October 12, 1998
Another of my late father's flying stories.
Dad was instructing in 1942 at Moffet Field in the Bay area, where he had gone through his own cadet training in 1941. He was running landing touch and go's from the control tower, with a large number of solo students in the pattern. The pattern was suddenly disrupted by another BT-13 that entered the pattern without authorization, causing a number of Dad's students to execute various avoidance maneuvers to keep away from the stray aircraft. The BT-13 completed the pattern, landed and began taxiing toward the ramp. Dad got on the radio and began reading this pilot the riot act for disrupting the pattern, but then realized that the pilot was oblivious to everything that was being said. Dad turned the students over to another instructor and raced down the stairs. As the wayward pilot shut down on the ramp, Dad leaped onto the wing and yanked open the BT-13's cockpit. The pilot was startled by all this and stared at Dad, speechless, while Dad ripped into him.
After a few minutes, Dad calmed down, as the pilot began to apologize profusely for disrupting the pattern. He was puzzled, because he had distinctly been cleared into the pattern, he thought. It turned out that he was lost, and should have been landing at another field nearby, and had been cleared into it's pattern on a completely different frequency. The pilot was very apologetic. As he talked, Dad began to feel that he knew this pilot. Suddenly he realized that he had just reamed out Jimmy Stewart, who had recently joined the Army Air Corps with a great deal of attendant publicity, and was working through pilot training like any other cadet. Dad tried to maintain his anger, but found himself apologizing for having been so harsh. Lieutenant Stewart was very gracious, and explained that he was totally the one at fault, and fully deserved the dressing down Dad had given him.
Jimmy Stewart went on to command a bomber squadron in England, flying 20 combat missions as command pilot. He finished the war with the rank of Colonel, and eventually rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the Air Force Reserves. Dad always had the greatest respect for him, not because he was a good actor and movie star, but because he was an excellent officer, who led by example, not by being a prima donna.
Years later Jimmy Stewart starred in a movie called "Strategic Air Command", which Dad always said was basically about him (Dad). In the movie Jimmy Stewart played a baseball player, a former bomber pilot, who had to put his career on hold when the new United States Air Force, desperate for experienced pilots and crew, recalled the best to active duty to form the Strategic Air Command. Dad had begun a new career in business after the war, and was just at a key point when he was recalled at the outbreak of the Korean conflict. The only difference between Dad's story and that of the Jimmy Stewart character in the movie was the particular career they had to put on hold. Like Stewart's character and Dad, almost everyone else in the movie was disgruntled at similarly having had to put their careers on hold. Fortunately for Dad, his boss held his job open until he finished his three-year tour with SAC. Many others weren't so lucky.
When I was an undergraduate in college in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Stewart's Hardware, Jimmy Stewart's father's store, was still on Main Street, although the Stewart family had long before sold it. I still have a desk lamp I bought there for my dorm room. I guess the Chilcoats were destined to cross paths with him, one way or another.
Bob
Copyright Ó 1998 Robert T. Chilcoat