COL SPICER – ALMOST GOT ME KILLED IN WWII

From General Chuck Yeager: Man, it was close.

See, what happened was:

Because I had exceptional eyes, even though I was a junior officer, I flew my first mission as 357th Fighter Group Commander Col Spicer’s wingman,

Col Spicer was fearless, loved to dogfight without concern for personal risk or his wingman’s apparently. With bristling handlebar moustache, Col Spicer smoked a big briar pipe, and on return home always dropped down below 12,000′, unhooked his oxygen mask and had himself a smoke.

As his wingman, I dropped down with him….right over Paris!

German flak guns began pounding at us, but I  could see  Spicer in his cockpit tamping his tobacco and lighting his zippo. We were barely over rooftops as tracers flashed by my canopy.

I wasn’t happy & finally spoke up: “Christ, Col Spicer, we’re gonna get shot down!”

Col Spicer chuckled within a cloud of pipe smoke: “Relax, Laddie, those bastards couldn’t hit a billboard.”

I really didn’t want to test that theory.

Col Spicer was later shot down by a burst of white flak near the French coast after he descended to 12,000′ to light that damned pipe.

I think Col Spicer was shot down the same day I was shot down but he wasn’t as lucky: He bailed out over the Channel but the Germans picked him up.

c. GCYI