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Reservist "maps" past with present during combat air patrol

  • Published
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq --  An Air Force reservist flew with a piece of history Feb. 8 - more than 63 years after a Tuskegee Airman's last combat mission.

Lt. Col. David Smith, a deployed F-16 pilot from the 93rd Fighter Squadron, Homestead Air Reserve Base, Fla., paid tribute to Army Air Corps Flight Officer Gordon Hay Jr. by flying the Tuskegee Airman's pack of silk maps during a combat air patrol over Iraq.

"The 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing and the 332nd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron have a proud lineage," said Colonel Smith, 332nd EFS commander, during an aircrew briefing. "We want to keep the tradition."

During World War II, all aircrew members carried silk maps on combat missions.

Flight Officer Hay carried the maps on more than 25 combat missions in a B-17 Flying Fortress, nicknamed "Round TWIP Wabbit & Thumper." Between 1944 and 1946, he belonged to the 524th Squadron, 379th Bombardment Group, "The Grand Slam Group," 8th Air Force based in England.

Mr. Hay passed down his silk maps to his daughter, Meredith Hay Kelly of Lyons, Ill., who spoke to Master Sgt. Howard Fulk, a vehicle operations supervisor with the 332nd Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron, about having the silk maps fly one last combat mission.

Sergeant Fulk contacted Colonel Smith, who agreed to fly with the piece of history.

When Ms. Kelly heard about the mission, she felt honored.

"There are not enough words or emotions to begin to tell you how honored I am that this wonderful event took place in honor of my dad," she wrote in an email Feb. 9. "Knowing that his silks were flying again to protect our freedom and liberty and to help those oppressed in Iraq makes me very proud and very humble."

From the Tuskegee Airmen's 332nd Fighter Group flying missions out of Italy during World War II to the 332nd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at Joint Base Balad, Iraq ,flying combat missions in Iraq more than a half century later, those silk maps merge the past with the future during a month that honors Black legacies.

"The crew of the 'Round TWIP Wabbit & Thumper' was part of the greatest generation," said Colonel Smith. "Hopefully history repeats itself, and it will be our legacy to help Iraq establish democracy." (Air Force Reserve Command News Service from a 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs)