Death of John "Jack" Lyle in 2019, One of the Legendary Tuskegee Airmen-- Part 1

1920-2019

From the January 8, 2019, Chicago Sun Times by Maureen O'Donnell.

He died January 8, 2019, just three days before he planned to visit Jackson harbor one final time (for his love of boating on Lake Michigan).  He loved sailing as much as he loved flying.  This was his last wish.

In 2007, President George W. Bush and Congress awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on him and other Tuskegee Airmen.  They were members of the nation's first black fighter squadron who won acclaim for their aerial prowess and bravery despite a military that segregated them and southern  "Whites Only" entrances that permitted German prisoners of war -- but blocked Blacks.

Mr. Lyle named his plane "Natalie" for his first wife, once shot down a German Messerschmitt.

--GreGen

The LST That Became a "Highway" LST-393-- Part 3: "Heartbreak Highway"

I always have to wonder why LSTs were not also given names and just referred to by their number?  They were certainly big enough to have their own name.

The old two-lane highway between Muskegon and Grand Rapids, US-16, was so crowded with automobiles and trucks in the 1940s and 1950s, it was called "Heartbreak Highway."  Getting new cars from Detroit to Muskegon was a major reason I-96 was built in Michigan.  It was finished in 1962..  The LST-393, now called the MV Highway 16, delivered its first civilian cargo on June 24, 1948, and in its first week delivered 190 new GM cars.

It made nine trips a week at 14 mph with a 7 1/2 hour crossing, manned by a crew of 23.  It could carry 16 cars at a time and it took two hours to unload.  Cost to cost for a car was $7.

In 1949, the ship made 684 crossings.  On July 4, 1949, it was involved in the worst Muskegon boating accident ever when it struck the 25-foot cabin cruiser K-D-Bob II in the Muskegon Outer Channel.  Only 2 of 8 aboard the cruiser survived.

The ship last sailed on July 30, 1973.  After that, it was put out of business by trains.

Today the LST-393 is a museum ship.

Sunken War Bird Emerges From Lake Michigan-- Part 2

Some 17,000 pilots trained at Glenview Naval Air Station outside of Chicago during the war.  Two lakes passenger liners were converted into aircraft carriers for them to practice landings and takeoffs.  Lake Michigan was used for this training because it was safe from enemy submarine attacks.  Former President George H.W. Bush also trained here and had his plane crash into Lake Michigan.

Taras Lyssenko and A&T Recovery Co., out of Michigan, has pulled dozens of World War II planes out of the Lake Michigan depths over the years.  Pilot error (they were learning after all) was part of the reason, plus, the planes they used were often not in good shape).

William Forbes said the ship pulled his plane's tail off as he went down, then ran over him.

All sunken planes still belong to the Navy

Lake Michigan is the perfect preservative for these planes, but quagga mussels are degrading the planes.

Forbes died in 2008 at the age of 85.

I Bet He Would Sure Have Liked to Have Been Around for His Plane Getting Pulled Out of the Water.  --GreGen

Sunken War Bird Emerges From Lake Michigan-- Part 1

From the August 1, 2013 Stars and Stripes/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel by Meg Jones.

William Forbes didn't like cold water and especially didn't relish the idea of taking a swim in frigid Lake Michigan even more so in December.

On December 28, 1944, he powered his Grumman FM-2 Wildcat engine along the deck of a converted ship made into an aircraft carrier.  Just as he reached the end of the flight deck, his engine died and he and his plane went into that really cold water.  The plane sank to 200 feet.

This past December, that very same plane was hauled out of Lake Michigan.  Its rusted remains are on display at the EAA Air Show in Oshkosh this week.  It is proving to be quite a popular exhibit.

--GreGen

Time Is Running Out for Pearl Harbor Survivors to Tell Their Stories

From the December 17, 2012, Daily Herald (Chicago suburbs).

Now in their 80 and 90s "an exclusive fraternity that shrinks with each passing year," it become more and more important that these people tell their stories and get them on paper.

Joe Triolo. 92, of Waukegan, Illinois, fears many people, especially school children, know little of it and that public ceremonies are becoming rarer.  This is why he makes it a point to visit classrooms whenever he can.

Financial problems, teaching to the standardized tests, No Child Left behind and emphasis on math and science are torpedoing knowledge of this important event in U.S. history.

The recent recovery of the World War II plane from Lake Michigan helps bring the war back to the public.  It will be restored and on display at the U.S. Navy Museum in Pensacola, Florida.  Chicago was a major training area for navy pilots.

"We cannot do the same with the survivors of Pearl Harbor.  We must hear their stories now," Triolo continued.  Unlike the plane, when the men die, so does their story unless it is on paper.

00GreGen

Served On Carriers Lake Champlain and Wolverine-- Part 2

The Lake Champlain was not finished so he had to wait.  In the meantime, he was assigned for a month to the aircraft carrier Wolverine in Lake Michigan.  New pilots from Glenview Naval Air Base on land would fly out to the Wolverine in practice landings and take offs.  Lake Michigan was safe from submarine attacks.

The Wolverine was a converted passenger ship fired by coal and he remembered men assigned to stoke the boilers would come up on deck completely covered in black soot.

Several planes ended up crashing into the sea while he was on board.  Planes are pulled up from Lake Michigan every so often now and in excellent shape.

He finally got on the Lake Champlain but never saw action but did participate in returning the Marines and GIs from overseas after the war.

These Stories Need to Be Written Down efore They Are Lost.  --GreGen

Jim Landis' Pearl Harbor Plane-- Part 4

Continued from February 22nd.

After Midway, the shot up SBD-2 was sent back stateside, repaired and assigned to Carrier Qualification Training Unit at Glenview NAS in Illinois.  A lot of obsolete or heavily damaged planes were assigned to this site, which, along with pilot error (after all, they were learners) led to a large number of crashes into lake Michigan while attempting to land on the converted carriers.

On the morning of June 11, 1943, with Marine 2nd Lt Donald A. Douglas piloting, it too crashed into the lake during an errant approach to training carrier Sable (IX-81).

It was recovered from the lake in 1994.

This plane has a lot of history as a survivor of Pearl Harbor, two other air actions and the Battle of Midway and then training.  Without qualified pilots, the aircraft carriers were not of much use.

Its armament consisted of two forward-firing .50 inch machine guns and a rear-firing .30-inch machine gun.  Its crew consisted of a pilot and a gunner.  This would make sense of Jim Landis saying at Pearl Harbor that he had gotten a machine gun from the plane and used it to fire at the Japanese planes.

The plane can be seen at the Naval Air Museum at Pensacola NAS in Florida.

The Story of a Plane.  --GreGen

Another World War II Plane Pulled From Lake Michigan-- Part 2

Taras Lyssenko estimates that there are still 70-80 airplanes in the lake.  The Wildcat retrieved Dec. 7th was one of many used to train pilots for landing and taking off from aircraft carriers.  This one rolled off a converted steamship on December 28, 1944, and crashed into the lake about 45 miles southeast of Waukegan after engine failure after its third takeoff.

Pilot Edward Forbes was rescued and continued his training.  He died in 2008 t age 85. I would imagine he served in the war.

During the war 15,000 to 18,000 pilots would leave Glenview Naval Air Station to practice landings and takeoffs from two steamships in Lake Michigan that had been converted into makeshift aircraft carriers, one being the USS Wolverine.

The reason for aircraft carriers in Lake Michigan was the threat of enemy submarines off the coasts.  The large number of planes that crashed into Lake Michigan was partly due to pilot error, which is understandable in training.  Also, part of the problem was that they were flying planes near the end of their active flying, many having already been used in war zones.

Glenview Hangar One Foundation operates a small museum at 2040 Lehigh Avenue.  The air station closed in 1995.

Still More Planes Out There Under the Waves.  --GreGen

Another World War II Plane Pulled From Lake Michigan-- Part 1

From the Dec. 8, 2012, Chicago Tribune by Jonathan Bullington.

A failed training mission left it on the bottom of Lake Michigan 68 years ago, but Friday morning (Dec. 7th), crews pulled the fighter plane from Waukegan Harbor where it had been pulled.  It is the first leg of a journey that will hopefully end up at a Glenview naval museum.

The date last Friday was not lost on the crew either.  Stacy Greenhill, a pilot and oldest child of Charles Greenhill, who paid for the recovery, said, "These are the airplanes that helped us win the war."

Charles Greenhill, 78, a pilot from Mettawa sponsored the recovery of another plane from Lake Michigan two years ago that currently is on display at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.

The plane recovered Friday is an FM-2 Wildcat and will be taken to Pensacola for a five-year complete restoration.

Crews from A&T Recovery towed the plane underwater Sunday to Waukegan Harbor, arriving on Tuesday.  The process also involves getting the approval of various state agencies, the Navy and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Thirty-one World War II planes have been recovered from Lake Michigan so far.

Always Great to recover a Relic.  --GreGen

F6F-3 Hellcat Recovered from Lake Michigan

Dec. 1, 2009.

Hunter Brawley, grandson of the plane's pilot, Lt. Walter B. Elcock, was instructed by his grandfather to look for a pack of Lucky Strikes that he left when he crashed into the lake. Elcock said he brought the plane in too fast and low to the aircraft carrier and lost his lift.

He landed on the carrier (USS Wolverine?) and broke one wing on the catwalk and hung over the side for ten or fifteen minutes before falling into Lake Michigan.

The Coast Guard picked him up right away.

Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation built the Hellcats for the Navy. David Grumman said his father designed the folding wings based on a paperclip-eraser design.

Some 12,500 were made from 1942 to 1945. At peak production, one was made every 20 minutes.

Lost and Found. --GreGen

WWII-era Dive Bomber Recovered from Lake Michigan

April 29, 2009.

Sixty-four years ago, a Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber crashed into the lake on a training mission and ended up 100 feet down.

It has now been found and pulled out and will be restored at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida and will be put on display at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. Money for its recovery and restoration came from an anonymous donor.

This is the third Dauntless dive bomber recovered by the museum from Lake Michigan in the last several years. Much naval aviation training took place in Lake Michigan, far from the enemy submarines that might sink aircraft carriers.

It was covered with algae and zebra mussels when brought up. Its wings and propeller was twisted from the crash.

Always Good to Recover Something Like This. --GreGen

Bits of War: Amazing Rescue-- Plane Recovered from Lake Michigan

Bits of War.


1. AMAZING RESCUE-- British tea planter Gyles Mackrell organized one of the most remarkable rescue missions by using elephants to evacuate hundreds of Burmese refugees trapped by a rain-swollen river as Japanese forces approached in 1942.

For the effort, he got the name "Elephant Man." There is a video on YouTube.


2. PLANE RECOVERED FROM LAKE MICHIGAN-- From Nov. 8, 2010 Chicago Tribune.

Yet another World War II plane has been pulled out of Lake Michigan. Though rusted and covered with zebra mussels, the F4U-1 Corsair, had been under 250 feet of water since 1943.

Navy ensign Carl Harold Johnson crashed it after missing a warning to slow down during aircraft carrier qualification training. He eventually qualified, but was killed in combat.

Chuck Greenhill of Mettawa, Illinois, donated the money to pay for raising the plane. The plane is still property of the US Navy. It will be sent to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida where it will be restored.

A year ago, a F6F-3 Hellcat fighter was also raised from Lake Michigan.

Just Some News. --GreGen