Welcome to combat

Flight Journal, Feb 2003 by Blesse, Frederick

Korean ace's disastrous first mission

IN FEBRUARY 1948, I WAS REASSIGNED FROM Okinawa to the F-80-equipped 56th Fighter Group at Selfridge Field in Michigan. The outfit included many famous aces: Dave Schilling, Gabby Gabreski, Bill Whisner, Bill Shomo, Frank Klibbe, Irivin Dregne and many other WVVV II heroes. And then there was me-without any combat experience! I had spent the war years at West Point.

Then on June 25, 1950, the Korean War burst on the scene. By that time, I had amassed about 1,200 flying hours in the F-80, 120 in the F-86, 700 in the P-47 and a few more in the P-40 and P-51, so I was better prepared for combat than most of the lads who had first flown in WW II. During my five years in fighters, I found that I could gain the advantage in a dogfight but could never win in the debriefing room. When I got back, it didn't matter how bad my opponent had been or what he had done; if the debriefing officer had flown combat in the war, it was always a shrug of the shoulders and a casual "Well, that's OK; but we just don't do it that wav in combat." That was a statement I couldn't argue with. I couldn't tell him anything because I had never flown combat. Who would listen to me? I made up my mind: oe way or another, I would acquire some combat experience.

In July 1950, a slot for a P-51 Mustang pilot came through the 56th Group. No one in that F-86 outfit wanted any part of it. I had a little -51 time from Hunter Field, and we had a Mustang at Selfridge we used to chase parts, so I had flown around in that occasionally, and those seven or eight hours in the P-51 looked good in my logbook. When the requirement came down, I decided it was for me. Personnel told me I'd need the group commander's permission, so I set off to buttonhole Col. Gabreski. I found him the next morning and intercepted him jogging in the parking lot. I introduced myself and explained what I wanted to do. "You're making a big mistake, Blesse. If the war expands, the big show will be in Europe again, and you don't want to be stuck in the Pacific."

Though I was young, I followed my instincts, just as I had when checking out in the F-80, and I spoke up. "Sir, if I had your combat time and had shot down as many airplanes, I could afford to wait, but I can't be wrong on this one. I'm a paperhanger who has never hung any paper. I'm a career officer, and I really need some combat time."

"Gabby," as I knew him later, liked people with aggressive qualities. "If you feel that strongly about it, I'll give you my permission." I hotfooted it back to personnel, was given the P-51 slot and was reassigned almost immediately to Nellis AFB, Nevada, for Mustang training. After 30 days' leave, I reported for duty along with three others from tactical units only to find out that Nellis had given away all its P-51s. So we were trained in the F-80! Having 1,200 hours in the Shooting Star, I didn't need a refresher in the F-80, and neither did the other three. The Nellis instructors flew with each of us, and when they saw that we could fly formation, do aerobatics, qualify on the gunnery range and a number of other things inexperienced pilots would not have been able to do, they graduated us early. Most of the others at Nellis were "Blue Flamers" who had come from desk or staff jobs and had not flown consistently for any length of time, so they really needed four months of training.

The grim reality of war was here. I was on my way to my first combat tour. Would I fly the F-80 or the P-51? It didn't matter, as long as I was in combat.

The Korean War was two wars fought in several phases. Phase one lasted from June 25 through September 29, 1950. From the later part of June through most of August, UN forces were backed all the way to the end of the peninsula by the North Koreans. The South Korean Army had collapsed, and it looked as though we would lose everything. President Truman decided the U.S. would not abandon Korea; more U.S. troops were committed, and after some tough times, events were stabilized around the Pusan perimeter. It stayed like that until mid-September, when MacArthur landed at Inchon. He directed a breakout operation to cut off the major portion of the North Korean Army. Tens of thousands of prisoners were taken, and in about 10 days, the Korean opposition started to disintegrate.

I couldn't help but feel anxious about that. The war seemed to be going all our way by that time, and MacArthur talked about the troops being back home by Christmas. I was all for that, as long as I got into the war before it was over.

On September 29, MacArthur and Republic of Korea President Syngman Rhee held a victory parade in Seoul, which we had recaptured-an event hailed as the end of the war. The Allied Command changed the rules at that point: instead of simply getting back the southern territory, the UN seized the opportunity to unify Korea.

Communist China had warned us through our envoy in Switzerland and through other channels that if we crossed the 38th Parallel, China would fight. MacArthur ignored the rhetoric and decided to press on to the Yalu River. On November 25, just as his forces got to the Yalu, China entered the war: start phase two.