END OF CAPT. INCREDIBLE

Air Classics, Nov 2004 by O'Leary, Michael

Storing another World War Two hoax

Way back in August 1990, Flying Tiger ace R.T. Smith wrote a great Air Classics story about Capt. Incredible - an individual that had been passing himself off as an American Volunteer Group pilot. Although not identifying the individual by name, R.T., who did not pull punches, gave a blow-by-blow account of the fraud while also discrediting a book he was selling at airshows and other aviation gatherings. Oddly, the individual, whose real name is Roland C. Sperry, was a decorated WWII veteran - but not in the AVG.

Recently, Sperry has admitted he is a fraud after a sweeping investigative article in The Orange County Register, a southern California newspaper. Sperry admitted he had been living a lie - one he profited from.

He had claimed to be an AVG pilot who downed four Japanese aircraft, had been shot down twice, and had survived various amazing adventures to earn seven DFCs, twelve Air Medals, etc.

"I don't know why I did it," stated Sperry. "I'm ashamed. I should have stopped it, so help me God."

On the foreword to his China Through the Eyes of a Tiger, there is a picture of a handsome pilot in a cockpit atop a caption that reads, "I flew 150 combat sorties in the P-51 Mustang." However, the picture is of a nowdeceased pilot, not Sperry.

Sperry was often invited to speak at veterans groups and at civic affairs where he also sold his book. Sperry's résumé, which he taped inside the books he sold, also included a record'Setting cross-country speed run in a Mustang, something that never happened.

"He was so glib," said AVG ace Gen. Tex Hill. "We had people killed, and what he's done is a disservice to the memory of those people, and those still alive. We wanted to hammer him and we might still (sue him)... I hope he doesn't show his face again."