DFCS NEWS MAGAZINE 2018-2

NEWS MAGAZINE
Volume 18, Issue 2
Winter 2018
Contents:
Flying the Hump 2 President’s Message 4 Chairman’s Message 5 The Society 7 Reunion 2019 10 DFCS Scholarships 14 News Features 17 Tailhook 2018 31 Christmas Stories 34 Heaven’s Swing 38 Flight to Eternity 44 Member Citations 46 Become a Member 64 DFCS Store 68 Taps-Final Flight 69 The DFC 72
Cover Photo: C-47 Skytrain “Second Chance” by Erik Hildebrandt courtesy of the American Air Power Museum.
Flying the Hump with Mel Hodell
The Most Dangerous Route in the World 1942-1945
C-46 Commando Painting “Flying the Hump” by Stan Stokes.
Story by Mel Hodell
First Lieutenant Mel Hodell, US Army Air Corps and DFCS Member, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on 19 June 2009 for his extraordinary achievements in aerial flight, having flown 65 round trip missions over “The Hump” 64 years earlier in 1945. In 1942 Japan had invaded Burma and China and captured the infamous Burma Road, cutting off all land support to Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist Chinese forces by their US and Western allies. Thus began an airlift operation over the Himalayas, from India to Burma and China, that would become the largest and most deadly strategic airlift of World War II, known by pilots as ‘Flying The Hump’.
“These men flew unarmed aircraft in combat conditions and by their efforts kept one million Japanese soldiers fighting in Burma and China and not in the Pacific”, Lt. Robert L. Moore describes. “Pilots had to contend with interception by Japanese fighters, the Himalayan mountains, primitive navigation systems and the worst flying conditions on earth with severe icing conditions and turbulence from winds over 100 miles per hour. On clear days you could find your way to China by the glitter of crashed planes.”
2 / DFCS News Magazine / WINTER 2018
“...for heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight.”