Aviation myths that will not die

[Tieleader]

He said by the second half of his tour he was Squadron Commander, and always flew lead, so everyone formated on him. He advanced so quickly, unfortunately, due to high attrition amongst the leadership and few experienced replacements. Ten months from 2nd Louie to Brevet Light Colonel.

Unfortunately that seemed to be the reason for a lot of wartime promotions.

 

[XBe02Drvr]

Unfortunately that seemed to be the reason for a lot of wartime promotions.

And when his tour was over, they made him a brevet full bird and put him in command of a B-24 training squadron at Westover AAB. There he violated the curriculum and taught a form of crew coordination not unlike modern CRM, and achieved an accident rate that was among the best in Training Command and THE best in the northern bases. Demobilized in 1946 as a Major.
Cheers,
Wes

 

[Tieleader]

And when his tour was over, they made him a brevet full bird and put him in command of a B-24 training squadron at Westover AAB. There he violated the curriculum and taught a form of crew coordination not unlike modern CRM, and achieved an accident rate that was among the best in Training Command and THE best in the northern bases. Demobilized in 1946 as a Major.
Cheers,
Wes

So for us civvies does "brevet" also mean "acting" as in "acting colonel" even though he does hold the actual rank?
BTW thanks for the background.

 

[XBe02Drvr]

So for us civvies does "brevet" also mean "acting" as in "acting colonel" even though he does hold the actual rank?

You're right, it means acting or temporary, sort of like Commodore at sea. Any officer in command of a force of vessels for a specific mission or time frame has the title of Commodore, regardless of actual rank. Commodore McDonough who won the Battle of Plattsburg Bay in 1814 was a lowly Lieutenant. Likewise, historically a brevet officer wore the rank and had the responsibility of his brevet rank, but had the pay and privileges of his permanent rank. Brevets were relatively uncommon in peacetime, except in periods of budget crunch or personnel shortage. So Dick had the responsibility of a full bird, but the social privileges and pay of a Major.
Cheers,
Wes

PS: In another interesting twist in the world of rank and privilege, there's the Limited Duty Officer. LDOs are specialists in specific fields of expertise, and not being Line Officers, have no command authority. Medical, Medical Service, Supply, Aviation Maintenance, and JAG are typical examples. Occasionally one of these specialists will be a LO who's acquired the specialty after commissioning, such as a career aviator who's flunked his flight physical and gone to AMO school. In TraDevMan school we shared a training building with AMO school and got a lot of practice in rendering a proper salute. You could tell the retread aviators from the newbies cause they didn't give a damn about formal BS, while the young guns would brace you at the blink of an eyelash and practice their DI skills on you.
Another curiosity was "mustang" LDOs, senior or exceptionally talented enlisted folk who were sent to "knife and fork school" for 90 days to "acquire couthness" and pass for an officer and a gentleman. They became "very" Limited Duty Officers whose authority only extended to the subspecialty in which they performed as enlisted. They were at the bottom of the totem pole when it came to privileges such as base housing, parking, attendance at social functions, etc.

 

[l'Omnivore Sobriquet]

A late neighbor of mine was a B-24 pilot (Ploesti 2x), and he used to chuckle over that myth. He said that saying implied you could one-hand a Liberator in a tight box formation, which as far as he was concerned was a joke. He said especially if you were tail end Charlie, it was a two handed affair and you left the throttle jockeying to your copilot and flight engineer at your command. He said that (and plenty of "stick time") sharpened copilots up pretty quickly and improved them to the point they could become replacement aircraft commanders. Not the way it was taught in training command, where the skipper drove the bird and the copilot operated the gear and flaps, sat on his hands, and stood by for emergencies.
He said by the second half of his tour he was Squadron Commander, and always flew lead, so everyone formated on him. He advanced so quickly, unfortunately, due to high attrition amongst the leadership and few experienced replacements. Ten months from 2nd Louie to Brevet Light Colonel.
Cheers,
Wes

Sounds true to me.

 

[Tieleader]

Likewise, historically a brevet officer wore the rank and had the responsibility of his brevet rank, but had the pay and privileges of his permanent rank.

So all the "cons" but none of the "perks". That sucks.

Another curiosity was "mustang" LDOs, senior or exceptionally talented enlisted folk who were sent to "knife and fork school" for 90 days to "acquire couthness" and pass for an officer and a gentleman. They became "very" Limited Duty Officers whose authority only extended to the subspecialty in which they performed as enlisted. They were at the bottom of the totem pole when it came to privileges such as base housing, parking, attendance at social functions, etc.

It sounds like they were sent to the kids table at an adult party.

 

[Tieleader]

They could hit a pickle barrel from 30,000 ft, but only a pickle barrel. Cities were beyond the spec.

From "Target Germany" 1976

 

[130fe]

Actually, you're both right and wrong...

The pilot I was referring to enlisted in the USAAC in the late 30's and was transferred to the Pacific, seeing action against the Japanese for the duration.

As far as the Air Corps goes, after Congress established the United States Army Air Force in 1941, the Air Corps remained as a branch of the Army until few years after the war.

There was a huge amount of political in-fighting over this long before the war and afterwards...

Your basically correct too, most personnel did in fact belong to the Air Corp administratively, but were assigned to the US Army Air Force.

 

[Wulfmen]

That's funny. I have a soft cover book at home about the P-38 titled "the fork tailed devil." Where did that name come from, and what did the Germans call it?

In German the said
"Gabelschwanzteufel"

 

[XBe02Drvr]

In German the said
"Gabelschwanzteufel"

Re read this thread from the beginning. That myth was debunked several pages back. My German is a little ragged, but I believe "blitzen" (lightning) is the word.
"Donner und blitzen". Thunder(bolt) and Lightning!
Cheers,
Wes

So all the "cons" but none of the "perks". That sucks.

It sounds like they were sent to the kids table at an adult party.

Street urchins allowed into the gentlemen's dining room. In the Airedale Navy and the sub service, this sort of class distinction was somewhat less pronounced, but by all accounts in the surface Navy it was holy grail.
Cheers,
Wes

 

[GrauGeist]

The myth of the "Gabelschwanzteufel" is a "caidenism" (made up).

When Luftwaffe pilots described American (or British) aircraft, they called out the Anglicized names for ID.
B-17s were "Boeings", B-24s were "Liberators", P-38s were "Lightnings", P-51s were "Mustangs", Spitfires were "Spitfires" and so on.

When Allied fighters were spotted on a mission, Luftwaffe pilots often times called "Indianer" which was a reference taken from "Cowboys and Indians".

The Fort-Tailed Devil term originated from the P-38 pilots themselves. The Japanese nor the Germans used the term and this myth has perpetuated since Martin Caidin's book was published in '73.

 

[XBe02Drvr]

mission, Luftwaffe pilots often times called "Indianer" which was a reference taken from "Cowboys and Indians".

Ahh, the enduring romance of the American west, with its bandits and its bogies! BTW, does anybody know if there's any truth to the oft-told tale that "bogies" referred to unbranded cattle of unknown ownership?
Cheers,
Wes

 

[Ascent]

Ahh, the enduring romance of the American west, with its bandits and its bogies! BTW, does anybody know if there's any truth to the oft-told tale that "bogies" referred to unbranded cattle of unknown ownership?
Cheers,
Wes

I believe bogeys comes from the bogeyman and first used by the Royal Flying Corp in WWI.

I stand to be corrected though, as I'm struggling to remember where I heard it.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

In German the said
"Gabelschwanzteufel"

That's a myth that is not true...

Aka #FakeNews...

 

[Greg Boeser]

Yeah, nobody's going to blurt that on the radio when bounced.

 

[nuuumannn]

Thunder(bolt) and Lightning!

Very very frightening! Galileo! Galileo! Galileo! Galileo! Will you do the fandango!

Aka #FakeNews!

Gahddamn CNN! Jim Acosta's got a lot to answer for!

Sorry. It's a slow day in New Zealand...