Carolina Blue

Wings of Gold, Summer 2004 by Stuart, Fred

The Carolina Blue Squadron of North Carolina had CDR Bob Saxton as "Showtime" speaker in January. Bob flew F6Fs from USS Lexington with CAG-94 in WWII. He was one of the first to fly over Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped on that city.

In February Dr. Terry Mullen relieved Ray Hunter as CO. Mullen was an executive with Merck Pharmaceutical Corp. and flies his own Piper Dakota, having logged 2,200 flight hours over the last 26 years.

In March, COL Vince Roy, USAF (Ret.) joined the squadron. Vince flew combat in Vietnam and his bio contains the acronym WGFP. When asked what the letters meant he replied, "World's Greatest Fighter Pilot.

CAPT Russell Crowell was the April speaker. Russel flew F4Fs and F4Us in VMF-218 and made strikes against Rabaul and Kavieng out of Bougainville for seven weeks. On his second combat tour he operated from Green island for six weeks. In his last combat tour ( 13 weeks), he was with MAJ Joe Foss's VMF-115 at Emirau Island. While on Green Island he flew three flights with COL Charles Lindbergh. He was awarded the DFC with two Oak Leaf Clusters and logged 85 combat missions.

Showtime speaker in June was LT Charles Taylor, USAFR (Ret.), the sole survivor of a B-24 shot down over Holland in WWII. Unable to maintain altitude the pilot ordered the crew to bail out and five went out. The pilot saw water below and decided to ditch. The remaining crew members and Charlie, stayed with the aircraft. Charlie was miraculously ejected out the copilot seat when ditching in a river. No others survived. He was pulled from the water by a German patrol and taken to a Luftwaffe prison where he was held two years until war's end. Years later he visited the graves of other crew members. (CAPT Fred Stuart)