I had the distinct pleasure and honor to spend the last forty eight hours with 1st Lt. David W. Henly, 8th Air Force, 354th Fighter Group, 353rd Fighter Squadron.
My good freind Ken called me one day and asked if I would be interested in attending the "Gathering of Mustangs & Legends" @ Rickenbacher Field. His old bush pilot from "fish cop" days in Alaska was going to be there. Of course said I and off we went, being a singular Mustang junkie and all around airplane freak.
Meeting Lt. Henly has been a truly humbling yet uplifting experience. I went with the intention to find out about all the "stuff" we modelers discuss; color of this, shape of that. His comments to me were "one was green and the other was silver" as well as "it was just a machine"
I know nothing more about modelling a Mustang than when I left, but I know so much more about the human spirit and the National Treasure these men are.
Lt. Henly left home at 16 in South Dakota and was a cowboy in the Silver City NM, Winslow AZ and Kingman AZ. War broke out and of course he was going to enlist. A freind of his suggested he sit for the Air Corps test, so off to Salt Lake City he went...and passed with only two years of high school, looks like Yeager was not the only one!
He trained in California, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisana and Florida. In fact his comment was that the P40 was a better aerobatic plane than the P51 (at this point I almost passed out!). His comment was the best piece of flying he ever saw was after graduation four P47s came in on the deck in formation and wing tip to wing tip pulled a barrel roll with out ever flinching. After Florida is was off for England.
I asked how many hours he acheived: 375 total military hours, 75 of these in 23 combat missions and the balance being training. But here is where a very interesting point came out; there were no tactics during this entire time. Like if a 109 does this counter with that type of thing, it would cost him later.
On his first mission over Ausburg Germany at 25,000 AGL his engine quit, but after "re-arranging everything in the cockpit" he got is started again. He did comment that the most scary moment had nothing at all to do with Germans or quitting engines.
He was on radio relay duty over the Channel, transferring signals from the Continent in his Mustang. Remember this was the B model which had the unfortunate tendenancy to look like a 109. Looking up he saw four Spitfire wing over and come line abreast at him. So he turns into them! No shots were fired but shorts were changed later.
May 8, 1944 turned out to be a rough day for Dave.
Up out of the overcast 4 Me109s appeared. Lt. Henly was flying wing on the Group Commander and after breaking Dave found himself head on with the 109's. He took one 20mm round through the wind screen and another through the engine. So out he went. However, in the AAR the 109 he was firing on went down, making his total 2.5 aircraft destroyed.
His first whole victory was acheived with only one of his four guns operating. By skidding his plane back and forth he was able to knock out a 109. He spent the duration of the war, until 29 April 1945 a a "guest of the Luftwaffe".
Upon returning to the US he moved to Alaska as a law enforcement officer, flying for the State Fish and Game Service as well as the State Police. There he met Ken and together they went on to set records for number of arrests and number of radio sets lost to bears. ( Another story for another time ).
When he spoke about flying his eyes lit up and became hard and his hands turned into the knife edge planes we have all seen pilots use when describing dog fights. Every where I saw groups of veterans together or talking with civillians those hands were out and those eyes were bright and sharp!
If you have seen Saving Private Ryan and at the risk of being a sap, I lived a bit of the opening of that movie. We arrived before the sun came up on Saturday. Through the gate there was an Avro Lancaster (which did fly, truly awesome!). The there was the line up of Mustangs. We looked for the B model, Dave sort of just strolling along (I hope I am that well at 87!) Then we found his Mustang!
With out deviating an inch and moving at what this 38 year old found to be a brisk pace he walked up to his old plane. Very similar to that determined stride from the movie and prevelant through out that entire day on the flight line. It was a very powerful and personal moment. I did not ask but am fairly sure he was not in Ohio at that moment.
Thanks to the efforts of Dave's personal PR Officer, Ken, there was soon an appreciable crowd around him offering thanks. A French woman came up and gave him a big hug, this is when he looked over at me and said "I don't deserve this, I am just ordinary".
1st Lt. David W. Henly is anything but ordinary and nothing short of a hero.
