Lt. Charles "Charlie" Rudolph D'Olive

In 1965 a group of aviation enthusiasts recorded the stories of World War I aviators.

Charles Rudolph D’Olive was the last man to be declared an ace in WWI, but not because of the date of his last kill.  He was declared an ace in the 1960s, when they were closing out the service records from WWI.  His citation for his DSC on 9/13/18 spoke of three kills, but the official record from that engagement ended up tallying two kills.  He had had single kills in two other combat situations, one before the 13^th and one after it.  In the mid-60s, he petitioned the Air Force, and his record was integrated, between the citation and the other records, making him an ace.  Because he was then in his later years, that recognition was very gratifying to him, and he was proud to be a member of the American Fighter  Aces Association.

Charlie, as he was called, joined the Signal Corps in Memphis, Tennessee on April 28, 1917 and was posted to the 93^rd Aero Pursuit Squadron in Vaucouleurs, France on August 22, 1918.  D’Olive shot down his first enemy aircraft, a Fokker D.VII, near Vieville-en-Haye on September 12, 1918.    On October 28, 1918, he was reassigned to the 141^st Pursuit Squadron as a flight commander.

Lt. D’Olive received the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) for extraordinary heroism in action near St. Benoit, France, on September 13, 1918.  Lt. D'Olive, in conjunction with another American pilot, engaged and fought five enemy planes.  Outnumbered and fighting against tremendous odds, Lt. D'Olive shot down three enemy planes and out-fought the entire enemy formation.

Charles was born on July 10, 1896 in Suggsville, Alabama and died on July 20, 1974 in Waterloo, Iowa.  Honorably discharged in February 1919, he was married in 1939 and had two children.

In the recording, Charlie talks about his experiences in battle, of being shot down and how he searches out a farmer's wife in France to find out what happened to his friend who crashed.  He also talks about the primitive aircraft that they flew and what they had to do to make them work.

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Staff Sgt. Jack Wilson

Jack entered service on May 25, 1943, at the age of 21 and was sent to Hamilton Field, Laredo, Texas, for training as a tail gunner on a Consolidated B-24J Liberator. After training, he was assigned to the 9^th Bomb Squadron, 7^th Bomb Group, 10^th Air Force, based in India.

The 7th Bomb Group had two primary missions: bombing bridges in Thailand and Burma and carrying fuel over the Hump into China, landing in Kunming and Kweilin. One of the bridges that his group repeatedly bombed was the bridge at the River Kwai. Jack talks about how they had to drop their bombs from 50 feet to avoid hitting the prisoner-of-war camps that were located next to the bridges.

Jack received the Air Medal for 300 mission hours before being sent home. He was discharged from the service on November 2, 1945 and returned to work at Northrop Aircraft. Jack was married for 49 years and has two children.

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Lt. (jg) Robert H. Allison

Robert H. Allison joined the Navy at the age of 20 and achieved the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade. He took the test to become a Navy pilot on July 8, 1942 in Kansas City, Missouri, and entered the service on November 15, 1942. After preflight training in Iowa City, Iowa, he received his primary flight training at NAS Ottumwa, Iowa, in the Stearman biplane, basic training in the Vultee SNV-1 Valiant, and instrument and advanced training in the North American SNJ. On August 13, 1944, he was assigned to squadron VC-93 on the Escort Carrier Petrot Bay, where he flew the FM-2 Wildcat.

In the time span from March 25 to July 24, 1945, the squadron, with both fighters and bombers, had flown 2360 missions during the Okinawa campaign and had 110 incidents of damage to its planes by enemy anti-aircraft fire. The squadron is credited with having shot down 17 enemy aircraft while losing only one to a Japanese plane. Bob's particular contribution to the war effort was 54 missions, firing thousands of rounds of ammunition, dozens of rockets, dropping several napalm bombs and several 100 pound bombs on designated enemy targets. During the Okinawa campaign, Bob talks about having to ditch his plane on takeoff from the carrier.

Lt. (j.g.) Allison received the Air Medal and four stars, the DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross), an Asiatic Pacific Theater Medal, an American Campaign Medal and a Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon.

He married Lieutenant Margie Wada on July 1, 1947, after she received her discharge from the Army Nurse Corps. They have been married for over 55 years and have two children, a boy and a girl. After leaving the service, he attended USC and received a degree in Chemistry. After graduation, he then went to work for Great Lakes Carbon.

If you would like to read more of Bob's war stories, visit his web page.

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1st Lt. Maurice Coplan

Maurice Coplan lived in England with his parents before the United States entered World War II. Educated in England, he joined the Air Training Corps (RAF) in August 1941. Transferring to the U. S. Army Air Forces on June 7, 1943, at the age of 22, where he reached the rank of1st, Lt., Maury was assigned to the 8th Air Force's 3rd Air Division, 94th Bomb Group, 333 Bomb Squadron, . After completing 25 missions as a B-17 bomber pilot, he transferred to the 2nd Tow Ttarget and Gunnery Flight (8th Bomber Command gunnery school). After completing gunnery school, he transferred to the 361st Fighter Group flying P-51 Mustangs.

Maury has flown and qualified in both English and American aircraft. DH82 (Tiger Moth), Miles Magister, Miles Master, AT-6, P-51, B-17, PT-17, C-47, UC-64, and numerous civilian aircraft.

After the war, Maury returned to the States where, under the G. I. Bill, he became an Electronics Engineer.

Most of Maury’s missions were comparatively uneventful. Two of them were not. Maury talks about the mission where his B-17 was hit and the struggle to return and how while flying a P-51, he was able to evade being shot down.

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IIn October,1942, Edwin W. Kahn, age 20, enlisted in the US Army Air Corps at Los Angeles, California. He received flight training in the following aircraft : PT-17, BT-13, AT-6, AT-11 and B-24 Liberator bomber. Ed was promoted to 2nd lieutenant and assigned to flight training as an advanced flight instructor, qualifying in the following aircraft : B-17, B-25, B-26, C-46 and C-47.

After one year as a flight instructor, Ed was assigned to the 8th Air Force's 2nd Air Division 785th Bomb Squadron of the 466th Bomb Group and went through B-24 flight crew training at Tonopah, Nevada. Ed's squadron was sent to Attlebridge, England from where they flew 16 bombing missions over Germany, Austria and France, just before VE day.

Ed was awarded the Air Medal and the Victory Medal and was discharged in October, 1945. Under the G. I. Bill, Ed graduated from UC Berkeley with a BS degree in structural engineering.  He is presently retired and lives with his wife in Marina Del Rey, California.

Ed talks about his B-24 flight home from England after the end of the war, and of the harrowing experience where for 10 hours of an 11 hour flight, they had zero visibility. Lost, with wings icing up and running low of fuel, they jettisoned everything that was not tied down, including the machine guns. They finally made land just before running out of fuel.

 

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1st Lieutenant Gordon Whitney

First Lieutenant Gordon Whitney enlisted in the Army Air Corps in October 1942 at the age of 20. At the time Gordon was attending Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and was in the ROTC Field Artillery unit. He was sent to Maxwell Field in Montgomery, Alabama, for classification and then on to Lafayette, Louisiana for primary training. From there he went to Walnut Ridge, Arkansas for basic training and Blytheville AAF, Arkansas for multiengine training. Finally, he was sent to Louisville Air Field in preparation for combat. In March of 1944 he was assigned to the South East Asia theatre, China, Burma, and India, supporting the British and Chinese ground troops.

Gordon received the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters and the Distinguished Service Cross with two oak leaf clusters. He also received the Asiatic Pacific theatre Campaign Ribbon with three battle stars.  The citation cites " Extraordinary achievement in more than 500 hours of flight over terrain in China and Burma where enemy fire was probable and expected.  Flying heavily loaded unarmed cargo aircraft through instrument weather over hazardous terrain, brought supplies, equipment, and reinforcements to the forward areas."

Discharged on August 4th, 1945, at Ft. Dix in New Jersey, he returned to Cornell University where he studied civil engineering and obtained a BSCE under the G.I. bill. After graduating he went to work for Barber Greene Co. in Aurora, Illinois, married and had four children.

Gordon talks about his experiences through basic training and crash landing due to bad weather. He tells about how his plane was the last out of a Chinese airfield right behind the advancing Japanese, landing on rice patties in Burma and dropping supplies to the British troops.

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Captan Howard Homer Skidmore

Captain USN Howard Homer Skidmore joined the US Navy at the age of 21, on January 13, 1942, in Charleston Illinois. He was then enrolled in the Navy’s V5 aviation program in St Louis Missouri where he was required to meet the requirement of learning to fly with 10 hours of instruction. On June 6, 1942 he was sent to NAS Corpus Christi Texas for primary, basic and advanced training. From there he went to NAS Miami and Jacksonville for pre-operational and operational training.

Assigned to the carrier the USS Santee (CVE-29), Howard initially flew the SBD Dauntless dive bomber and later switched to the newer version the TBF, Avenger torpedo bomber, the TBM. He made three trips to North Africa escorting ship convoys and looking for German submarines in the North Atlantic.

In January of 1944 he returned to Groton Connecticut and then on to Ulithi Harbor, 1000 miles east of the Philippines, on October 5, 1944 where he joined the USS Cabot (CVL-28). As part of a group of three carriers, a battleship, four cruisers and thirteen destroyers they attacked Formosa, now called Taiwan. His group was assigned to protect the Task Force. During this engagement the USS Canberra, a cruiser, was struck by a torpedo. The Cabot was assigned to protect the cruiser fending off a Japanese attack. After a second cruiser was struck by a torpedo, the Japanese mounted a major attack estimated at 60 to 70 aircraft. Thirty three of the enemy aircraft were shot down.

On the 24-26 of October, the Cabot saw action in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. During all these missions the fleet was under constant attack. On November 25^th 1944 the Cabot was hit by a Kamikaze, hitting a TBM, putting a hole in the deck destroying the catapult and radar rooms with the loss of life. Thirty five men were killed and 17 were wounded. At this time Howard was wounded receiving burns to the face and han