo-laboratory to process combat film. When the situation became known, the men voted to forgo use of a newly constructed and long-awaited outdoor shower, despite 100-degree temperatures and choking dust that turned rivulets of perspiration into dark brown mud. Even cooking and drinking water had to be rationed, but film production continued unrestricted.

At the outbreak of hot war in Korea, only two tactical recce units existed (one in Japan and one at Shaw Air Force Base, S. C.), despite the fact that more than 60 per cent of all intelligence information in World War II was derived from aerial photographs.

Korea changed the picture. Tactical reconnaissance came again into its own. As a result, Tactical Reconnaissance units now are providing world-wide service. Recce planes today range over Western Europe, while those in the Far East, no longer engaged in combat, maintain a watchful readiness.

The hub of world-wide Tactical Reconnaissance is Shaw Air Force Base, S. C., home of the 363d Wing of T.A.C.’s 9th Air Force under command of Gen. E. J. Timberlake. At Shaw, recce pilots for the Far East and Europe are trained in the techniques of their trade.

Theory is minimized. Precise aerial photography in 600 mph aircraft, pin-point navigation and gun-less aerial combat are taught by trial and error. Instructors at Shaw all are veterans of 100 or more combat missions over North Korea. The students—some veteran fighter pilots, some World War II retreads, some with the shine still fresh on new gold bars—learn by doing. The success of future missions will be measured in black and white, on film.

Recce anticipates replacement of old planes by swept-wing RF-84F’s in the near future. Canberras are slated to take over the night-time job of the RB-26’s. New electronically controlled image motion compensating cameras, necessary because of faster aircraft, will retire the World War II cameras now in use.

New techniques and tactics will be developed around new equipment. Yet, no matter how radical the technical advances, reconnaissance still will depend on men who go alone, unarmed and unafraid.

In the fall of 1951, the MiGs had become very aggressive and were eating our lunch. They would over fly formations of F-86s, F-84s and F-80s to get to a single RF-80 with its easily spotted distinctive nose. The MiGs could outrun, out dive, out climb us and had a much higher service ceiling. Our only advantage was turn radius and maneuverability. 5th AF decreed that an RF could not go north of Pyongyang without a wingman and not go north of the Chong-Chong River without an F-86 escort.

We were urgently trying to find a better airplane, and everyone said that it was impractical to try to convert an F-86 to a camera role. But Joe Daly and I weren't convinced. We started spending hours on the 4th Fighter Wing side of the field in the nose of an F-86, and each time there was an accident, we were there trying to beg for the nose section. We finally figured out a way to mount a K-20 camera on its side by taking out the bottom gun and shooting vertical photos through a mirror mounted at a 45-degree angle. Col. Harry Thyng finally let us have two old war weary F-86A's and we worked a deal with the depot in Japan to mount the cameras, mirrors and camera windows.

Joe Daly flew the first one in from Japan on its first mission. We left them painted in the exact same markings as the 4th Fighter Wing aircraft; kept them parked with the other F-86's and used them flying lead on one of the 4th Wing fighter sweeps so that the flight just happened to overtly the areas we needed to photograph. As soon as we began flying them, the experts from the states who had said it couldn't be done began coming out with all kinds of improvements. We had kept this all hush, hush under the code name "Honeybucket". We later had a flight of RF-86's and I believe that the squadron eventually was equipped with nothing but RF-86's that ultimately went to the ROKAF.

Lt. Jim "Fearless" Fosdick flew an RF-86 on a low level mission in MiG alley and picked up a lot of ground fire and aircraft strikes including a slug that came into the right console and knocked out the radio. When the slug came through, it hit a parachute harness buckle on Jim's hip; the slug split in half and halt went into the instrument panel. The other half hit Jim in the side; hit a rib and slid around to his back. Jim flew back; landed and taxied in; made out the form 5; came down the ladder; pulled back the side of his backpack and asked the crew chief it he was bleeding back there. When the crew chief acknowledged that he was, Jim calmly asked that he call an ambulance since he had been shot.

"I come up with another idea which improves squadron morale and shows up in work accomplished. Until now everybody in the squadron worked 7 days a week and as many hours a day as it took to get the job done. The airmen have to work three months without a break before getting five days leave in Japan. Pilots get three days R and R in Tokyo every six weeks. I asked the C.O. to let each airman have half a day off once a week in which they can sleep in or visit other squadrons on the base. We can't leave the base because of snipers etc., but it will give them some free time. As far as the pilots, I brief them before dawn and pass out missions to each flight leader to assign to their flight members. Now we'll rotate flights, one flight will get to sleep in each morning until 10, and then I'll give them the same briefing as the others. It'll mean an extra briefing for me or my assistant but everyone likes the idea. This also becomes SOP (standard operating procedure)."

I'm on my R&R now. I'm in a rest hotel called the "Prince Shimazu". It's a pretty nice place. Miller & I & a Catholic Chaplain are in the same room. They have just about everything here for relaxation. Fine beds, a barber shop where I get shaved in the morning, a P.X., a bar & lounge, spacious green lawns surrounding the place, play rooms, reading rooms, a 24-hour laundry and cleaning service, & above all excellent food. I got here Friday night. Friday night I had steak for supper, Saturday morning I had pancakes, at noon I had 1 Fillet Mignon, for supper I had 2 Fillet Mignons, yesterday morning I had eggs & bacon, orange juice, coffee, toast. For dinner I had 3 pork chops & accessories, for supper T-bone steak.

I got Jay & Jan some cute little jackets. Sort of a birthday present for Jay. Toys are scarce here so I thought that you could get him a toy for me. I wish you would take some pictures of the kids with [the] jackets on. I think they should just about fit.

Have you received my uniforms yet? I had them insured just in case. I want to call you some time today. I hope it doesn't worry you by getting a call from Japan.

I got my 18th mission in just before I left Korea. Almost 1/5 of my tour complete. I'm four missions ahead of Miller. He was grounded a few days with a cold. He bought Anne a ring here at the P.X. yesterday.

I want to get my X-Mas shopping done today. I had my picture taken yesterday. Should get them in a couple weeks.

I'm going to place that call now so will talk to you in a few hours.

Love you & miss you.

Duke

I got back from R&R today. Had a letter from you waiting for me. We had a fine time. The thing I enjoyed most was the uninterrupted sleep at nite. No crawling into a foxhole at 2 A.M. I indulged in two or three good hot showers a day. Plus three meals a day of delicious choice foods on white tablecloths. I'd get up in the morning & run downstairs to the barber shop in pajamas & slippers for a shave (.15c). We ran into a couple of 51-B men and had quite a party one night. Found out that Grammar from 51-B was shot down last week.

I decided against calling you as I was afraid you'd be quite worried before you got to the phone. I'll call next time so you can expect it now.

I bought some new underwear, shirts & shorts, 6 pair, some socks (black & wool) 6 pair; a new pair of pajamas (they're yellow with a yellow plaid collar & cuffs) I got some new sock slippers; a camera & 18 rolls of film. I had some pictures made. I got a new silk scarf white with squadron insignia of tiger on it. I got some pocket books, flashlight batteries, bulbs & phonograph records. I got a set of Symphony No. 4 in E Minor & a set of H.M.S. Pinafore.

Well back on the job again tomorrow. It took us from midnight till 8:00 A.M. to get back here from Tokyo by C-54. So I am rather beat out tonight. I'm going to bed early so will get this in the mail & write again tomorrow.

Love you & miss you.

Duke

Tex Hill was wounded in the Fall of 51. I had the duty on "Mobile Control" (a small radio shack which would be stuck onto/along side the landing end of the runway, manned by a duty Pilot, equipped with two way radio gear, binoculars, and flare gun with red and green flares). The duty of the Mobile Control Officer was to visually check that landing gears were fully extended for landing, and to be an extra pair of eyes to assist the tower operator with operational or mechanical aircraft difficulties/decisions.

Tex had received flak damage to his aircraft and wounds in his leg and was bleeding pretty badly for some time enrobe back to Kimpo from the far North. He radioed in regarding his difficulties. Tex was able to remove his belt and apply it to his leg to put pressure to control the bleeding. By the time he reached the Kimpo area his leg was numb and was of no assistance to him for controlling the aircraft for landing, nor the brakes after landing.

He was told to make a straight in approach to Kimpo as soon as he had sighted the field. I monitored extensions of his landing gear, speed brakes and flaps, and his approach altitudes, aircraft attitudes and air speeds, and was in general "the friendly voice" of assistance. Tex made the landing, a little fast in air speed, but otherwise a good landing. At my suggestion, Tex shut down the engine after landing touchdown to enable the aircraft to come more quickly to a stop without having the assistance of braking action. The plane came slowly to a halt in the center of the runway about two thousand feet from the end. Good job by Tex.

Ambulance etc. were immediately on hand to remove him from the plane and take him to the base hospital tents. His aerial photography films were immediately removed from the plane and taken to the photo labs for development and analysis. After initial treatments, he was flown over to Nagoya Hospital in Japan.

Tex spent many weeks there in the Nagoya Hospital where he would receive Squadron visitors who were in Japan for R&R. I visited with Tex on one occasion at the Nagoya Hospital. That was not Col. Chickering administering the Purple Heart, it could have been Col. Howard who preceded Chickering or it could have been someone from 5th AF HQ.

Just a quick addendum to the Tex Hill Story. This mission was a front-line mission and not considered more than a piece of cake. For some reason, I had been scheduled to fly it and was just getting ready to hit the start switch when the operations duty officer came running out to the plane and stopped me telling me that I had been grounded by the wing. I had knowledge of some classified missions coming up and would be grounded until they had been flown. Tex came out and I gave him my maps and mission data and he took off.

At low altitude, a slug of approximately .50 cal came through the cockpit floor and went into Tex's foot (in the instep) and came out the top side of his foot, taking most of the top of the foot with it. When Tex landed and got the plane stopped, I was in a jeep at the end of the runway and jumped up on the wing. Tex was almost passed out from loss of blood, and the cockpit was a mess. He was pale as a ghost and slumped down in the seat but looked up with a forced grin and said: "Well, I stole one today" - which was our expression at that time for an easy mission.

Tex spent a long time in the hospital in Nagoya where they did numerous operations on his foot. He did not come back to the squadron. He loved Scotch and had a seemingly unending supply in the hospital hidden in strategic locations. The hospital finally figured out that it must be coming in with the steady stream of guys from the squadron who always visited him on R & R. A nurse and I almost went to the mat one day when I had a bottle in each pocket of my overcoat and she insisted that I would be searched before allowed to see Tex. It soon got down to rank and position - and Tex got two more bottles.

Last I saw him, he was at Hamilton AFB, CA flying F-104s. He walked with a limp but did get back on flying status finally.

Today is Saturday. The weather is kind of stinko today so I might not fly. Probably get up this afternoon. I thought I would try my hand at long hand writing for a change. It seems peculiar to write this way as I haven't done so in quite some time. I was wondering whether I still could or not.

I sent Jay & Daddy a birthday card while in Japan. The clothes you got for me arrived yesterday. Thank you. They will be greatly appreciated this winter. It takes about eight days for a package from the states. I was going to do some Christmas shopping while in Japan but couldn't find any likely presents so will leave the shopping up to you. I should get another R&R before Christmas so will try to pick up a few things then. I want to get you a set of pearls but the duty on them is so high that I think that I'll wait & take them back with me...

...Just got informed that Miller and I have got a Sinuiju mission this afternoon. That's a rough one. Sinuiju & Antung are two "MiG" fields up across the Yalu River. We have to take pictures of both fields. We'll have a dozen or so F-86 Sabre Jets for escort.

Well I've got a lot of briefing & preparation to make so will say so long for now. Wish me luck. I love you and miss you very much. Tell Jay and Jan hello and give them a smooch for me. Tell Jay to give you a smooch for his Daddy.

Love, Duke

Radio Interview with 2nd Lt. Norman E. Duquette
Kimpo Air Base, Mid-October 1951

Reporter: We’re located at the home of the 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, better known in combat circles as the "Eyes of the Front". Lieutenant Duquette, how long have you been flying combat with the 67th?

Duquette: I’ve been with the 67th for about a month and a half. Prior to being assigned to the 67th, I was stationed at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina where I went through jet photo-reconnaissance training.

Reporter: So what did you do back in Plattsburg, New York?

Duquette: I was a student at Champlain College in Plattsburg. I took two years in Champlain College. Prior to going to Champlain College, I put three and a half years in the Navy during the last war.

Reporter: Well tell us about your job here in Korea.

Duquette: My job here is flying the RF-80; the photographic version of the Shooting Star. I’m a photo-reconnaissance pilot. Our job here is taking photographic and visual reconnaissance of enemy installations. Prior to going on to a mission we receive briefings as to what our targets will be. We often take targets of opportunity of anything we happen to see of interest on the ground and report that information immediately to JOC [Joint Operations Center] Headquarters here at the field.

Reporter: Have you had any unusual experiences since you’ve been flying combat?

Duquette: Well, the enemy is very unpredictable. Yesterday afternoon I was up north of Sinanju, up in what is known as "MiG Alley". I was up there approximately one hour taking photographs of airfields in that vicinity. We received no enemy contact, but about a half-hour after I left the area, one of our boys was up there and the area was loaded down with MiGs.

This morning, on a routine mission about a half-hour ago, just north of the bomb line, was--there wasn’t supposed to have been any flak—I received heavy flak on all three of my photographic runs and was forced to abort the mission.

Reporter: Well thank-you very much Lieutenant Norman E. Duquette of 6 Lafayette Street in Plattsburg, New York. This is the 5th Air Force and combat reporter speaking from an advanced air base in Korea. And now back to station WIRY in Plattsburg, New York.

"RF-80a flak damage as noted. Believe Roy Hudspeth was the pilot. This was a special mission with movie camera. Project was terminated shortly after" -- Ed Stoltz
(USAF Photograph)

FIFTH AIR FORCE—The Fifth Air Force’s 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Group was cited for ‘extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy’ in a recent ceremony at this forward UN airbase in Korea.

The thin blur streamer, emblematic of the Distinguished Unit Citation, was tied to the 67th Group’s banner by Lt. Gen. Frank F. Everest, Fifth Air Force Commander.

The Group, commanded by Col. Charles C. Andrews of Grenada, Miss., was cited for the period Jan. 25 to April 21, 1951.

Reconnaissance pilots, though they do not often make headline news, have a hand in nearly every sortie flown by Far East Air Forces aircraft.

Unarmed RF-80 photo jets of the 67th have provided the forces with the majority of all daylight aerial photography of the war. Ranging as far north as the Yalu River, they bring back photos of Communist airfields, road and rail lines, marshalling yards and other military installations. Evaluation of these photos gives data necessary to plan effective airstrikes by other FEAF units.

It was an RF-80 of the 67th that discovered the three new Red airfields at Namsi, Taechon and Saamcham. Another RF-80 pilot had a hard time keeping his mind on his flying as he photographed the first enemy jets observed bases in Korea at Uiju.

Bright and early on mornings after B-29 raids, RF-80s show up over these bases to make photos for bomb damage assessment. They manage to keep all of North Korea under constant surveillance despite heavy and determined opposition by enemy fighters and flak.

Night photo RB-26 aircraft of the 67th the familiar B-26 painted black with armament replaced by cameras do much the same job by night, dropping 800,000,000 candlepower flash bombs for illumination.

They pay special attention to night moving vehicle convoys. With the rail system beginning to creak and groan under daily aerial interdiction attack, the enemy has been forced to move supplies in trucks at night. More than 4000 trucks have been sighted during one night by this unit. As many as 29,000 have been reported during one month. The location, speed, and direction of movement of these vehicles are radioed to night intruder planes of the 3d and 452d Bomb Wings for attack.

RF-51 Mustangs, as hunters with Fifth Air Force’s current hunter-killer teams, operate along and just behind the battle lines, supply points and gun positions and putting the finger on them for destruction by fighter-bombers.

In all, the 67th has flown more than 118,000 sorties since its elements first saw action early in July 1950.

Aerial photo labs of the 67th have turned out more than six million finished photos of North Korea.

Part of the citation reads: "The record of this organization shows repeated acts of heroism, gallantry and personal courage. The impressive total of combat sorties indicates high technical skill of maintenance and ground personnel. Operating under adverse conditions on a continuous daily schedule, the officers and airmen of the 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Group reflected great credit upon their organization, the Far East Air Forces and the United States Air Force."

At the time of the citation, the group was commanded by Col. Jacob W. Dixon of Lexington, Mo.

After the brief ceremony General Everest commented, "I know of no other unit which more richly deserves the Distinguished Unit Citation than the 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Group."

---

The game referred to as "bottles" is actually the first step in a long drawn out game starting with, "bottles", then "caps", and then "labels". It goes something like this:

A large group of half-crocked fighter pilots, 10 to 20 or so, will start by someone suggesting, "Let's play Bottles". The objective here is to start counting with each member around the group responding to the next number in line, and when a number is reached with the numeral "five" or a multiple of "five", the individual who would supposedly be responding with the number "five" or multiple thereof, would instead respond by saying "bottles", i.e. counting off as so: one, two, three, four, "bottles", six, seven, eight, nine, "bottles", etc., etc.

This, of course, is all done with a beer in hand by all. If you screw up and do not respond properly on your turn, then you must pay the penalty of "chug-a-lugging" your beer. Sounds easy. Yeah. Get warmed up with a few circuits of "bottles", then you do the "bottles" and "caps", with "fives" and multiples of fives, plus "threes" and multiples of "threes", i.e. One, two, "caps", four, "bottles", "caps", seven, eight, "caps", "bottles", eleven, "caps", thirteen, fourteen, "bottlers-caps", sixteen, seventeen, "caps", nineteen, "bottles", "caps", etc., etc.

THEN--about this time everyone has erred at least once and bellies are getting more filled with beer and you go into the "bottles", "caps", and "labels" routine, with threes and multiples of threes, fours and multiples of fours, and fives and multiples of fives. That's the REAL test. Try it sometime and see how "ga-ga" folks get trying to remember or think what they are supposed to say.

John Pell and I were avid hunters. We had heard that there was a good population of pheasant in the surrounding areas of Kimpo. It being winter and some bad weather days that we couldn't fly, we decided to try our hand at changing our diet. The only guns available to us were 30 cal. carbines. Now you know it's pretty tough to hit a pheasant on the wing with a rifle. Keep in mind that we had pretty deep snow so birds did not run on the ground but flushed. John and I had some success, but missed a lot more than we hit after miles of walking.

We heard that the PX in Nagoya, Japan had shot guns - so - off we went on R & R to Nagoya; only to find out they were sold out. They did steer us to a Marine PX back in the "Tulles" that had shot guns. Off we went by electric train about an hours ride - then a 4-5 miles walk to this base. Well, we got our shot guns and some shells and made our way back to Kimpo.

Things took a turn for the better in bagging pheasants and we were eating high on the hog. John got an in with the mess Sgt. and we had a nice table with dishes, etc when we were called to dine while the rest of the officers ate from steel trays.

Needless to say, this came to the attention of some of the brass when they saw two 1st Lts. eating (dining) pheasant at a well-set table. John and I were called to Group HQ to see the group commander (Col. Chickering) to explain how we managed to eat so well. We explained to Col. Chickering that we walked for miles (we did too) in deep snow and cold to get these birds; sometimes as far as 3-4 miles from base. We were asked why we didn't share our game (based on complaints from other officers). I told Col. Chickering we had offered ANYBODY a share if they would go help us kick birds up, but we had only one taker who was so tired after he got back to base he refused to get out of the sack to eat.

Col. Chickering had a jeep with an enclosed metal cab and a heater. He offered John and I the use of his jeep to get us to areas we hadn't hunted. We jumped at the offer. From that time forward, we went in style to far reaches around Kimpo and when John and I returned to base, we took the pheasants to the mess Sgt. That evening John and I dined on pheasant and Col. Chickering and his guests also had a nice pheasant dinner.

Received three long lost letters from you yesterday. They were written between 15 Aug & 1 Sept. I just got back from my 22 mission. Coming right along. That's 22 missions in 37 days. Discount five days R&R & it makes 22 out [of] 32. So between 4 1/2 & 5 months from 10 Sept you should see me trotting into the backyard. That should make it around February. Maybe for your birthday. O.K.?

We had to move to another part of the field yesterday. Just when we had our tent in a livable condition. That means building new tables & chairs & a wash stand to hold steel helmet. It means erecting another stove & interior decorating in general. We've been busy at it since moving & are coming along nicely. Carpenter equipment is a scarce item so things progress slowly & primitively with whatever we can devise to accomplish the job. Got a lot to do yet before cold weather sets in. I'm going to get busy again & see if I can build a clothes rack. My clothes are all stuffed in a bag in [the] corner.

Just thought I'd let you [know] I made out all right on the trip to the Yalu River the other day. So long for now.

Love you.

Duke

In the late summer and early fall of 1951, most daylight air reconnaissance missions into North Korea were flown by lone RF-80 pilots, known affectionately as "Photo Joes". They were all members of the 15th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Group, operating out of Kimpo Air Base (K-14) in South Korea. Known as "The Cottonpickers", the 15th was the only jet photo recon outfit in the 5th Air Force. I was assigned to the Squadron as 2nd Lt. in August 1951. I was fresh out of jet fighter training at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona, and photo-reconnaissance operational training at Shaw AFB, South Carolina. The squadron motto was "Alone, Unarmed, and Unafraid" and above the bar in the squadron's "Cottonpickers Club" tent was posted, in large and brazen letters, the words, "Every Man A Tiger". I learned quickly that these were more than boisterous slogans when air missions required a trip to the Yalu through MiG Alley.

The 15th Squadron was equipped with a modified version of Lockheed's F-80A "Shooting Star" fighter aircraft. This single engine jet fighter had its guns removed and was refitted with a "camera" nose that mounted a variety of long range, long focal length, high and low altitude cameras in the various camera bays. In this configuration, it was re-designated the RF-80A. The RF-80As that we flew from Kimpo were stripped down and faster than the normal F-80--but they were old birds. Many had cracked main wing spars, and none of the aircraft were equipped with the luxury of an ejection seat or canopy.

For photo-reconnaissance missions, North Korea was divided into three sectors. From the 38th parallel to an east/west line just south of Pyongyang, RF-80 pilots flew alone and unescorted as we were somewhat safely out of the range of MiGs based in China. North of Pyongyang to a line running east to west through Sinanju, RF-80s flew in pairs as this was well within MiG range. One pilot conducted the photo-reconnaissance mission and the other scanned the skies for MiGs. North of Sinanju to the Yalu River, in an area known later as "MiG Alley", reconnaissance aircraft were escorted by F-86, F-84, and/or Meteor fighters of Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) 77th Squadron. More often than not, the Kimpo based F-86s of 4th Fighter Wing and the Aussie 77th Squadron provided our escorts. There were times on the F-86 escort missions that I felt I was being used as bait for a "fishing expedition". Fighter jocks being what they are, and with a primary mission in life of shooting down MiGs, they did not take kindly to being hamstrung by a gun-less, "Photo Joe", RF-80 type.

We flew many missions to photograph the enemy's MiG bases. At times, the targets would be the North Korean airfields at Namsi, Taechon, Sinuiji, or Kunari. Other times the targets were Antung and Ta Tung Kao just north of the Yalu River on the Chinese side. When flying an airfield recce mission, I would break from my fighter escort just south of the target. After a rapid descent, I would point the nose of the airplane directly at the target, and begin my photo run. The RF-80 had long distance, 40-inch focal length oblique nose cameras that pointed straight forward and took large 9 by 18-inch negatives. As I approached close in to the target, the entire airfield or target would fill the camera lens. The photographs taken would reveal valuable intelligence for future UN Air Forces mission planning. Our escorts would continue to cover us until we completed our photo runs and then we would turn south and skeedaddle for home. We flew out as fast as our RF-80s could scoot until we got out of MiG range--on the deck or as close as we could get to the waters of the Yellow Sea.

As it was in the best interest of reconnaissance pilots to establish good relations with the Fighter Jocks, 15th Squadron pilots hosted many parties at the "Cottonpickers" Club. It soon became a favorite meeting place for the boys from the Kimpo-based 4th Fighter Wing and the Aussie 77th Squadron. Many of my classmates from "Willie Field" were in the 4th Fighter Wing and flying the F-86s. This included such folks as future astronaut "Gus" Grissom and future Ace, Jim Kasler. They were the guys that kept the MiGs off our backs and many tall tales of the "Hairy" missions of the day were discussed over the "Cottonpickers" plywood bar. On one such occasion, a flight of four RAAF Meteors chased and shot down a MiG that was in hot pursuit of a 15th Squadron RF-80 they were escorting. All four Aussie pilots in the flight got confirmed hits on the MiG, and each was credited with a quarter of a MiG kill. This gave cause for great mutual celebrations at the "Cottonpickers" Club that evening. The Aussies were great dart throwers and when bad flying weather curtailed flight operations for the next day, great games of darts ensued. Arm wrestling and drinking games were played and foul Fighter Pilot drinking songs were sung late into the night. Those were great times to remember.

Temperatures started to fall the in first couple of weeks of October 1951 and winter flying gear was issued to pilots as needed or desired. Enemy air activity increased dramatically and MiG encounters and 15th Squadron losses began to mount. On 2 October 1951, MiGs shot down 1st Lt. Bruce Sweney, while he was on a mission just south of the Yalu River over the Namsi-Taechon area. His RF-80 was hit at about twenty thousand feet and exploded. A parachute was observed to deploy by the pilots in his F-84 fighter escort. He landed in a rice paddy but was never seen again.

In early October 1951, 1st Lt. Tex Hill of the 15th Squadron was on a lone reconnaissance mission perusing the area between Sinanju and the Yalu River. Here he detected two previously unidentified North Korean Airfields under construction. Tex took many photo-reconnaissance pictures, the photos were interpreted and the resulting intelligence was forwarded to the appropriate Headquarters. The Namsi and Taechon Airfields had been discovered and were now added to the "Hit List" for attacks by our bombers and fighter-bombers. They also became constant reconnaissance targets for 15th Squadron surveillance.

Early on the morning of 23 October 1951, 1st Lt. Ray Powell and I attended the thorough, well-organized, 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Group briefing for all the Group pilots. The briefing covered theatre air activity for the previous day's combat operations and included aircraft and personnel casualties for the Army, Navy, and Marines. Then came a rendition of proposed operations for the day. Group Operations, Air Forces Command Headquarters had laid on a B-29 bombing raid against the Namsi and Taechon Airfields for mid-morning. Weather reports indicated a great day for flying. Lots of blue sky that would provide ample warning of enemy aircraft presence in the air. Clear skies always provided some protection and comfort in the knowledge that the telltale MiG contrails would again be visible from many miles away. Looking initially like silver dots on the horizon, the MiGs would rise up into the skies above their airfields in China. Those silver dots and ensuing contrails could be seen for some distance as they began forming their large combat formations just north of the Yalu. After a few minutes, they would head south across the river to meet with the contrails of our northbound aircraft. Then the daily dizzying swirl of air combat in MiG Alley would begin again.

On returning to the 15th Squadron Operations hut, Ray and I learned that one of the tasks for the RF-80's that day was to send two "Photo Joes" to tag onto the B-29 Bomber stream coming out of Okinawa to bomb the Namsi and Taechon Airfields. The B-29s would be escorted by 34 F-86 Sabre Jets in a high escort position to fight off the MiGs attacking from above. In addition, 55 F-84s and Meteors would fly escort at bomber altitude to fight off any MiGs that broke though the Sabres. Ray Powell and I, the elected "Photo Joes", were instructed to follow about fifteen minutes behind the Bomber stream and, after the "bombs-away", take Bomb Damage Assessment photographs of the two airfields.

At the appointed time, Kimpo came alive with the whine of jet turbines as the three squadrons of 4th Fighter Wing and the RAAF 77th Squadron jockeyed for take off. With the launch of the fighters complete, we manned our RF-80s and were soon airborne en route to our targets. As we followed, the strike mission, we listened in to the radio chatter of the bombers and fighters as they talked between themselves and with Ground Control. When we neared the Chinnampo Peninsula, we could hear our Radar Control, "Stovepipe Control" calling out the departure of MiG aircraft from their bases across the Yalu. "Train number one leaving the station"; "Train number two leaving the station". Each "Train" indicated a flight of an unknown number of MiGs. By the time the bomber stream reached Namsi, Stovepipe Control was calling off, "Train number twelve leaving the station", which meant that the air would soon be full of MiGs. Squinting to the northern skies, we could see a myriad of silver dots and masses of contrails in combat formations as 130 MiGs made a gradual, massive swooping turn to the South.

The MiGs came in much, much higher in the sky than our F-86s could reach, upwards of 55,000 feet, and the MiGs barreled right through the F-86s, Meteors, and F-84s. They yo-yoed up and down, to and from high altitudes to rain havoc onto the bombers. With over two hundred aircraft swirling about the skies, the largest single air battle of the Korean War had just broken out over MiG Alley. The whole force, bombers and fighters alike were catching hell from the MiG cannon fire and the radio chatter intensified. B-29s were being shot down, crews bailing out, and other badly damaged aircraft were limping for cover after dropping their bombs onto the targets. One B-29 made it over the Yellow Sea before it crashed in flames. Several shot-up aircraft managed to make emergency landings at Kimpo Air Base and other airfields in South Korea. The whole disastrous event took place in a matter of minutes.

By the time Ray and I reached the area of the Namsi and Taechon Airfields, the air space had become suddenly, and very eerily, vacant of aircraft and radio chatter. All friendly and enemy aircraft had disappeared as they completed their bomb runs or ran low on fuel and returned to base. We flew our RF-80s over the airfields for our Bomb Damage Assessment photo runs. We would later learn from viewing our photographs, that heavy enemy antiaircraft fire was being hurled at us as we passed over the airfields. The photos revealed many gun muzzle flashes from the air defense weapons positioned around the perimeter of the airfields. We returned safely to Kimpo in a sky that had grown deathly quiet. We were unscathed by all of the days action, except the feelings of grief for our fallen comrades. The next day, the B-29s would have a similar encounter in MiG Alley. Unwilling to endure the losses suffered in these two days of battle, Bomber Command ended daylight bombing missions over North Korea. Bomber pilots would later refer to 23 October 1951 as "Black Tuesday".

Flying missions at night was not an option for the 15th Squadron. Many more photo missions would be flown through MiG Alley to the Namsi and Taechon Airfields to maintain reconnaissance surveillance of airfield repair and airplane activities. My last mission to the Namsi and Taechon area was in early January 1952 and was escorted by 4th Fighter Wing Ace and Medal of Honor winner Lt. Col. George Davis. He was shot down and killed on 14 February 1952.

As I flew that last mission over the Namsi and Taechon, little did I realize that in several weeks hence, I would be sitting in solitary confinement in North Korea with a fractured back, head wounds and under interrogation as a Prisoner of War. On 26 January 1952, I was on a solo reconnaissance mission en route to photograph an enemy airfield south of the Chosen Reservoir, when I was shot down over Hamhung by antiaircraft fire. I would spend the next year and a half as a POW of the North Koreans and Chinese.

Despite my captivity in a POW camp on the Yalu River, the air battles over MiG Alley continued to be part of my daily life. From the ground, I watched the same contrails I had observed so many times from the air as they approached from both the north and south in preparation for doing battle directly overhead. Because of the distance, the sights and sounds of the smoking aircraft guns would be separated in time. I could see the fighting and firing but could not hear the noise of the firing until some seconds later. The F-86's .50 caliber machine guns would "chatter" and the MiG's cannon's would "garumph" as the aircraft tangled from contrail altitudes to ground level. The time it took for the "chatter" and "garumph" noises to reach the ground made it difficult to tell just who was chasing whom or who was doing the firing or who was getting shot at or hit. The MiGs and F-86s were so similar in looks that when a swept-wing fighter went down burning, smoking, and crashing into the ground, you couldn't tell whether it was a MiG or an F-86. The fact that we could see that the fighting was still underway was enough to give hope to the helpless, sick and wounded POWs that someday, The War would be over and help would be on the way.

Yesterday & today saw two of the fiercest air battles of the war. I was in on the one yesterday, the 23rd of Oct. You'll have heard about it by the time you get this letter. I got back without a scratch. Some didn't get back and some were pretty well scratched when they did get back.

I got my first lieutenancy yesterday and it was dated the 20th of Oct. A birthday present for Jay. Also got my first air medal last week. I think that I'm up for the Distinguished Flying Cross also. I flew my 28th mission yesterday. When I got back I found that I was to be sent to Taegu to school for a couple of days. I flew down in the afternoon. I am supposed to go back to Kimpo loaded with information & education on defense against chemical, biological & radiological warfare, plus winter survival technique, and how to requisition winter clothing for my squadron. This information I am supposed to divulge to the squadron in a series of lectures. It's very interesting and makes a change from the regular routine.

We have our new tent just about remodeled now & it's the envy of the whole squadron. We've put a lot of work into it. I'll have some pictures made & send them. It's very elaborate under the circumstances.

I ran into five of my classmates down here. I saw Shepherd, Parker, Moore, Tanksley & Tiernan. Miller & I are the first men in 51-B to make 1st Lt. So photo recon isn't such a bad deal after all. The boys in fighters shudder when we tell them of our exploits over the lines in our alone unarmed F-80.

I'm enclosing a clipping of what my squadron does. Gotta get some sleep now. Goodnight. Love you.

Duke

The log sheet in my flight records for the period October 1951 (certified by 1st Lieutenant James M. Nimmo) shows one combat mission on 14 Oct 51, duration 1.20, "NK. rr K-14" (North Korea round robin Kimpo). Unfortunately, that October 51 log sheet shows I flew 28 missions that month NK rr K-14. Targets are not identified. I did take a number of pictures in the area between Sinanju and Sinuiju (including Namsi, Saamcham and Taechon) starting in late September, but I cannot correlate missions with targets and dates...with one exception. That was a mission on 23 October 51 to cover one airfield in MiG Alley. I think it was Namsi.

I remember that mission for a couple of reasons. Earlier in the day, three shot up B-29s limped into Kimpo. I was provided an F-86 escort and had to go across the field for pre mission coordination with the escort leader, Colonel Francis S. Gabreski, about whom I'd heard a lot but had never met. There were a couple of B-29 flight crew members there (one still in a bloody flight suit, as I recall).

The mission required me to be airborne about 20 minutes ahead of the 86s to make our rendezvous point near Chinnampo on time. That meant I needed to hustle, which I did... and nearly blew it in the process. I taxied over a piece of loose PSP in our parking ramp, causing the steel plank to curve up and gash my left tip tank (under slung variety) and dump out all the fuel in that tank. There I sat, with my left wing pointing at the afternoon sun and my right tip tank drooping in the mud. I jumped out of my aircraft and ran over to a nearby pilot getting ready to go on another mission. He saw my plight and let me take his plane. I don't remember who the guy was; I hope I said thanks. Anyway I finally got airborne and arrived at the rendezvous point just barely ahead of the 86s.

We headed north and shortly thereafter, somewhere a bit northeast of Sinanju, saw them coming head on--a whole gaggle of MiG-15s line abreast. I watched in total fascination as they (or was it the F-86s ?) toggled off their drop tanks. They tumbled ever so slowly, it seemed, and for a moment I thought I might hit one. That was the last I saw of the MiGs and the F-86s that day. They had their own ball and apparently I was not invited. I moseyed on to my target without any further distraction except for a few bursts of 85mm anti-aircraft artillery fire, got my brownie snaps, did a split S to expedite my departure for friendlier airspace at a lower flight level and headed home.

That night I visited our recce tech's PI section to see my pictures. They were pretty good except for one thing. There were NO bomb craters -- not one. Those poor guys in the B-29s never got to their target that day. Those pictures obviously were not used in planning the 23 October raid. They could have been used for a later raid. The B-29s eventually did get to Namsi and were able to do their job AT NIGHT.

"October 30th. I had the right kind of escort today. The mission called for a photo run down the Yalu river to cover three airfields, two on the Korean side of the river, and an oblique of Antung, which is just across the river in Manchuria. There's no way to do this without getting into a hassle with the MiGs. So I was assigned an escort of eight F-86's from the 4th Fighter Group, and the rest of the Group would be in the area for their regular MiG fest. They were eager to do it because they were sure of a fight. As we near the target area, radar starts calling out "trains" leaving the station ( MiGs taking off). They are all climbing and staying north of the Yalu River. I start my run to the southwest down the river with the F-86 escort to my left, on the Korean side, because American planes are not "permitted" to cross the border into Chinese territory. I complete the photo run on the first airfield when the escort leader calls out ten MiGs, line abreast, starting a run at us. They call for me to break left and under them but I call for them to break over top of me and into the MiGs as I want to get the next airfield just ahead. There is no time to have a discussion, and when they see that I?m not changing course they break over top of me and meet the MiGs head on in their own territory. The MiG leader hadn't counted on that and they break off their attack and turn back north. I have to break off the run on the third airfield halfway through because I'm in the middle of a real dogfight between the 86's and MiGs. I get great cover and most of the job done so it is a "good show" all around.

Got a letter from you today with snap shots in it. Glad to hear that you got a copy of the recording they made. I got my 34th mission yesterday. Didn't fly today because of bad weather & the fact that I had to dole out many thousands of dollars to the troops again today as payday has rolled around again. I'll try to get over to the post office in the near future & send you some of the money I've been saving. I saved $150.00 last month after paying for two months of chow & loaning Miller $52.00. I got paid $80.00 this month & have about $30.00 coming for travel pay. I'll send you a check for what Miller owes me plus $160.00 in money order. I'll check up on other allotment check. Rumor has it that we're supposed to get a 10% increase in pay January 1st retroactive to July 1st of '51. That will give us about $300.00. Nice nest egg. All of our bills will be paid to Uncle Sam by then so we should really be able to save some money then.

Miller wants me to have his clothes sent to his girl. Her address is.

Miss Ann Currie
ASC Mathews Hall
Tempe, Ariz.

We have a Halloween get together tonight at the chow hall. Supposed to have a seafood dinner & lots of beer afterwards. These affairs always end up in drunken song fests. I've taken on the additional duty of being club officer for our squadron club. It's sort of fun. Although it takes a lot of my spare time. I have to handle all the stock & finances plus supervise the cleaning up of the place daily & scheduling a bartender. We do about $1,000.00 a month business. The profit is turned back into the club in the form of Records, books, free snacks, general improvements and we've purchased a private beer mug with names on them for every man.

If you have an Esquire Magazine at home would you thumb through it & see if you can [find] any knit wool golf caps. They're of the 1929 style & were very popular back in the states when I left. They are very flashy colored. The style is that which was worn by the old time dappers while driving an automobile. Picture.

If you find such an ad would you please send it to me as we would like to purchase one for each pilot. We'd like to get them with large orange & blue checks. We now have orange silk scarves to set us apart from other airplane drivers. But this would be the ultimate for differentiation.

Got to rush off to the party. Goodnight. I love you.

Duke

Got a letter from you yesterday and the box of cookies the day before. It took six days for the cookies to get here. They were still very much in tack & were muchly appreciated. I opened the box & set them on the table & within 20 minutes we had munched the lot of them away. They were delicious. Any further donations will be greatly appreciated.

I like the Santa selections you've made for the wee twirps. I would like you to get Jan a pretty doll for me and get Jay a musical dog like his lamb.

I'm sending you a check for $85.00 plus a money order when I get that.

I wrote to Joe last week & asked him if he could get over to Japan while I'm on my next R&R. I lost his address so just mailed the letter to Clark Field Manila [Philippines]. I hope he gets it as I'd like to see him before he goes home.

I got my 38th mission today. I got chased home by MiGs both yesterday & today. Five yesterday & 16 today. I dropped my tip tanks (drop tanks as Jay used to say) & "split S" for the deck. Luckily there was a layer of clouds about twenty miles away from where I was jumped so I beat a wild path for them & stayed in them all the way home. I had an escort of 16 Australian jet fighters with me today. They were flying "Meteors". They delayed the MiGs long enough for me to get out with my pictures.

Speaking of pictures I'm sending you a picture taken at the Halloween Party the other night. I sure look like a villain don't I? Most of those in [the] picture are 15th TAC pilots. Notice sqdn. insignia at [the] end of [the] table. It's a tiger head with the words "Every Man a Tiger" around it. There are three Australian pilots with us. One is on Miller's right one is on my left & one is far side 3rd from left. Men in background are Korean mess boys. From the look on [the] Koreans I guess they're wondering what kind of a drunken brawl this is. We're all wearing our Tiger orange scarfs. I'll send you a piece so's you can see what is known as Tiger orange.

I'll have a bunch of pictures when I go on R&R as I've several to have developed.

Got to sleep again. Should be another big day tomorrow. Goodnight again. I love you & will be [with] you in 2 1/2 months to say nitey nite in person. Goodnight Jay & Jan. I love you too & miss you very much.

Daddy.

NED: "Your recap from the archives of the RAAF 77 Squadron brought back many happy, hairy, recollections of our association with the Aussie Squadron. The 77th and their twin engine [Meteor] jet fighters was the immediate neighbor of the 15th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron stationed at Kimpo on the West side of the field. Both squadrons had about two dozen pilots each, and inasmuch as a lot of our missions were flown together, with the Aussies as escorts for our longer range reconnaissance missions, we were close comrades in arms. On the opposite side from the 4th Fighter Wing with their F-86 Sabre Jets."

RWG: "When we got to Kimpo, it was a big thing to adopt an orphanage. On an F-86 base such as Kimpo, the Aussies were kinda' like an illegitimate child at a family reunion. Therefore, Harry Morris and I decided to adopt the Aussies. We bearded the lion one evening and went over to their club where we were welcomed with open arms. As the evening progressed, and maybe we had had one or two potables, the Aussies introduced us to a game that required us to uphold the USAF image. My recollection of events is rather vague, but the next morning we didn't have a helluva lot of skin on our chests, bellies, and elbows. It turned out that "The Game" was to stand on the bar and see who could dive the farthest out onto the bar room floor. I like to believe that Harry and I gave a good account of ourselves."

NED: "The 77th and 15th Squadrons each had a makeshift officers club. Our club was a converted Nissan Hut. The Aussie’s club was two squad tents joined end-to-end. Through some scientific scrounging, both clubs were always well equipped with combat rations of "booze", copious quantities of Asahi beer and lots of GI canned foodstuffs, like canned hams, boned turkey, and hard tack crackers. The Aussies always had a constant supply of fresh squid; chewy stuff--only to be eaten when one was too far-gone to realize what one was eating. A centrally located dartboard was a constant source of competition. The more astute darters were equipped with their own specially made (at great expense) darts."

RWG: "I remember one night I was en route to the Aussie club to look for some of the Cottonpickers. I met Ron Susans [Commander, No. 77 Squadron] on the ramp who just happened to be en route to the Cottonpickers’ Club looking for Bluie Thornton, Les Reading and some of his other troops. After assuring each other that the guys we were looking for were in our respective clubs, Ron said that maybe we should consolidate our outfits and call it the 77th-15th Squadron."

NED: "As I try to dig into some of the inner recesses of my memory banks, I recall some of the competitive games. Put your back to the wall with a beer bottle in each hand, squat and stretch out forward on the floor, with feet remaining in contact with the wall, and try to place a bottle as far as one could reach. Then there is the dizzying game of Bottles, Caps, and Labels where the objective was to go around the table of 8 or more Pilot persons counting, starting with the number One, then at each succeeding Two or multiple of Two, the next counter was to respond with the word, "Bottles" in lieu of the Number. Then at the Three number or any multiple of Three, the counter was to respond with the word "Caps" in lieu of that Number. Then on the number of Four or any multiple thereof, the counter was to respond with the word Labels in lieu of that Number. If one did not respond correctly, the penalty was to chug-a-lug the beer in hand. Needless to say after a few turns around the table one could hardly remember his own name let alone be able to do that high level math."

RWG: "We once ranked the British union flyers for "Wildness" starting with the wildest and going down the list. We pretty well agreed that the South Africans were the wildest; the Aussies a close second; then the Canadians, and finally the RAF."

NED: "We, the 15 TRS, were in pretty close with the Aussie 77 Squadron and used to practically live at one another's Clubs. Some great dart throwing contests, arm wrestling, crazy games, and Fighter Pilot songs. Late in the evenings at the Cottonpickers’ Club, our in house Irish Tenor and Recce Pilot, Tom O'Connell, would be coaxed into some Irish ditties like Danny Boy, etc. B. B. Fish would break out his guitar and lead some sing-a-longs."

RWG: "The Cottonpickers didn't stand short on parties. It was easy to come up with a reason for one for memorable occasions like finishing 100 missions; finishing 50 missions; finishing a mission; promotion; birthday, wife's birthday, children's birthday, mother-in-laws birthday, etc. With the motto, "Every Man A Tiger", it was only fitting that the libation of choice was "Tiger's Milk" - an insidious concoction consisting of emptying all partial bottles of spirits behind the bar into a large cooking pot and using enough pineapple juice to totally mask the taste."

NED: "Squadron parties were hosted by the Aussies sometimes at their Club and sometimes at our 15 Squadron Club, which had been named the "Cotton Pickers Club". "Cotton Pickers" was the name given to the Squadron by a previous, fearless Operations Officer, name not recalled at this time. We kind of intermingled as our friendships grew. Always a dart throwing contest underway, arm wrestling (which I became quite proficient at) singing Squadron songs, 'colorful' songs, and in general--horsing around."

RWG: "If at all possible, Harry Morris and I served as bartenders when Tiger Milk was served because it kept you behind the bar - the only safe place in the club. Early one evening during party night, one of the Aussie pilots came into the club, approached the bar, and requested a bit of Tiger's Milk, if you please. Harry or I scooped up a pint mug full, set it in front of him; he sipped it a couple of times; and then down the hatch with the remark:

"That was quite good. May I have another please"?

We scooped him up another pint, and bid him goodnight. I don't know how many more he had, but about midnight he decided he'd better retire since he had the dawn patrol the next morning. He left his stand at the bar - and wiped out every table and chair in the club trying to hit the front door. At daylight the next morning, you could hear a Meteor roaring around overhead - knowing that the guy had to be still stoned."

NED: "In the Meteor hassle which the Aussies had with the MiGs on 1 December 1951, I believe that they lost three Meteors including, Drummond. I was up on a recon mission the day of that MiG/Meteor hassle and heard most of the fighter talk on our combat frequency. A grand victory party ensued when we all returned to Kimpo. One of the Aussie Pilots was an older guy who had flown Spitfires in England during the German Blitz in World War Two. Scottie, was his name. I don't recall whether his last name was Wilson or not. Scottie had flown copious missions in England but had never received credit for shooting down an enemy airplane. However, on that memorable day in Korea, Scottie was one of a flight of four Meteor Pilots who got credit for hits on one of the MiGs that was shot down. Scottie was given credit for a quarter of a MiG Kill and it pleased him no end. He generally enjoyed a drink, but during this Victory Party for the several MiG Kills of the day, Scottie felt like a grand celebration and so stood with his back to the bar and proceeded to get "Blotto". His ankles finally gave out and he slipped slowly to the bar room floor and was carried out by four of his drunken flight mates and put to bed. Scottie relished the honor of a quarter of a MiG Kill despite the three hundred or so missions it took him to get his aerial victory."

*"Bearding the Lion" is an old, colloquial southern expression similar to "Fish or Cut Bait". Basically, it means that you are going to have to face up to - or attempt to do - something risky or dangerous. It's kinda' like having to go in and tell the old man that you screwed up. You sure as hell don't want to do it, but it's gotta be done so you might as well "Beard the Lion". -- Ruffin W. Gray

No Crap--it was the Aussies' fault !!! It seemed like either you partied with the Aussies or they would party with you. In this case, we partied with them until 4 AM and I had a mission scheduled at 7 AM.

By now, the MiGs are getting bolder and coming south as far as Pyongyang so we were getting jumped more often. As a result, we started taking a wingman to cover our tail while we made the photo run. Such was the case on this particular mission with Tom O'Connell covering my tail when we were both "FUI" (Flying under the Influence).

We cranked up and started taxiing but Tom was a little slow and a flight of four RF-51s got in between us. I advised Tom that I would takeoff and pick him up when he took off after the RF-51s. I watched him takeoff and after he crossed the field boundary, I lost sight of him. I advised that I would circle the field at 1500 feet till he had me in sight. After 3 circles, neither of us sighted the other so I advised him we'd proceed on course and meet over Sariwon at 10,000 feet. I reported over Sariwon at 10,000 circling left and so did Tom. After three or four circles, there was still no visual contact between us. We couldn't waste anymore time so I advised Tom I'd meet him over Pyongyang at 25,000 feet.

I advised Tom that I was over Pyongyang at 25,000 feet circling to the left and he reported the same thing and neither of us could spot the other. After three or four circles, I advised Tom that I was starting my photo run which was the rail line from Pyongyang to Sinanju and that's when he finally saw me. He took his position covering my tail just as I turned on my camera and started my run. He was just above my tail, making "S" turns so he could see behind us and I was looking straight ahead. Out of nowhere, a MiG fills my wind screen, coming head on and I didn't even have time to gasp. He couldn't have missed my wing tip more that 20 feet and I don't think he saw us either. Tom saw something flash by and asked, "What was that?" I only had time to reply, "It was a MiG-15," when here came four F-84s chasing the MiG and they went through us also.

We did complete the mission and returned to K-14 without further mishap but neither of us spoke, we just shook our heads like the whole thing was unbelievable.

The good news is that my photos were near perfect and the mission was a success; but Tom and I learned a great deal that day.

A reconnaissance flight to the Yalu was a "hairy mission" task which rotated through the Squadron. Our Squadron was organized into three "Flights" of about 6 to 8 pilots in each Flight. The Flights were assigned the call signs of Red, White, and Blue; with "Red One" being the Flight Commander of the 6 to 8 Pilots, and the same with White and Blue Flights. "Red Eight" was the newest guy in the Flight and as time and rotations progressed, Red Eight or Blue Eight eventually became Red One or Blue One as he worked his way up the numbers hierarchy. As in most things with the military, longevity wins out. When I was shot down, I was Red Two.

The Group and Wing Commanders and their staffs who were qualified in the RF-80, on occasion would come down to the Squadron to fly a Mission. They were sort of attached to the flights for indoctrination, training and briefing, and were given the call sign of "Dignity Red, White or Blue". To the best of my recollections, Colonel Chickering was the only guy at Wing who was checked out in the RF-80. He was a short, jolly fellow, who was full of piss and vinegar; a feisty leader. When dressed up in his winter flying gear--G-suit, survival vest loaded with radio, rations, flares, mirror, etc., a .45 caliber pistol strapped to his waist, and a Mae West life jacket over the top of all of that--trying to stuff himself into the sardine size cockpit of an RF-80 was a sight to see indeed. When he got it all put together, he was "ready".

Got your letter yesterday & two the day before. The weather has been rather lousy so haven't flown for two days. I have 41 missions now. We've been partying for the rainy weather so it keeps us busy, being club officer, keeping the "Cottonpickers Club" supplied with nectars and supervising the joint. Today is Saturday. We have a party tonight to celebrate a few promotions, so I have to get over and make my presence for a while.

I was presented my Air Medal today. I'm enclosing the citation. I sure hope that this batch of peace talks develops into something. Irregardless I'm nearing the half way mark & will be home shortly. We're getting the Presidential Unit Citation soon for all our escapades in the past few months. This 15th Squadron is really a going concern. A bunch of Tigers. Lots of guts & lots of glory.

Will write again tomorrow. I love you & miss you very much. I think about you and wish I could be with you all the time.

All my love Duke.

We cannot record the story/history of the 8th TRS and 15th TRS without acknowledging with deepest appreciation and gratitude those who made it possible - the enlisted men. Working long hours in 100 degree summers and single digit winters under primitive and adverse conditions, these skilled, dedicated individuals "Kept 'em Flying". Out in the open with no shelter or maintenance hangars, they changed engines, performed inspections and periodic maintenance and kept a high - and continuous - in-commission rate. In extremely dusty conditions, they maintained cameras and magazines, loading and unloading film for over 9,000 missions. They ensured that spare parts and supplies were ordered and distributed. Radios and electronic equipment were kept operational. Correspondence, reports and records were prepared and personnel records kept up to date. Despite adverse climatic conditions and primitive and crude living conditions, long duty days and short nights (often interrupted by "Bedcheck Charlie) and mess kit chow from limited menu GI rations, morale and esprit de corps stayed high.

In mid-1951, many of the "old timers" were completing their tours of duty and returning to CONUS. Most had been assigned to the 8th TRS in Japan when the Police Action began in June 1950. By winter of 1951, the 15th TRS had seen 100% turnover of enlisted men. For a large part, the S/Sgts and T/Sgts who had crewed the aircraft were being replaced by young first enlistment airmen who had just completed Tech School. The old cadre had set a high standard of performance, and the new "kids" took up the challenge to equal or exceed it.

A special incident illustrates their attitude and performance. On Christmas Day 1951, President-elect Eisenhower and Gen Hoyt S. Vandenberg, USAF Chief of Staff, were going to visit Kimpo and have lunch at the 4th Fighter Wing. They were to arrive shortly before 12; drive down the taxiway through the RAAF 77th Squadron ramp; through our area and on to the 45th and 12th squadrons; cross the runway and go to the 4th Fighter Wing. The weather was a bear. There was about 4 - 6" of snow on the ground; the temp was about 12 degrees; and the strong north wind made the wind chill factor below zero. Due to the weather conditions, flying had been cancelled for the day.

Security was tight, tight. No foreign nationals allowed on the base and STRICT instructions issued that nobody - not a soul - was to be on the flight line along the path of the convoy when they drove by. It was almost the case that anyone seen along the ramps would be shot on sight and the commanders summarily relieved in disgrace. These instructions had been stressed to every individual in the squadron, but just before Ike was to arrive, I decided to make a last minute check. When I got to the ramp, I almost had a coronary when I looked across the ramp and saw a shelter half stretched from the main gear to the nose gear as a wind shield on one of the aircraft and a pair of GI boots with the toes pointed straight up. I ran across the ramp and saw one of our troops lying on his back in the snow and working on the bottom of the aircraft. I kicked the boots and yelled for him to get out from under the aircraft.

An A/3C came out with hands so cold that they were blue. I asked him what in the hell was he doing under there and didn't he know about the restrictions? He apologized profusely and said that time had just slipped up on him and then he said something to the effect: "Sir, my aircraft had a fuel leak and I wanted to get it fixed because I knew you would need my plane for missions tomorrow". With that, I knew that there was no way that we were going to lose.

It's raining out & has been doing so since yesterday. I didn't fly today but got my 42nd mission yesterday. I'm scheduled to fly all over North Korea at daybreak tomorrow morning & get the weather report for the days air operations. I sure wish they'd call this thing off. I guess that I'm due for an "R&R". Miller & I are scheduled to go the 21st of this month for five days.

I've written to Joe twice in the passed three weeks & asked him to meet me at the Rest Center in Tokyo. I haven't heard from him yet but I'd sure like to see him before he goes home. It's been almost two years since we put him on the train in Iowa.

The Australian fighter pilots presented us with a beautiful pig bristle dart board for our club ("The Cottonpicker's Club). It has a silver engraved plaque. On it is inscribed "To our Cottonpickin' Partyin' Cronies of the 15th from the RAAF 77th". We had a scroungy old cork board & some broken down darts that we had been using. They also gave us three sets of tournament darts. The whole issue was imported from England at great trouble & expense to them. They're a fine bunch of guys. I've made several good friends in the outfit. They lost two boys yesterday so it made the dart board presentation a rather grim affair. We ended up all getting thoroughly drunken & had an enjoyable evening regardless. They've challenged us to a dart tournament tonight. That ought to be good for an evenings' entertainment.

Danny Kaye is supposed to be up in this neck of the woods tomorrow night. That'll be something to see I'll bet.

We've been put in for the Korean Presidential Citation besides the American Presidential Citation.

I'm going over & try my hand at some darts. Goodnight for now. Louise I love you very much. Please wish me back home to you & my duffers.

Duke

Good evening. Another cold rainy day. Mud ankle deep again. I hardly left the barracks today. Got involved in reading another Mickey Spillane novel call "Vengeance is Mine". I read his "I the Jury" & "One Lonely Night" before. I read Thorne Smith's "Turnabout" yesterday and about had hysterics reading it. It's very good. Have you read it?

I got my 44th mission day before yesterday. 6 more & I'll be on the down hill slide. 2 1/2 more months & I'll be on my way to Truman's Island.

The picture I'm enclosing was taken by my crew chief. The guy on my left is Lt. Powell. He was in 51-A & went through training at Shaw with me. His partner in training was Lt. Sweeney. Sweeney was shot down by MiGs about a month ago. The guy on his left is a mechanic. A horseshoe game was going on in front of us & we were kibitzing when the picture was taken. I look slightly disheveled don't I. I hadn't had a haircut for a month. It's even worse now as it's been six weeks since the last operation. I'm going on R& R in 6 days so will get sheared then. I hope to have 50 missions by then.

How are you these days? Is our papoose developing into a kicking bundle yet? We certainly have active children. They start running before they are born. I remember the time we used to have with Jan down in Chandler [AFB]. She was forever popping up & grinning her most impish grin when trying to put her to bed...I'd like [to] spend that Christmas all over again...the kids tucked away & sleeping & the tree loaded with unopened gifts. It sure was nice. We'll have many thousands of warm times in just a few months & for the rest of our lives. I love you Louise with all my heart.

Duke

This is my morning for sleeping in. I have an hour left to get some chow and beat down to the [flight] line. I got my 47th mission yesterday. Got jumped by MiGs for the fourth time. Miller and I flew together for the first time yesterday. We went up to Manpojin on the Manchurian border. We took some pictures of some airfields up there. We got jumped on the way back near Songchon. No sweat. We got home without a scratch. The day before yesterday I went up to MiG Alley with 12 F-86's for escort to [take] some pictures of the two new airfields at Namsi and Taechon. I imagine you've heard a lot about them in the news.

I'm sending some pictures of club & tent. I've put a lot of work in both projects. I got a letter from Joe yesterday & he can't make it to Japan.

Incidentally, if you receive any anonymous letters or phone calls from anyone telling you that I've been made a casualty of the war don't believe a word of it. It's a communist trick which seems to be popular back in the states now. It's designed to upset the morale of the folks at home. It's happened to several people. So much so that we have been told to inform our folks & families of it.

Got to run for now. Love you & miss you all.

Daddy Duke

Back again from R&R. By the time I get my next one I should be nearly finished [with] my missions. I got my 50th today.

Had a good time on R&R. Went on a terrific spending spree. I bought a tea set for your Mom, a fruit bowl for Al & Gloria, a cocktail set for Bob & E.J. Also a cocktail set for ourself. Ours is the maroon set. It's all hand made. The whole glass was maroon then the design cut out & the glass sandblasted. Fine type yes. I'm sending you a list of the pieces & a card for getting more. I'd like to get some wine goblets to go with the set. Otherwise it's quite complete. I bought a coffee set for Mom also. I got you some silk stuff also. I hope you like it. Merry X-Mas from me to you. I wanted to get some stuff for Jay & Jan but couldn't find anything I liked.

I had two letters from you to me waiting for me when I got back, also a letter from Mom. I didn't get to see Joe as he couldn't get a plane over [to Japan]. I saw a buddy of Joe's from Plattsburg that was stationed in [the] Philippines for quite awhile. He's stationed at Tachikawa AFB in Tokyo now, and Joe asked me to look him up.

Ran into another bunch of 51-B men on R&R. The latest casualty report has Hadley on it. That makes nine gone & one wounded. Fellow by the name of Liner was wounded.

Cease Fire talks are getting hot again. Sure hope they do something this time. The war is still going on though & in a very serious way. Roommate & I got a ton of flak thrown at us today.

Going to rush off to bed as I fly early tomorrow. Goodnight for now. 2 1/2 months to go. I hope I can bring me home for your birthday. Love you & miss you. Say hello to Jay & Jan & give them a smooch for me.

Love to all,

Duke

Today is Wednesday. I got no. 52 today. I'm on the down hill side now. Our 90th - 100th missions are no sweat missions. After we get ninety missions we aren't sent very deep into enemy territory. They keep us out of range of MiGs in other words. That leaves me with 38 more sweat missions. If I can keep out of a MiG gunsight for 38 more I'll have it made.

It's gotten terrifically cold here in the past few days. The day I got back from R&R it was snowing & temp. was down around 20 degrees above [zero]. It's stayed there & below since. It was a shock coming from Japan as it was warm there. We got a bunch of winter clothing into supply so we're pretty well protected from the elements. I've got O.D. long handles, socks, sweater, muffler, field jacket with hood, hat with ear flaps, trousers & winter flying boots. I feel like a cub elephant when I climb into my airplane. Over all this clothing we wear a survival vest which has about 30 pockets into which we stuff rations, first aid kit, extra socks, mittens, flares, smoke signals, mirror, fishing equipment, pistol, ammunition, matches, compass, cigarettes, knife, water bag and many other miscellaneous items for survival behind enemy lines in case we are shot down. Mirror flares & smoke signals are for attracting friendly aircraft to enable them to initiate a rescue. Over the survival vest we wear a Mae West life preserver. On top of this [we] wear a parachute with a back pack for the chute. Strapped to the parachute is a one man life boat in a square canvas container which is used for a seat while flying. Dressed in all this plus winter flying boots, which are sheep lined and are worn over regular jump boots, plus helmet goggles and oxygen masks we give the appearance of having freshly arrived from a celestial body.

Last nite two guys, who finished their 100 missions yesterday, threw a party. So I got fairly well shnockered for naught.

I suppose everything is nice and wintry back in Iowa. I wish I could be with you to share it. It would be nice to get out and horse around in the snow with Jay & Jan. I remember the last winter in P[latts]burg how I used to wrap Jay up in my jacket & trundle him into the car to go down & get you at nite. Poor Jay, he's really hoed a tough row keeping up with his mammy & pappy.

I imagine I'll get to see some winter in the states this year. The end of January should show me 100 big fat missions chalked up on my hat brim, several medals on my chest and a plane ride to [the] U.S. and Waterloo, Iowa...

See you soon. Going to see if I can pick up some news on the Peace Talks. Goodnight for now.

Love Duke

December is here. The warmth and the chill and the beautiful tinkle of the month of Christmas, and the good Lord showers his blessings on his earthly creatures in the form of a jolly Santa Claus. It's a beautiful night tonight. Twinkling stars and a cool wintry frost and snow is covering the entirety of Korea. A moon and stars make a bluish glow over the world. Under all of this solemn beauty, in a foxhole, on the sides of a mountain, in valleys filled with snow lie the men on the first evening of their long sleep. A mangled airplane and a pilot. A pilot that last night was singing a song and drinking beer. A pilot that was telling of a skirmish with "MiGs". "MiGs" in superior number. Our boys in inferior aircraft. It's a big joke about how successful we are with what we have. Once in a while somebody gets hurt.

This instead of being a quiet winter evening, is the aftermath of the greatest air battle of the war. The great iron birds take off in mass and clash over the snow covered mountains and then limp home by ones and twos until soon you can guess through elimination, who isn't coming back. Three Australian boys got it this afternoon. Twelve Meteors engaged 150 "MiGs" over Pyongyang. Typical odds. Last nite we were playing darts together.

Vance Drummond, No. 77 Squadron, RAAFDrummond, Thomas and Blue, they won't be at the "Cottonpickers" club no more. They used to have a lot of fun drinking up our free beer. I kinda hate to go down to Cottonpickers tonight because I know the Aussies will be there and everyone will know that Drummond, Thomas & Blue aren't there but everyone will make like there's no one missing and won't talk about it and sing and drink beer and not think about tomorrow cause each day it gets worse and the peace gets closer and the war gets worse until monotony blanks out the end from our sight.

Goodnight for now.

I love you and Jay & Jan

Duke

The Aussies have a custom of naming a person with red hair, "Blue". There were three redheaded pilots in the 77th as I recall, one was Blue Thornton, mentioned in your 77th Squadron recap, and another by the name of Blue Holbrook, I believe. Another Aussie Pilot name which I recall, not a red head, is one that ended up as a Prisoner of War, by the name of Drummond.

In the Meteor hassle which the Aussies had with the MiGs that day, I believe that they lost three Meteors including, Drummond. I was up on a recon mission the day of that MiG/Meteor hassle and heard most of the fighter talk on our combat frequency. A grand victory party ensued when we all returned to Kimpo. One of the Aussie Pilots was an older guy who had flown Spitfires in England during the German Blitz in World War Two. Scottie, was his name. I don't recall whether his last name was Wilson or not. Scottie had flown copious missions in England but had never got credit for shooting down an enemy airplane.

However, on that memorable day in Korea, Scottie was one of a flight of four Meteor Pilots who got credit for hits on one of the MiGs which was shot down. Scottie was given credit for a quarter of a MiG Kill and it pleased him no end. He was a bit of a boozer anyway, but on this Victory Party for the several MiG Kills of the day, Scottie felt like a grand celebration and so stood with his back to the bar and proceeded to get "Blotto". His ankles finally gave out and he slipped slowly to the bar room floor and was carried out by four of his drunken flight mates and put to bed. Scottie relished the honor of a quarter of a MiG Kill in spite of the three hundred or so missions it took him to get his aerial victory.

Today is Friday. A cold rain is slashing at the roof of the tent. It's supposed to turn to snow this evening. We didn't fly today. I got my 60th mission yesterday. Forty to go. Thirty of them will be sweat missions. I should finish by the 1st of February without much trouble. If I stay here until the 1st of March I can keep my spot promotion when I get back. Do you think that I should? I mean if I should be able to go home sooner should I stay for a few more weeks so's I can keep my promotion? I won't be flying combat or anything, so there won't be any sweat there. It'll be worth about 60-70 dollars a month more to us. I imagine that I'll be sent back to Shaw Field when I go back to the States. Most of the guys that have finished have gone back there. When I get ready to go back I'll have them find us a place to live so's we'll be all set when we get there. I'll be able to get 30 days leave when I get back.

Pleasant surprise. I just had a package of cookies delivered to me. There was a five minute pause to gorge myself with them & wash same down with a can of cold beer. They're delicious! Thank you sweetie.

I wrote to the folks this afternoon. I've been neglecting my correspondence I guess. I find it awfully hard to write anymore.

I hope we can get a nice place to live when I go home. Boy it'll sure be nice to settle down to some good living and know it's going to last and that we won't have to be running off across the country, or that I won't have to be leaving you for months on end, that I can come home after work and find good chow and my twirps waiting for me. I guess that's all I've ever wanted. It's going to be good to see Jay and Jan run & tear around. I miss them. We'll have a nice settled down existence for [the] new twirp. Jay & Jan sure have kicked around haven't they? I'm looking forward to weekends at Pawley's Island. Weaver was the name of the people there incidentally.

I've got to get some Christmas cards off soon if I can locate some.

I've eaten supper & spent an evening of idle conversation on war stories, hunting, fishing, flying and how to get rid of fleas. I guess I never told you that we're all lousy with fleas. Have been several times. We get deloused with DDT, take a bath, DDT our beds and within 2 days we've got a fresh batch. I've never seen such a filthy country. Seventeen layers of steaming stink.

Goodnight for now. Love to all.

Duke

I'm sitting here snuffling over a cold can of beer. I caught a cold a couple of days ago and it's been getting worse & worse. One of my usual head colds. This is only the second one I've had since I left Iowa so I consider myself rather fortunate in that respect. Miller is in the hospital with [a] cold & headache & slight temp. I guess that's where I should be as I don't feel too sharp. I'm going to drink a few cans of beer & take a couple of aspirins & if I don't feel better in the morning, I'll go to sick call & get a shot or something.

We got a bunch of 51-B men in from the states a couple of days ago. They're all 2nd Lieutenants yet, so I feel rather good in that respect. Kassler, Grissom, Barowski, Koenig, Morton, Straub, Moore, two student officers that are still 2/LT (that does my heart good). Hunter is over in Japan now & is due to come to Korea soon. That puts all but two of 51-B men over seas now. So I guess I got one of the better deals after all. I'll be nearly through with my missions by the time they get started. I have 64 now. Most of the guys are flying F-86s & F-84s. Missions are coming rather slow in those squadrons.

I think that I'll get my Christmas cards out tomorrow. I finally got about two dozen cards. They're all the same.

We continue to have a rather mild winter. The snow has all gone away & the day[s] are damp & muddy. I think that's the cause of my cold. I finally got to take a bath after nearly three weeks without one. Fleas have disappeared again. I guess the shock was too much for them. The shock was rather a strain on me too.

We didn't fly again today as the weather was soupy. Should have a good day tomorrow. It's supposed to get cold & clear tonight.

I've got some real fine type state side music drifting in & out on the radio...Christmas songs are playing and I wish that I could be with you & the two troopers. Last year at this time we were having a fine time.

Guess I'll get another can of beer & pills & go to bed. Hope I feel better tomorrow. Probably get two missions if weather is good. Goodnight for now. I love you & miss you very much.

Daddy Duke

Got a letter from you yesterday. I enjoyed the pictures very much. You sure look good to me in the picture. I wish I could yank you out of the picture and kiss you. The twirps are sure growing. Jan looks cute as a bug and Jay is his usual handsome self.

I have 68 missions now. The weather has been stinking. It's been foggy for the past two days. I have to go to Japan tomorrow. The Squadron is going to have a Christmas dinner party. So being Club Officer it's my duty to purchase beer & chicken and rest of stuff for chicken dinner. Should leave in [the] morning & be back late tomorrow nite or next day with the stuff. They've got a transport plane all lined up to take me over and back.

I enjoyed the clipping you sent about my getting the Air Medal. I'm sending it back to you for [the] scrapbook.

We've been busy decorating the barracks and the club for Christmas. We have a beautiful tree for the tent. We have all blue lights on it. It's about 6 foot tall and one of the only spruce trees in Korea. We pinched it from the lawn in front of the Capitol building in down town Seoul about two nights ago. We mixed up a batch of Lux and water for snow and had four boxes of icicles for trim. It looks good.

Five more days till Christmas. Seven more days & the war may be over. That would be a fine Christmas present. I guess they're progressing fairly well on the Peace Talks this time. I hope they're successful.

I've got a lot of arrangements to make for purchasing tomorrow so will say goodnight for now. Love you and miss you muchly.

Duke

Occasional trips were made from Kimpo into 5th Air Force HQ in downtown Seoul for the purpose of Operational Briefings, looking at target photography, coordinating escort missions to far off North Korea. Shopping forays to Army Supply depots and to Korean Merchants were also done along with our HQ trips. Air Force Pilots had access to "Combat Rations" of Whiskey, a rare and valuable commodity in this frozen, snow covered land. The "rations" were invariably saved up in small quantities for the purpose of bartering with Army Supply blokes for large cans of boned turkey, ham, hard tack crackers, nuts, pickles, and other goodies for our Cottonpickers Club back in the 15th Squadron area at Kimpo.

For our trips into Seoul, a Weapons Carrier type vehicle would be "issued to us" in trade for something of value from the Air Force Motor pool, without driver, the thinking being, "If you're a Pilot, who needs a driver", right? RIGHT!

On one particular evening in mid to late December of 1951, the Christmas season was approaching and the festive moods of Christmas were rapidly approaching with no signs of available Christmas decor such that a Christmas tree vendor would have to offer, Christmas lights, and all of the trappings which all of us as Americans had taken for granted as ordinarily available things in our lives at Christmas time. In discussing this matter at our plush squad tent, "The Waldorf Astoria", a consensus was reached that something must be done to alleviate the forthcoming, grim prospects of a Christmas without a Christmas tree and Christmas decor.

Over the past couple of months, the six of us occupying this particular squad tent had scrounged and bartered our way into some run down furnishings from a Korean merchant, including an over stuffed couch and chair, some wooden chairs, a table and other miscellaneous items. We had partitioned off our tent into a sleeping area and a "living room". In the bedroom area we built three sets of double decker bunk beds with lumber scrounged from some place. A great deal of time and effort was put into the "decor and ambiance" of our living quarters, so much so, that we decided upon the name "Waldorf Astoria" for our Squad Tent. We were the envy of the Squadrons insofar as living quarters and we were called upon occasionally for use of the tent to entertain a VIP by a Squadron or Group "weenie". A "weenie" being a person of higher rank, with Staff Responsibilities, and aloof from the goings on of raucous, low life Pilots.

During our conversations and deliberations about doing something to improve the dire looking prospects of the forthcoming Christmas Season, mention was made of a recent trip into Seoul and a visual sighting of a tree on the grounds of the Capitol Building. The tree was described in great detail as being one of great beauty and magnificence, and was thought to be a Blue Spruce, "Christmas Tree" type of tree. Being Squad Tent occupants and mates of the greatest cunning, intelligence, and with like initiatives, it appeared as if six idea lights were suddenly illuminated. That's it. That Christmas tree is ours, put specifically on this Earth for the purpose of bringing Christmas to Kimpo, at our tent, of course!!

Down to the Motor Pool four of us went, Neil B., John P., Roger M., and yours truly, all super seasoned Combat Pilots. Without question, we were issued a usual Weapons Carrier, filled with gas and with a pruning saw in hand for the "secret" operation, ready for an "Official Run" into to town. Bundled up in heavy, winter flying gear we pretty much filled the canvass topped vehicle. The speedy, freezing ride past the odiferous from five miles away, Village of Yong Dung Po, and across the rickety Han River Bridge, we trundled and bumped across the dirt and makeshift roads into the bombed out, flattened remains of Downtown Seoul.

The Capitol Building, Republic of Korea Sure enough, there it stood in all of its eight foot tall splendor on the snow covered Capitol grounds, a lonely, blue spruce tree, whose beauty and magnificence was badly in need of being displayed to the outside world. Three surreptitious trips about the perimeter of the grounds assured us that not a soul was in sight. Everyone with any sense was huddled into their sparsely heated hovels in wait of another day of terrible discomforts ahead. OK, head straight for the tree as planned, John P. with saw in hand, Roger M. throw back the canvas on the back of the Weapons Carrier, Neil B. at the wheel, Roger M. boards the right seat, me along with John P. saw down the tree and stuff it into the back of the vehicle and sit on either side of the tree to secure it from the expected buffeting winds for our return trip across the Han River Bridge and on into Kimpo.

And now, you know some of the rest of that part of the story. Now don't that make ya feel like Christmas is coming?

Merry Christmas! It's far from being a white Christmas. Outside the rain is falling down in a steady cold drizzle. It's been raining for twelve hours and shows no signs of letting up. The mud is ankle deep and the uniform of the day is Dress Blues. Ridiculous yes! No one is flying today because of weather.

We had a very fine turkey dinner this noon with all the trimmings. It was sadly lacking in any finesse insofar as seasoning, preparation and that home cooking savor but nevertheless it was good, and there was plenty of it.

I returned from my buying trip last night (Christmas Eve). I was a very bedraggled individual. We got weathered in two days at Komaki Field in Nagoya [Japan] & had engine trouble also, so had to get that fixed before taking off for Korea. I brought back 100 cases of beer for the club, 28 cases of whiskey, 170 pounds of chicken, 200 pounds of fresh potatoes, 100 pounds of fresh lettuce, celery, and green onions, 2 cases of cranberry sauce, 1 case of mixed nuts, 1 case of mince meat, 1 case of olives, [and] 50 gallons of eggnog mix. Our squadron party was to have been the 23rd but had to postpone it to [the] 27th.

This is the day before Christmas back in Iowa. Just one more day to hold the leash on to Jay & Jan. I wish that by some trick of fate, I could be there to watch them pile into their presents.

Maybe this mess will be over with the day after tomorrow. I sure hope so. If it isn't I'll be finished up soon anyway as I have 68 missions now. If the weather clears up I can finish in five more weeks. Happy Day when it does come about.

Miller and I have invited Straub, Grissom, Borowski, John Moore and Kassler over to the club for an eggnog party this evening. We plan on going down to Suwon Air Base tomorrow, if it rains and we can't fly, to see a bunch of 51-B men. Suwon is about 30 miles from here. There are about ten of 15 classmates there.

Christmas carols and chimes are playing on the radio and it made me more aware of the warmth and beauty of Christmas. I wish we could share this day. Goodbye for now. I love you and miss you.

Daddy

First Lt. Clarence M. Murphy, USAF, of Norfolk, has completed 100 combat missions over Korea since reporting to the 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing in June. Taking pictures of enemy military installations over North Korea, Murphy nearly ended in disaster on his 66th mission, and four times his unarmed plane was jumped from above by speedy Russian MiG-15 fighters.

The officer, whose wife and small daughter live at 813 West 27th Street, pilots an RF-80 photo jet. His aerial photographs help provide the United Nations Command with pictures of military targets.

On his 66th mission he was flying at 20,000 feet, photographing rail lines leading into Sinanju on the west coast of Korea. First Lt. Ernest R. Harden, of Virginia Beach, was wingman that day.

Tried to Warn Him

Harden saw five MiGs trying to box them in from two directions and tried frantically to warn Murphy, but radio communications were out. Murphy was too busy taking pictures to notice the Reds.

"The first thing I knew about MiGs was when Harden buzzed me so close I thought he was going to take my canopy with him," Murphy told officers at the base on their return.

"They started firing way off," he said, "and you could see the whole nose light up as they fired."

Murphy turned toward them and MiGs and bullets went by overhead. By the time the Reds could turn for another pass, Murphy and Harden were "on the deck headed for home."

Murphy has the Distinguished Flying Cross and three Air Medals. His unit has flown more than 16,000 sorties and the photo labs have turned out more than 6,000,000 finished prints of aerial shots.

The two pilots were in the Tidewater Air Reserve squadron which was called to active duty here last Spring.

I guess the Armistice fell through. I haven't heard any news on it and we are still fighting today so I guess it's just simple deduction. I got my 70th mission today. Weather has taken a change for the better. Twenty more rough missions and I'll be riding the gravy train.

We finally had our Squadron Chicken Dinner and everything turned out good. I felt rather proud as I was responsible for the whole thing. Planning, buying and a hundred other arrangements. My C.O. and several other people congratulated me on a job well done.

It has gotten awfully cold here again. The rain we were having turned to snow and the ground has frozen. Most of the snow has remained. I understand that you have had some pretty rough weather there. Sleet snow and cold. I suppose that you are snow bound again.

I'm sorry to hear about Gramps. I hope that he gets better. I like him. I hope that your Mom doesn't make herself sick over it all.

How are you and [the] twirps and your Dad & Nellie Mae holding up under this cold weather? I'll bet the kids had a fine time Christmas morning. Please thank your folks for the pen with which I'm writing and the pencil. I was badly in need of one. Thank Al & Gloria for the wallet. Have you received the gifts that I sent you yet?

I got a card from E.J. & Bob on Christmas Day. Also got a box of stuff from home. Got a shaving set, cookies, nuts, fudge and fruit cake. Also got a St. Christopher medal from Loretta for my airplane.

Time is really going by. Half the time I don't know what day it is. I have another R&R coming up next week, January 4-8. Stateside beds and plenty of good chow. When I get back from R&R this time it will be just a matter of weeks before I finish.

Goodnight for now. I love you.

Duke

I was passed around from here to there until I finally wound up as the charter member of "Pak's Palace" -- later becoming an infamous interrogation center. As new people were brought in, I would always ask, "Do you know anything about Bruce Shawe?" No one knew. After about six months, I was turned over to the Chinese at Pyok Dong, and I was always getting the same answer about Bruce. One night I was yelling out my usual question and a weak little voice came out of the dark saying, "Your voice sounds familiar". It turned out to be Joe Hearn whom I was stationed with some years before--but no Bruce and no word.

I never gave up. I never asked about the other guys that went down. Somehow I knew they didn't make it, but for some reason I knew Bruce did--and he finally showed up. What a great day! We had a great time talking about all that had happened.

Just before the Christmas '51 Cease Fire Negotiations started, the Chinese finally decided to let us write letters home. There were a lot of restrictions, but you could sneak in someone else's name. Several things delayed getting the mail started. At first, the Chinese said we would have to use the return address, "In care of The Chinese Committee for World Peace and Against American Aggression". We unanimously agreed not to write letters that way. It took a while but they finally agreed to delete "Against American Aggression".

We wrote our letters on stationary that had Picasso's Peace Dove on it. The Australian and New Zealanders sketched in bombs and rockets under the Dove's wings. That held up the mail for another week or two. Eventually it got out some where around Christmas time. Bruce mentioned me in his letter and I mentioned him in mine. His letter to his Dad got home first. When Bruce's Dad called my wife Cherrie in Denver, it was the first that she knew that I was alive after almost a year. They both had a good cry and had to hang up and start all over again.

"December 31st. Midnight, we wake up to the sound of the air raid sirens, grab our helmets and slip quickly into our flight suits over our winter pajamas. There are sandbagged trenches behind our tent and a Halftrack vehicle with quad fifties backed into a ditch so that they can better fire into the air. It's a beautiful, clear, cold night and against the sky I see a biplane coming towards the field from the north at about 500 feet. It's bed check Charlie again, he usually hits us at ten o'clock, two o'clock, and four o'clock, so we call them Doctor Pepper raids like their advertisements. He does a good job of harassment and we can expect him on a clear night like this. I point him out to the gun crew and tell them to fire, but they say they have to wait for 5th AF confirmation that it's an enemy plane, so they won't fire. A few seconds later the first bomb goes off and I say, "Now do you believe it's the enemy?" but they still wait until four bombs have gone off and I order them to fire, saying, "I'll take the responsibility". They send out a shower of tracers in the direction I'm pointing and then the whole sky lights up as everyone else gets into the act. Apparently they were all waiting for word from AF Headquarters in Seoul. What a way to fight a war. I squint my eyes and move them along the path where I think the plane should be, and sure enough there he is making a diving turn to the right heading back north with nobody firing in his direction. There's too much noise to get the word to the gunners before he's out of range. It?s New Years Eve so everyone pulls out their 45's and blasts away into the sky and makes a celebration out of it. The next day we find that 12 of the 36 F-86's of the 4th Fighter Group are damaged. It's time for changes to be made. Sandbag revetments are started the next day and new field protection plans are implemented."

The incident which I remember most about "Bed Check Charlie" was on the night of New Years Eve of 1951. Great amounts of partying, drinking and singing of fighter pilot songs took place that night. A goodly number of our 15th Squadron, "Cottonpickers" were making the rounds of the various Fighter Squadron clubs from the 4th Fighter Wing on the other side of the field to the Aussie RAAF 77th Squadron over on our side of the field. My classmate from Jet Fighter School, Roger Miller and I visited with some of our other classmates now flying with 4th Fighter Wing across the field. Classmates Gus Grissom, Richard Johnson, Jim Kassler (who would eventually make Ace with the 4th Fighter) joined Roger and I for the celebrations.

At the usual 2 AM hour of the black of night, off went the air raid sirens and off went all of the lights. The revelers at the Aussie Club, of which I was one at that instant, were right in the middle of a crucial game of darts. Dad blam it. "Everybody grab a beer and head for the trenches". We did. Drunken sots stumbling in the dark and flopping into frozen, snow covered holes in the earth. Our Operations Officer, a short of stature fellow, Joe D., about 5'8" fell into one of the deeper slit trenches still clutching his jug, extremely inebriated and could be heard from the trench which I had found a few yards away, still singing our Squadron songs, laughing and having himself a hilarious time.

The searchlights again pierced the night sky and mortars were dropped in the vicinity of the 4th Fighter parking ramp with loud thumps. Some damage was done to some of the F-86s. No night fighters were airborne that night, New Years Eve, you know, so the antiaircraft guns were free to fire at will ("Charlie"). Searchlights could be seen arching crazily across the skies all the way over from Kimpo to Inchon Harbor. Tracers from the AAA (antiaircraft artillery) were spouting forth even more crazily than the search lights. It occurred to me at the time that all of the operators of lights and guns were apparently half in the bag from their own New Years parties. The whole night sky was ablaze with fire and lights, reminiscent of a later time, the TV coverage of our air raids on Baghdad. Absolute insanity was ensuing.

Finally, all was quiet again at the front, 3 AM, and the party was over. People lurched from their slit trenches, a formidable task for even the sober ones to climb out of the icy, snow covered, slopes of their trenches. Flopping into a warm bunk was a good start for the New Year of 1952. Next morning things looked quite bleak and extremely cold. Joe D. did not show up for morning briefing. Joe D. did not show up at his tent last night. Check the area of the Aussies' club. Yep, you guessed it. Joe was still snugly asleep in the trench. He had apparently tried to evacuate the premises, however being very short of stature and extremely drunk, he could not negotiate the climb out and therefore remained for a cold nights slumber with his jug, in the trench.