Story by TerrenceG. Popravak, Jr., Lt Col, USAF (Retired),142nd Fighter Wing Historian
As we celebrate Veterans Day, let usremember the original members of the Oregon National Guard’s first aviationunit, the 123rd Observation Squadron, who remained in the unit all through itsWorld War II existence, including the wartime overseas deployment toChina.
Redesignated as the 35th PhotographicReconnaissance Squadron (35PRS) before going overseas (and as the 123rd FighterSquadron after the war), these Oregonians and many other American Airmen of thewartime 35PRS operated the F-5E Photo Lightning in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theaterof operations.
On Nov. 11, 1944, the squadron’s GeorgeFlight, a small detachment of four aircraft and required personnel, wasoperational at the forward airfield of Yunnanyi, 130 miles west of Kunming nearthe Burma border.
On this day, known then as ArmisticeDay, 1st Lts. William W. Dean III (later MIA) and Estal W. Behrens (later KIA)flew combat aerial reconnaissance missions.
Dean flew F-5E #806 on a two-hour30-minute photo recon mission along a strip in between Bhamo, in the northernpart of Burma, eastward across the border back into China at Manhsien.
Behrens flew F-5E #810 on a two-hour and45 minute “Tri-Met” mission along a portion of the famed Burma Road fromWanling south to Lashio. The Trimetrogonconfiguration of two oblique right and left cameras and one vertical camera wasused for aerial photo-mapping, a welcome capability in the poorly chartedexpanses of the CBI.
Both missions were flown over enemyoccupied areas of Burma surrounding the northern part of the Burma Road, towardwhich Allied forces from India and China were approaching in the hard-foughtBurma campaign of 1944.
Just a few days before, on Nov. 5, 1944,the squadron lost its first member in the war, when 1Lt Franklin H. McKinney wasdeclared missing in action. Recently areport by the government of Thailand reported that his F-5E aircraft, #811 hasbeen found in Ban Mae Gua, SobprabSub-District, Lampang Province in Thailand. This report has yet to be verified.
As Armistice Day, 1944 progressed westwardacross the planet to the Europe Theater of Operations (ETO), the 371st FighterGroup (371FG, today’s 142nd Fighter Wing) was involved in split operations. Group personnel were at Dole Airfield ineastern France not far from the Swiss border, and the group’s P-47 Thunderboltfighter-bombers were at Dijon Airfield, some 30 miles to the northwest ofDole. The aircraft were flown to Dijon asa result of flooding at Dole the day before due to the Doubs river overflowingits banks. Back in the Dole tents, messhalls and line equipment were hastily moved to higher ground as the floodwatersspread.
The group was informed that it wouldcontinue these split operations between Dole and Dijon until the Doubs recededand the aircraft were able to return to Dole, which turned out to be 11 dayslater. However, on Nov. 11, the weatherwas terrible and there was no flying at all. Rain, mud, snow and flood would hamper the group’s plans.
In this period the 371FG was flyingmissions in and out of nasty weather in support of the Franco-American 6th ArmyGroup, which included the U.S. Seventh Army. In the last week of October, the group’s 405th Fighter Squadron had justflown a remarkable series of aerial resupply missions in support of the “LostBattalion” in Vosges Mountains, many in miserable weather, losing 1Lt Robert A.Booth and two P-47 aircraft in the process.
The service and sacrifice of thepersonnel in these flying units on Armistice Day, 1944, in China, Burma and inFrance, gives an inspiring example of service and sacrifice for us today. On many subsequent Armistice Days since WWII,and continuously since the early 1960s, men and women of the ORANG’s 142ndFighter Wing have maintained Aerospace Control Alert, serving and sacrificingon what for many citizens is perhaps just another holiday.
But it’s not just any holiday. We should pause on Veterans Day to rememberand honor our veterans and all their years of dedicated duty for our community,state and nation, whether overseas or stateside now, at war in 1944 or in peacetoday, ready to defend, 24/7.
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