by Joe Sills
March 17, 1943 having been assigned Crew Chief, when P47C-WD-A, Squadron 335, replaced the British Spitfire. As the Debden air base was now home for the Eagle Squadron's 71-121-133 of the Fourth Fighter Group. The Eagle Squadrons are those American fighter pilots who voluntarily fought with the RAF prior to our entry, as U.S. 8th Air Force became the initial nucleus of the 4th Fighter Group. 335 had "A" flight B and C. P-47s were called Thunderbolts. P-51 Mustang replaced the P-47's in February of 1944.
September 25, 1943 Lt. McKennon became pilot of WD-A. He was a reckless but good flyer. "Mac" was his nickname. He was from Little Rock, Arkansas. He enlisted with other Americans in Canada to be a member of the RAF, prior to the U.S. entry in September of 1943.
February 28, 1944 all P-47s had been replaced with P-51 Mustangs. The 1st 51 WD-A he called "Yippee Joe", later changed WD-A to "Ridge Runner". Today "Ridge Runner" is popular with pilots who have their own P-51.
"Mac" had two planes hit, thus two parachutes shown in Ridge Runner. The 1st one he landed in France was given cover by the French Underground, taking him to Paris. His 2nd one was hit while strafing a German Air Base. He bailed out landing in a pasture. Lt. Green proceeded to land in the pasture, jumped out and threw his chute out on the ground and had Mac get in the cockpit. Lt. Green sat on Mac and took off for Debden. He called for a cleared landing strip saying there were two in the cockpit. The controller said, "it is impossible". Lt. Green said, "I am coming in to land", thus adding the second chute to the Ridge Runner.
Capt. Robert Church took over Squadron Commander on August 14, 1944. Mac was considerate of everyone. One day there was no flying. I had just finished washing the ship when he came out to fly. I had no reason to keep him from taking off. I was the only one of all the crews still out. The rest had gone to the barracks. It had been raining most of the day, thus the underside of the plane was covered with mud as he taxied to the parking area. He parked the planee as I had a bucket of water near by. He jumped out, grabbed the bucket and broom and washed the under carriage. He was also very considerate to the pilots of all the squadrons and the personnel.