My wifie forwarded this to me today from last Saturday....  just sharing the pride.    



"Today marks the seventieth anniversary  (27th June, 1945) of when our father, grandfather and great grandfather 2d Lt. Glen E. Newell, pilot of the 38th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron, 4TH Reconnaissance Group, Thirteenth Air Force stationed at Morotai, Dutch East Indies bailed out of his Lockheed P-38 F-5 Lightning aircraft into the Molucca Sea.
He had just flown a combat reconnaissance mission over Balikpapan, Borneo and on the return trip experienced engine failure due to unknown circumstances. Thankfully after several hours in the water he was rescued or our family history would have been nonexistent."

When I talked with Glen he was almost 90....He told me once he didn't like guns for killing people but he did his part.  I'm glad he made it back as I wouldn't be married to his granddaughter if he didn't!

Great photo and story.

With engine failure in a twin engined aircraft (especially chosen and developed for over water enhanced survivability) it make me think it must have been fuel related. Perhaps switched tanks or was not able to switch tanks and went down.

Cool story. Very cool photo!

Glad he made it out in one piece. That mission just seems absurd to me. Giant brass ones. He had'em.

Nice story.  Glad he made it back OK.


A good friend of mine flew the RF-4C in Vietnam.  As he is fond of saying:  "There I was, alone and unarmed..."

On one of his very first missions, he was approaching the target, when he looked outside  and saw a bunch of tracers coming at him.  He said after that, he never looked outside anymore.

Their motto was alone, unarmed, and unafraid.  It lost some of its pizzazz when they hung AIM-9s on them during desert storm.  

I worked on RF-4C's at Bergstrom AFB and remember seeing a training film called "Alone, Unarmed, and Unafraid".

nice.

I like the Phantom

not totally on point, but pretty much,

My dad was a WWII Marine, and Korea.

As an adolescent, I asked him what his job was in the Marines:

His reply:

Take orders, die if necessary.  

He meant it.  

We need more of the the 'Greatest Generation'.  To push back on the foolishness in Wash DC