Korean War – First Hand Story

 

The Skyraider

It has been some time since a first hand story has been included here, therefore I planned one for #36.  Obviously on the same wave length as I, fellow blogger/Korean War correspondent Rafe Steinberg at: http://nightowlsnotebook.wordpress.com  sent me this story from the New York Times:

Kenneth A. Schechter, 83, Dies; With Help, He Flew Blind 

by Bruce Weber (condensed by gpcox)

On 22 March 1952, Navy pilot, Ensign Schechter, 22, a member of Fighter Squadron 194 (“Yellow Devils”), while flying over Wongsang-ni, North Korea in what was his 27th mission was at the heart of one of the most electrifying air rescues in American history.  An enemy antiaircraft shell exploded in the cockpit of his A-1 Skyraider.  “Instinctively, I pulled back on the stick to gain altitude.  Then I passed out.  When I came to a short time later, I couldn’t see a thing.  There was stinging agony in my face and throbbing in my head.  I felt for my upper lip.  It was almost severed from the rest of my face.  I called out over the radio through my lip mike, ‘I’m blind!  For God’s sake, help me!  I’m blind!”

Naval aviator wings

He was headed for a cloud bank at 10,000 feet that would obscure him from view of his squadron.  By coincidence, his scream for help was heard by fellow pilot, Lt. Howard Thayer, Schechter’s roommate on the Valley Forge, “Put your nose down!  Put your nose down!  Push over.  I’m coming up,” Thayer yelled back.  Schechter, fading in and out of consciousness, refused to eject from the plane as Thayer flew alongside.  They were headed for the Marine airfield K-18 about 30 miles away.

Korean air fields

“I continued to follow Thayer’s directions, but he could see that my head kept flopping down from time to time and he doubted that I could make it to K-18, so he decided to get me down right away.”  Thayer spotted a deserted airstrip not far beyond the battle line, but due to the ruggedness and brevity of the strip (or due to the blindness he was unable to locate the controls), he had to make a belly landing.

“From his plane, flying 25 feet away from mine and duplicating my maneuvers, Howard’s voice was cool and confident,” Schechter said.

“We’re heading straight.  Flaps down.  Hundred yards to the runway.  You’re 50 feet off the ground.  Pull back a little.  Easy.  Easy.  That’s good.  You’re level.  You’re O.K.  You’re O.K.  Thirty feet off the ground.  You’re O.K.  You’re over the runway.  Twenty feet.  Kill it a little.  You’re settling down.  O.K., O.K., O.K.  Cut!”  A short while late, “You’re on the ground, Ken.”

“No fire.  No pain.  No strain.  The best landing I ever made,” Schechter said.

Kenneth Schechter and Howard Thayer

Ken Schechter was taken to a Naval hospital and only regained sight in his left eye.  He went on to graduate from Stanford and Harvard Business School.

Howard Thayer made the Navy his career and was later killed in 1961, when on a night mission, he flew into the water returning to a carrier in the Mediterranean Sea.

Distinguished Flying Cross

In 1995, Mr. Schechter was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and addressed Mr. Thayer’s 3 children, by then adults, “I hope you will see this ceremony as your ceremony, because that’s exactly the way I feel about it.”  Fourteen years later, in 2009, Thayer received the same award, posthumously.

Click on images to enlarge.

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This event was reported in The Associated Press.  Later, an article by Cmdr. Harry Burns, in the Saturday Evening Post & an article written by James Michener were used as the basis for the 1954 movie “Men of the Fighting Lady” which starred Van Johnson as Lt. Thayer and Dewey Martin as Ensign Schechter.  Mr. Schechter recounted his story for the book “Chicken Soup for the Veteran’s Soul” and the Naval Aviation News nearly 50 years later.

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Thanks to the research of Kevin Brent, we have the legacy of the AK-47 for a WWII update; please follow the links –

http://jkbrent.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/kalaschnikov-russias-imprint-on-global-terror/

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Farewell Salutes – 

The Missing Man formation

Desmond Andrewes – Mt. Eden, New Zealand; RNZAF, WWII Flight Lt. No. 427174

Raymond Beaulieu – Coral Springs, FL; US Navy, WWII

Albert “Bud” Campbell – Seattle, WA; US Army, WWII PTO, Capt. 33rd Infantry Div./Company H/123rd infantry Reg.

William Currier, Jr. – Delray Beach, FL; US Army Air Corps/Air Force, Lt. Colonel, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Cuban Missile Crisis

John Eddleman – Fairfax, VA & Missoula, Montana; US Air Force Colonel, (Ret.)

Vincent Faga – Warren, PA & W.Palm Beach, FL; US Air Force, Vietnam

Franklin Lewis – Rosebud, TX & WA; US Army, Sgt., WWII PTO,

Nick Soffos – Alexandria, VA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, 11th A/B Div.

Glen Stalker – Bethesda, MD; US Air Force, pilot, WWII & Korea

Elston VabSlyke – Seattle, WA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, Co. E/511th

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