1st Anniversary

2/28/2013

A year ago yesterday our site went live with a few pages of photos, a Group timeline, a page devoted to Group and Squadron commanders...and not much more.

Today we have rosters for all 4th and associated service units, just over 300 bio/profile pages, a virtual museum, posted a few articles and have several new pages in development among other things.

More importantly the site has acted as a conduit between the public and the Association and has allowed us to make contact with several 4th families. We have been able to provide information about relatives to some folks, and have been the recipient of previously unknown information about others. This exchange of information was one of the goals members of the A4FG had for this site. We hope it continues in our second year.

We'd like to thank everyone who has contributed to our site, as well as extend thanks to the members of the Association of the 4th Fighter Group, without whose support this site would not have been possible. We'd also like to thank the folks who've taken the time to contact us with corrections or updates to site content. We try to be 100% accurate, but mistakes/errors will invariably slip through the cracks. Your attention to detail only makes the site better as a resource.

Looking forward to a great Year 2 -

Cheers!

1 Comment

Kathleen Ellis

7/5/2013 03:30:15 am

Although this is a web site for the 334th in WWII, I thought I'd share anyhow. My dad, Kenneth Ellis, was with the 334th in Kimpo, Korea and Chitose, Japan. When the Air Force was taking over Chitose from the Army, there were those inter service rivalries. One night at the O club, an Army major accused Daddy of making a pass at his wife. My mother was quite a cutie in those days, so my dad asked the major why he would have made a pass at his wife when he had such a cute wife of his own. Well, a full blown fist fight broke out. Someone yelled, "Ellis is in trouble!" The rest of the squadron fighter pilots neatly took off their red squadron blazers and put them over the bar stools and waded into the battle with fists flying. They were quite a group those P O'd Pigeons! THe name the Fighting Eagles was their politically correct name.

Daddy had a footlocker that was lost in a move, and all his military mementos were lost. He had two albums of the crash in Hokkaido that were in that footlocker. Pieces of his plane were spread out for some distance. Many of them were not larger than a cracker box. He was flying wing when his F86 caught fire. His radio went out too. He stayed with the plane to prevent having it go down on a village. That was too long and the fire had spread too much. He tried to blow the canopy, but that would not work. He even attempted to eject through the canopy, but that did not work. He went down in an area of small lakes. He managed to blow the canopy after the water put out the fire. The underwater ejection got him out, but both legs and one arm and his back were broken. The other wing man landed his F86 in the mud and went in after Daddy and saved him. I have never been able to find out the other wingman's name. The CO said that if he hadn't saved Daddy that he would have been court martialed for risking his plane that way. They flew Daddy to Tokyo for treatment. He was right at the end of the period that he had to get in the air again or have to go before the review board to remain on flight status. He was still in leg casts and walking with two canes. The guys on the flight line had a crane help get him into the back seat of an aircraft while they could claim that they saw him walk up to the plane and saw the plane take off. They had their backs turned when Daddy was being lifted into the back seat. There were a lot of shenanigans, but Daddy stayed on flying status. He went on to be an F100 pilot in France and Germany before we all went stateside again. They were a special breed those fighter pilots. There will never be more like them. God bless you all.

1st Anniversary

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