As mentioned here before, I'm working on a book. That's a loooong arduous process and one that won't unfortunately be done soon. I have this one story about an amazing man, Mr. Ernie Bankey Jr. He was profiled in AOPA Pilot not too long back in a story about last years "Gathering Of Legends" ... for those of you familiar with "One Six Right", he's known for his wonderful quote "they call em' clouds" towards the end of the film.

My book is going to be a series of personal true-life "stories" about various aviators. Because of the nature of this one; Ernie is 87; this generation sadly, is leaving us ~ I've wanted to get this into print in his honor. Times are getting tight in the publication industry as elsewhere; be it because I'm perhaps not the agressive marketer I should be for myself, or because editors aren't just making excuses when they tell me they're staying with their in-house writers and scaling down ... I have not been able to place this in a magazine. It of course, will be in my book.

That all said in explanation of why, I decided this morning to print it here for anyone who is inclined to read it. There are other places I could have posted it of course; but I thought, no ... here. I have genuinely learned to have a great deal of respect for the spirit, humor and attitude that goes with doing the kind of flying you do ~ reminds me of Ernie. Many of you have been supportive and patient of my "questions" and ramblings here; consider this a small thank you?

Some professionals might chastise me for putting it out on the web this way; let me say it is indeed Copyrighted 2008 by Susan Terrell ... and then let it be read and hopefully lead to - especially on this day - appreciation for the incredible sacrifice and contribution made not only by Ernie Bankey Jr., but every veteran to have ever served this great country.

George Was Always With Me - Copyright 2008 Susan Terrell

Picture a P-38 winging its way back to base in England from Dublin, Ireland during WWII. The pilot – after being in combat for only two months; flying a plane equipped with new, clean belly tanks for its important mission – is Lieutenant Ernie Bankey. What was this task, this memory that would stand as clear and meaningful and hold a place with this pilot as one of the most important of his distinguished career as a WWII Ace and honored aviator?

It was a milk run.

The plane’s new clean belly tanks were full of cold, fresh milk. Having heard it was available in Dublin; knowing what it would mean to men drinking only the powdered version for far too long, it was typical of Ernie Bankey to appoint himself the task of supplying the real thing.

It is also typical of Ernie Bankey that as he made his final approach to land at the air base in England, the sight of a snaking line-up of men with their canteens in hand – there because word had gotten out that Ol’ Ernie went to get them fresh milk – touched him. It is telling and says much about the man also, that this was one of the first stories he wanted to share about his experiences in WWII.

The little boy whose passion for flying as a child stemmed from inspiration offered by the exciting barnstormers of the day; watching the planes zoom around the pylons at the Cleveland Air Races on summer visits to his Aunt; and of course the adventurous inspiration offered a young boy by the amazing achievement of Charles Lindbergh’s flight to Paris – grew into a man who can count as one of his life’s most memorable visions the experience of flying 50-60 feet above the water, breaking out of overcast skies returning to base from a successful mission … and seeing before him the magnificent White Cliffs of Dover. He grew into a man who in his career flew 110 sorties during WWII; logged over 350 combat hours in the P-38 and 150 hours in the P-51 Mustang; was site commander at Vandenberg Air Force Base for the first military ICBM launch into the Pacific; and will admit he was brave enough after flying in his first jet to come home and tell his wife Ginny that he’d just found something better than sex (and lived to fly another day.)

He’ll refer to himself as a “bull-headed Dutchman”, but spend any time talking with him and the image is of a kind, focused, intelligent and experienced man with a healthy sense of humor and perspective who is proud of his life, career and family. The foundational drive for all that he accomplished in his life, was his passion for flying and his desire to become a pilot.

Ernie joined the Army Air Corps April 1, 1941. To do so, he needed to be single. And here lies an important instance where his love of flying had to take precedence over other things in his life – because as much as he loved to fly, Ernie also dearly loved his “Ginny”.

Her given name is Lillian, but as Ernie says, “I couldn’t quite wrap myself around calling her that. I kind of have my own vocabulary I make up. And well … they call Missouri Mules “Jenny’s.” They’re kind of stubborn you know? I reckoned maybe calling Lillian “Ginny” was as close to calling her stubborn as I was gonna get without being hit over the head. The name just kind of stuck.”

Ernie Bankey, and the then “Lillian,” met as young children in Sunday school in Toledo, Ohio. Ernie squirted her with a water pistol and Lillian hated him. Ernie thought she was the prettiest girl he’d ever seen. Sixty-five years of marriage later, Ernie confidently expresses the opinion that hate is more times than not the beginning of love. It certainly was for the two of them. Ernie had to forego marrying her when he wanted to in order to pursue his first love in life - flying. She loved him enough – to wait. Four children, decades of traveling the world together and a full and inspirational life shared between them now, Ginny admits he was worth waiting for.

And then there is George. Ernie credits George for allowing him to sit at a table and share his stories, 60 years after his horrendous experiences in a war that took the lives of millions. Some might argue it was Ernie’s exceptional skill as an aviator that allowed him to survive; his drive and “can-do” attitude. Some might say he was simply extraordinarily lucky. But Ernie insists it was George – George said he could do it. George said it would be okay. And so it was.

Ernie says George was ultimately responsible for the success of another of the flying experiences that he’s most proud of, this one coming after the war was over. This adventure had Ernie getting into a B-17, a plane he’d never flown before, and undertaking another successful but highly unorthodox “self-assigned” mission. His cover was a champagne run to France, required for the troops’ “the war is over” celebratory purposes. His actual intent? To visit a POW processing camp called Lucky Strike, and look for his friend “Red” Brock who had been shot down over Berlin and taken prisoner by the Germans.

Ernie talked a Tech Sergeant Engineer proficient in B-17’s into joining him on the flight, although Ernie wasn’t concerned about flying the big bomber - an airplane is an airplane in his words; he just needed somebody along to fill him in on the details that were important. So after picking up the cover cargo of 15 cases of champagne in Nice, they headed for Camp Lucky Strike in Janville, France. Once there, Major to Major, Ernie convinced the officer in charge to let him see the POW registration book. Glancing through he found his friends’ name, as well as that of a B-17 pilot who had been in his cadet class.

The reunion in Red Brocks’ tent between the two pilot friends was a tearful one. And it only took one ask of his friend, for him to agree to fly back with Ernie to England and catch a boat home from there. They searched for and cheerfully found their cadet classmate. They then headed for the plane and the flight back to the base in England.

But once again, word had gotten around about “what Ernie had done.” Rumor had quickly spread that there was a Major in camp with a plane who was flying back to England. Ernie sat in the cockpit and watched as men kept coming and coming and coming, “We’d taken on I guess about 15 extra men – I was afraid to count - and I started shouting to Sarg to close the doors. Even I knew we had too much weight on board; I knew that even though I wasn’t a B-17 pilot!” Once the doors finally got shut, Ernie had the men move forward in the plane to get the weight off the tail. Building up airspeed and ultimately flying the plane like the fighters he was used to and not a bomber he wasn’t (much to the chagrin of the tech Sergeant) Ernie got them all safely off the ground. Once they got airborne however, he remembers the Sergeant turning to him and saying, “Sir? You mind if I say I never want to fly with you again?” Ernie recalls laughing at him and replying, “No Sarg, I can understand”

Ernie says that mission and the milk run, were two of the “good things” from the war. “They help to balance out the bad things in my way of thinkin’. But of course they never really can.”

Ernie was known for his bravery and his assertive approach as a pilot. There were many “bad” things, for such is the nature of war. As a fighter pilot, it was Ernie’s job to escort and provide cover for the bomber groups to and from their targets. This was always done in a hand-off sequence, with fighter groups taking over from one another at designated locations, as the bombers had longer range than the fighter planes. Once released from escort of a bomber group, Ernie inevitably was drawn to go see what train or convoy he could wreck havoc on. He was good at that. He’s credited with the destruction of dozens of locomotives; this on top of his impressive record of being a Double Ace with 10 and a half air-destroyed, one probable, five ground-destroyed and five ground-damaged enemy aircraft.

For Ernie it was always about damaging the equipment and doing as much harm to the enemies’ support and supply lines as possible. He couldn’t – and didn’t – let his mind dwell on the fact that there were also human beings involved. He will talk briefly about the realities of the bad things if you ask him; but his voice will loose its enthusiasm; sadness and hesitancy will set in and you can see that you have asked his mind to go somewhere where it would rather not dwell. “In aerial combat, if someone would ask me after, how many kills? I’d say negative – how many “aircraft”?” Ernie was brought up with and believed in “thou shalt not kill.” In his way of thinking, to not bring to mind the man, just the machine, was the only attitude he could have and still do what sadly it was his job to do.

Ernie Bankey did his job for his country bravely. Ernie’s distinguished career in the military included many honors for his heroic service. In his office is a case including the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross with Cluster, Air Medal with Nine Clusters, and the French Croix De Guerre with Palm.

The ever-present George was indeed Ernie’s guiding hand throughout his life. He credits George for his survival, and for always giving him strength. Ernie will describe himself as planner and a doer – in the end crediting George for giving him the ability to “do” in all the ways he has so successfully over the years.

So what of this mysterious George? Who is George and why has he been such a strong yet seemingly mysterious and hidden character in the story of Ernie Bankey? Well Ernie is at heart a respectful man; he doesn’t like to ruffle feathers, and as previously mentioned he has a habit of making up his own vocabulary as a way to refer to things sometimes. You see, it’s like this: Ernie Bankey saw a movie a number of years back with George Burns playing in the starring role. Seemed appropriate to Ernie when he was telling a story about his life and felt it might be a better way to get people to see some light who might not otherwise be open to it … to give the name George to whom Ernie feels he owes his life – God.

Tooooooo long did not read. Maybe not your fault, I have short attention span.

Tim

qmdv wrote:Tooooooo long did not read. Maybe not your fault, I have short attention span.

Tim

Fair enough Tim. It's funny the reactions I get to drafts I've done for the book; the opposite thing I hear is "why so short" But you're not the first either, to say this ....

I hope for Ernie's sake maybe some others will take the time - in the spirit of honoring what the man did in his lifetime. That was ... genuinely my reason for sharing it all here. We're losing this generation and their stories.

I don't know what you do when you are at a place and they play the star spangled Banner. But, here is what I do each time. I have four WWII friends that I video taped for a class on LIVING HISTORY OF WWII. So as I am standing there with my hand over my heart looking aloft at OLD GLORY. I go through a little something about these four Heroes of mine.

PAT PAGE- He spent 37 days and nights on Iwo Jima. He reminded me it was nights too. He shot a japanese soldier that got into their fox hole one night. He told me he watched 4 marines from E company and a navy medic raise the flag on Mt. Suribachi.

RAY CAREY-- Was a tail gunner in a B-17. His plane was shot down over Germany, He bailed out and was knocked unconscious going out the door as the old plane was starting to spin. He came to and heard a flapping noise, it was his pant legs. He was captured an spent 8 months in a POW camp and lost about 35-40 lbs.

Glenn Hysell-- Was in the same outfit as Audie Murphy. Glenn was wounded twice, once he had a BAR and all of his amo and started to make a run for a small grove of trees. Unbeknownst to him there was already a german machine gun in those trees. He got hit in his right chest. Right where he had a small Bible in his shirt pocket. He still has the book with the pages all wadded up to the last page.

Bob Marquiz--- A captain with Gen. Patton. He went from Italy to the battle of the bulge, to the end of the war with him. He told me some of the hardest memories to forget was the railroad box cars full of people that were locked on the outside and nobody was around.

-----Over the land of the free.---- and the home of the brave. Bob

Flywriter, Thank you. John

Flywriter, Thank You. Bob

I thank God for each and every one of them, for what they have given me, my family and my country.

God Bless you Veterans, today and everyday.

Flywriter, Thank You. Rod

I read it. Thanks for telling us his story.

I'm a big fan of George too.

Ok, I took the time to read it. Thanks

I served on a fast attack sub in the late 60's. When I reported a board, our Chief of the boat was Chief James Brown (CB). Not the singer. He enlistted in the Navy at 18 for the last half of WWII. He volunteered for sub duty and made 3 war patroles. He did not talk about it much.

I remember one time on patrole, with CB standing diving officer watch, when we may have been in an area of the North Pacific where sombody did not want us to be. We had a close encounter with the bad guys and CB was very cool about his job but his eyes were getting pretty big. I think he had a memory pop up of similer experience with a different set of bad guys.

He told me once that I was a good shipmate. That meant a lot.

Tim

Flywriter, thanks for sharing that beautiful tribute.
Too long? I think not. Fine narrative, like fine wine, takes time.

Flywriter,
There are very few if any atheist in a foxhole. One thing about being an Army Aviator in combat there are always some opportunities to bring a little of home to the grunts. I recall flying in Thanksgiving dinner to the 25 Infantry div in the Boonies in 67. You should have seen the smiles on their faces.
BTW great story about Ernie.
George Bless Him

qmdv wrote:Tooooooo long did not read. Maybe not your fault, I have short attention span.

Tim

That explains a lot.

Thanks for the stories. Let us know when you get your book finished, I'll definitely buy one.

Flywriter,

Great story! Thanks for sharing it.

Flywriter,
Great write up on on of our greatest dwindling resources, Thank you.