|
PROP PLANES You
probably won't be surprised to know that I was friends with two PBY "Black Cat"
squadron guys right here in Seattle. Everly Cox was a school
principal in Redmond. My Sand Point secretary (story there too)
had two children who went to his school. He was an officer/ Black
Cat pilot. One of the downtown building managers in my
association, Reid Wilson, was a gentle old man who took a liking
to Carol and me. I discovered that he had been an enlisted man in
the Black Cats. I did a lunch where I re-introduced them.
Were they ever surprised!! Turns out that they had flown a number
of missions together out in WestPac. Reid had kept meticulous
records, and had a lot of memorabelia. Everly had kept
nothing. So the two of them had a great time sharing memories.
Everly died several years ago, and his wife had gone into Alzheimer's. Reid was a CPO during this time, and he married a LT nurse (a no-no). She was an absolute doll to us. I lost track of them after I left BOMA, this reminds me to try to find out about them. Reid told me the story of how discouraged he'd gotten. They would fly long legs out, meet a tender, overnight there, then fly back to base by another route. He had made up his mind to quit when they returned from this patrol. He said the coxn of the longboat sent out to pick them up was fair skinned, and horribly sunburned. Reid said to himself: "If this young man can do his job in spite of the hardships, I can do mine!" Reid did not quit. He later met his wife, they had four beautiful daughters, and he kept his pride. BTW, The PBY was my second favorite aircraft. The P-38 was number one. |
