Dudley, et al
Once again I am at the tail end of an important thread. My wife expects me
to be late to my own funeral as well. The world is being emptied of its
heros. My WWII group had less than 200 at the last reunion. The last man
standing situation is coming faster and faster.

Time was when I thought I knew all the answers. I'm becoming more and more
uncertain that there are answers or reasons.

Wish I had know Scotty to show me the way...
Gene

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
ink.net...
About Gen Robert L Scott;



First of all, I'd like to thank those of you who responded to my post
about Gen Scott's passing. It's always a good feeling to realize how close
we are in the aviation community.



Here are some personal recollections about Scotty that I hope you find
interesting.



One of the most misquoted facts in all of military fighter aviation is the
"fact" that Bob flew as a Flying Tiger. This was the result of his close
association with Chennault, the time line of his duty in China; and the
shark teeth painted on the P40 he flew in China..

Actually, Scotty wasn't a Flying Tiger at all, but worked very closely
with Chennault, who "loaned" him a P40 to escort supply planes over the
hump. Add to that, the fact that Bob became the first commander of the
23rd fighter group in China right after the Tigers were deactivated and
you have the makings of the misquotes about Bob being a Flying Tiger.

If there ever was a relationship better than the one between Bob and
Claire Chennault, I don't know who the two people in that relationship
would have to be. I believe Bob respected and liked Chennault more than
any human being he met in his life. Chennault was a tactical genius in my
opinion and Scotty's, and he taught Scotty everything he knew about
fighting in the air with a P40 against the lighter and more maneuverable
Japanese fighters of the day.

Bob told me many times about what it like sitting out there in the hot sun
on the ramp at Kunming, leaning on the wing of the P40 Chennault had
loaned him, listening to Chennault as he related the do's and don'ts of
how to stay alive in China fighting a P40.

Many people have asked me through the years how Bob came to write "God Is
My Co-Pilot". What happened was that Bob was back in the states selling
war bonds and while giving a speech in Buffalo N.Y. he was approached by
Charie Scribner who thought Bob's story would make great reading. He
"locked" Bob up in the Waldorf Astoria in New York with 75 of those
Dictaphone cylinder things and told him to "talk up a book J

Anyway, Scotty did that over one weekend locked up in the room. Shortly
after that, while doing a speech in California, Bob met Jack Warner who
wanted the story for a movie.

Well this is how God-Is-My-Co-Pilot came to be.

Another interesting rather funny fact about Bob was that Warner Bros, in
their attempt to make the movie more interesting, created a fictional
Japanese ace they called "Tokyo Joe". The wonderful actor Richard Loo
portrayed the character in the film.

Anyway, Scotty was portrayed throughout the film as having an ongoing
"war" with Tokyo Joe. Naturally near the end of the film, Scotty "plants
Tokyo Joe in six feet of China".

I guess that during Scotty's long and eventful life he must have given
thousands of speeches at Rotary Clubs and Chamber of Commerce type
gatherings. He said he always got at least one person in the back of the
room waving a hand wildly trying to get a question answered. When he would
call on the person, he would have to spend the next fifteen minutes
"explaining" that Tokyo Joe was a fictional character and that he didn't
REALLY shoot down Tokyo Joe in real life. J

Another interesting story about Bob concerns his meeting with the Japanese
ace Saburo Saki. Bob never got tired of telling this story. It was one of
his favorites.



Bob and Saburo Sakai appeared together on a TV show once after the war.

Saburo had an interpreter translating for him.
The narrator of the show wanted to draw out some hatred between them.
During
the interview, it came out that Bob and Saburo had been in the same fight
against each other on the same day. The host asked Bob how it felt to be
sitting next to a mortal enemy. The translator told Saburo what the host
had
asked Bob. What followed was truly a spontaneous moment. Saburo just
looked
at Bob and Bob looked at Saburo. Without any provocation whatever, the two
of them simply got up, walked to each other and hugged. The host asked
them
both for an explanation. Bob simply said, "You wouldn't understand".
You do what you have to do because you're there. The hatred is difficult
to
explain. Non-combat people tend to over simplify it, and combat people
don't
need an explanation. It's a strange thing and affects different people in
different ways.



One of the things I liked most about Scotty was his sense of humor.
Something happened yesterday that I know Bob would have appreciated and
found funny to the extreme, so I'll end my comments about him with this
somewhat humorous story.

Yesterday, my wife called me and said that she was reading in the paper
that an open viewing for Scotty was to be held last night between 7 and 9
at a funeral home very near to where we live. I immediately thought this
was quite strange, as we live in Pennsylvania and Bob had died and as far
as I knew would be interned in Georgia.

My wife went on to explain that internment was to be at a cemetery today
that also was very close to our home.

For the life of me I couldn't figure out how this could be happening.
Scotty had never even hinted that he had family here and I could find no
logical reason for this happening.

Anyway, in a rush, and totally confused by all this, I immediately started
altering my day to attend the viewing and started making plans to get home
in time to do all this. My wife planned an early dinner as well. I mean I
was TOTALLY CONFUSED by this time about these events.

Would you believe I get another phone call fifteen minutes later from my
wife. She's in hysterical laughter. She tells me that she made a mistake.
It seems the paper runs the obit page in columns split at the half page.
The notice about Scotty's passing was on the bottom half of the page on
one column. The part about the viewing and funeral was on the top half of
the page in the next column. It wasn't about Scotty at all, but rather
about the old lady whose very lovely face was appearing in her obit on the
top half of the page!!

Anyway, Scotty would have LOVED this one! Bea and I showing up at what we
thought was his viewing then realizing as we looked down at a little old
lady we didn't know at all that we were at the wrong place at the wrong
time.

I can hear him now up there in heaven, in that God awful excuse for
English he always called "Georgese",

"Gotcha again Dud"

:-)