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COMMUNITY
VETS VOICE By Frank Rowan Bill Pope in his P-51 in 1944 and below is Bill today
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his month’s hero is a WWII vet, Bill Pope. Bill lives in Paso Robles, next door to my Viet Nam Veteran friend, Bill Mansfield. Pope flew P-38s and P-51 Mustangs. He enlisted in the US Army in 1940. After his training, Bill was attached to the Army Air Corps as a gunner and sent to Hawaii. For a while he lived the pre-war idyllic army life in Hawaii. He was stationed at Hickam Field and was there on that fateful “Day of Infamy” December 7, 1941. Under enemy fire, they got some American planes of the 4th Squadron off the ground and shot down seven Japanese planes. However, most of the American planes were destroyed on the ground before they could take off.
After Pearl Harbor he returned to the mainland and was accepted for pilot training. He qualified as a Fighter Pilot and flew P-38s and P-47s. Bill said the P-38 was a very cold airplane to fly because the heaters could not keep up with the wind blowing in the cockpit. It also could not fly at 20,000 feet where the German fighters flew. He later flew the P-51 and said it was a warm airplane and had no trouble at 20,000 feet. The plane held 480 gallons of fuel, including the wing tanks, and burned a gallon a minute. Its flying range was eight hours, making it a good choice for escorting the B-17 and B-24 American night bombing runs.
Bill was shipped to England on the Queen Mary in 1944 and assigned to the 55th Fighter group. This was the same group as our own local, Elwyn Righetti, who unfortunately did not come home. As a Lt. Colonel, Bill had his own command within the Group. He flew 78 missions from April 1944 to November 1944, including five days in the D-Day invasion of Europe. He engaged in dive bombing and strafing runs in support of the troops on the ground. Forty five of his missions were in support of B-17 and B-24 bombers in night raids on Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and other German and European cities. He flew thirteen strafing runs and destroyed numerous enemy planes and structures with bullets and bombs. Several Air Corps vets have said strafing runs were made two to four abreast at 450 MPH at the lowest level possible. You wouldn’t do a second run at the same location because anti-aircraft guns could have you targeted and shoot you down. However, one day in a frenzy, he made a second and even a third run, and as he made his approach he flew very low between two airplane hangers where the Germans couldn’t shoot him because they would destroy their own hangers. When the war ended, Bill continued his career in the Air Force for 26 years. After the war he flew P-80 jets in 1947, and later F-86s, F-100s and finally the F-105 in which he once blasted at 1400 MPH.
He was honorably discharged in 1966 and after trying numerous other livelihoods came to Paso Robles in 1979 and managed the Paso Robles Inn until 1990. He then re-retired to enjoy the Paso Robles ambience. Bill is another of the 16-million Americans who sacrificed their youth in WWII to save our world and then came home to build the affluency we have enjoyed for almost 70 years. Thank you Bill Pope! Although it’s not veteran related, I invite you to join in a worthy cause sponsored by the Central Coast Women’s League. Their annual Bingo party will be held at the SLO Elks Lodge, 222 Elks Lane, on October 3rd. Proceeds are for The Breast Cancer Fund and the Tri Counties Cancer Detection Partnership for early cancer detection. Doors open at 12:30 with Bingo to start at 1:00 p.m. Admission is $25. Refreshments, silent auctions, and a raffle are part of the day. You may also make additional donations which are tax deductible. For advance tickets call Marily at 543-8763. Hopefully before my October 10th deadline I will hear from some of you about your local Veterans Day celebrations. Los Osos Cemetery will be having their usual remembrance, and Post 66 of the legion will put out 800 plus flags on veterans graves. Let me know what you are doing in your locale. Contact me at 543-1973, or frowan248@att.net. See you all right here again in November.
O C T O B E R
2009
Journal PLUS