A neat story concerning a former Eagle Squadron pilot

[Ryan K]

Sounds like an interesting and well connected project for the club.

[Matt Feiden]

Followup would be a great idea.  This is an interesting story and would love to hear more.  Might even be an interesting museum piece if they'll have it. 

Matt

[Anthony Leger]

Hi IPMS ES members I received the not below from Fred Horkyredvette4@carolina.rr.com and it sounds really interesting...what do you folks think of a followup ?


Hello to the IPMS/Eagle Squadron Chapter!

This message is sent to suggest a possible project which fits your chapter like a glove: so well, indeed, that I felt compelled to suggest it as an unsolicited idea!

Why am I sending this out of the blue? I'm a long-standing IPMS/USA member with an interest in aviation history, especially when it has human interest stories attached.

This story starts with this picture of a 1/72nd P-47 "Thunderbolt" model which appeared in a recent issue of the IPMS/Tacoma (Washington) e-newsletter.

An ordinary looking P-47, but in highly unusual (for a P-47) Irish Air Corps markings. My guess is it that it models a USAAF airplane that was somehow interned in Ireland during WWII, where the markings had been changed to Irish roundels.  (During all of WWII, Ireland had been officially neutral.)

A little digging found more about these internments of men and machines, the former including the dashing young American seen in this photo ....an EAGLE SQUADRON pilot!

Enlarged photo

He was pilot Roland "Bud" Wolfe, a native of Nebraska's plains who before American entered the war volunteered for service of England as a member of the "Eagle Squadron".  While flying from very BRITISH Northern Island, he was forced to bail out after engine failure.  Both he and his Spitfire come down just over the border in Ireland.  While the airplane buried itself so deeply into the peat of "The Old Sod" that it has only recently come to light; the pilot landed more softly in his parachute to become interned and also the focus of a diplomatic problem; the story of which is extremely fascinating.

But Wolfe was a fighter pilot, so much so that he not only wormed his way back to U.S. control to fly more WWII combat, but stayed in the service to fly more combat in F-86's in Korea and F-105's in Vietnam.  He died in retirement in Florida in 1994...

Read the whole fascinating story here....

http://omaha.com/article/20111128/NEWS01/711289905

Here's where the Eagle Squadron connection comes in!  The article states that Wolfe's two daughters (Barb Kucharczyk and Betty Wolfe)  had known nothing about the Spitfire, their Dad's Eagle Squadron service or his Irish interment, were going to travel to Ireland and England to attend ceremonies honoring their father; and that they both live fairly close to your Eagle Squadron Chapter in the Raleigh-Durham area! 

To me this suggests at least the following at a minimum:

1.       An opportunity for a very interesting guest speaker program for your chapter

2.     A chance to model an authentic Eagle Squadron Spitfire with a local connection, and perhaps even presentation models for the Wolfe family.

3.     Spitfire model(s) to be displayed locally (libraries, etc.) and thus garner Eagle Squadron chapter recognition and PR


For more on the challenges that young Americans faced ....including loss of American citizenship ....when trying to enlist in a foreign service while the U.S. was still not in the war, see ...

http://www.scribd.com/doc/49644283/First-in-the-Air-the-Eagle-Squadrons-of-World-War-II

Also see..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13924720

For myself, at the moment I'm not affiliated with an IPMS chapter, having recently moved from Georgia where I was with the IPMS/General Robert L Scott chapter for some thirty-five years.  I've also been RC-3 and had various jobs on the IPMS/USA national Executive Board.

We've now moved to Indian Trail in the SW Charlotte 'burbs (because "...that's where the grandkids are"); we have another daughter and her family living not far from you (Lillington) so hopefully we'll be able to meet if I can combine a visit there with some of your own activities.