First ~ a thank you and you are more than welcome. It somehow feels like the right thing to do to share these here with you on Veterans day; I appreciate also the thoughts and stories/memories that posting Ernie's story elicted from all of you.

This is another decorated WWII pilot I was honored to spend time with and interview - another inspirational man and story - Lieutenant Colonel Clyde East:

“You Have to Want To … You Have to Try” - Copyright 2008 Susan Terrell

Clyde East was an impressionable schoolboy, only 9 or 10 years old, when he first read about the WWI aviators who kindled his desire to fly. Heroes with names like Ball and Lufbery, McConnell and the infamous German Baron Von Richthofen, fueled the young boy’s imagination and made him decide he not only wanted to fly – but he wanted to be a military pilot. His circumstances at the time made it seem destined to be only a dream. Sometimes however, the supposed inability to get what you want … only serves to make you want it more.

He was born to a poor family – the fifth of nine children – on a tobacco farm in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, on July 19, 1921. His circumstances did not lend themselves to the fulfillment of dreams; going to college – required at the time to become a pilot in the US military was out of the question, much less learning to fly as a private citizen.

He first had the chance to take to the air himself at the age of 15, in a monoplane out of a wheat field in Chatham, Virginia with a barnstormer by the name of “Cap” Lovelace. An enthusiastic teenager took flight – experiencing the thrill of actually flying through the air – and he returned to earth that much more determined to find a way to make his vision of becoming a pilot himself a reality.

With war looming in Europe, a year after he graduated from high school in 1940, Clyde followed his dream and made it come true the only way he could at the time – he went to Canada and enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force at Hamilton, Ontario as a pilot trainee. The little boy who read of famous military Aces was finally on his way to becoming one himself. He was awarded his flying wings and an RCAF commission as a 2nd Lieutenant Pilot Officer in November, 1942.

It was only the beginning of what was to become a highly decorated and distinguished military career as an aviator specializing in reconnaissance work. Clyde East possessed the driving force that can elevate a person to the highest levels of achievement; dedicated commitment to reaching goals; and a genuine passion for what one does in life. When he arrived in England in mid-December 1942 for combat training in the P-51 Mustang, he was not there merely to serve his time, perform his patriotic duty and go home. Clyde was there because he had an unwavering desire to do one thing and do it to the best of his ability – that one thing was to fly.

There was a direct connection between Clyde’s abilities as a pilot and his intense love for flying “I can say I always had my love for flying – once I actually experienced it and determined that it was as exciting as I had hoped and believed it was. I associated over time with many pilots that were not at all in love with flying, and I could not understand why. A feel for, and love of flying I think can be closely related to flying ability; most of the very good pilots I knew also loved to fly, and I think it follows that anything one is good at, he or she learns to like or live it. There is a satisfaction that comes from being good or best – at a difficult job.

“Pilots who float to the top, are the ones that try,” says Clyde. “Some of the young men in my squadron during WWII only wanted to fly however many missions were needed, and go home. I wanted to fly with the ones who loved it and wanted to be there as much as I did. That attitude of want-to separated the ‘enthusiasts’ from the ‘I don’t want to be a hero’ types.”

Clyde didn’t aspire to be a hero. But he aspired to do what he loved, and do it to the best of his ability with unwavering dedication and determination. His flying skills were exemplary, and his attitude about the flying itself and the job he had to do combined with those skills to set him apart and allowed him to accomplish just that … become a hero. A hero who bordered on 300 missions by the time WWII ended; a hero who was responsible for shooting down two of what were only four German aircraft destroyed in aerial combat on D-Day; a hero who could have gone home after that fateful day and chose to stay; a man who continued on to fly heroically in the Korean War, and earn a place in the Guinness Book of World Records from 1955 to 1968 for the highest number of repeat awards of combat medals at that time – a man who accomplished all of this because he stayed true to his overwhelming desire to be a military pilot – true to his desire to fly.

“There were 35-40 pilots in my WWII squadron. Many of these young guys would only do what they had to – and no more. Now the cream of the crop – the Aces – often came from the pilots who had a reputation for being so-called bad boys with some attitude. But they loved to fly and gave it all they had every time they did. It got to the point where I was kind of careful who I flew with. Then too, it’s fair to say that because of my own attitude, some in my squadron were afraid to fly with me.

“I expected my fellow pilots to take chances when there was an opportunity. In many cases this action can be fatal, it’s a chance you take and stake your abilities on a favorable outcome. Only about 5% or less of the fighter pilots became ‘Aces’ due primarily to their willingness to jump into situations their fellow pilots either did not recognize or refused to risk themselves for.”

Fear was something that Clyde himself had a handle on “I had fear only when I didn’t know what to expect. And even then, I figure you’ve got about 10 seconds where you can be afraid; then you have to be able to forget the fear. When danger was coming at me, I’d acknowledge it, but then not focus on it. Instead I’d start thinking about what I was going to do. Then too, there were times when I had no fear whatsoever and I was acting from sheer survival instinct; it was action and reaction. Fear is a good thing in many situations when it forces your alertness into a high level of effectiveness. Really, fear as a fighter pilot in a hostile area is something that must be recognized and then not allowed to modify alertness, which is the most important factor in surviving hostile situations.”

Clyde’s attitudes about fear, life, and what it takes to succeed in it have served him well. In his own words, “I prided myself in doing the best possible job in my combat flying, since this is what a military pilot trains for and is expected to do well. Receiving commendations and recognition for achievements is some incentive to do well, but I always tried to make any flight I was trusted with as good and complete as possible. I did not always succeed in that effort, but I always tried.”

Indeed, Clyde East did try, and succeeded more often than not. His career in the military took him from the 2nd Lieutenant status that he graduated with in 1942, to retirement as a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force in 1965. The walls of his large study are filled with paintings by famous aviation artists of many of his military aerial accomplishments, including a depiction of one of approximately 100 historic reconnaissance flights he made in October and November of 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis under orders from President Kennedy; flights which his participation in earned him the fourth cluster to his Distinguished Flying Cross.

It isn’t hard to look around the room and then at the man himself, now in his mid-80s – still sharp in mind and leading an active life – and not see the shadow of the little boy who only wanted to fly. Not hard at all to see that little boy smiling over what the man went on to accomplish … with the little boys’ dreams – because he wanted to; because he tried.

Thanks for another one, Flywriter.

Just because you don't get to publish these right away doesn't mean you shouldn't go for it to the limits of your time and resources....after all, Tom Brokaw didn't get them all by any means!

We don't have much more time to get first hand stories from this generation, and most of these guys (and girls) are so modest that it takes an experienced interviewer to draw them out. Good for you!

Rocky