buffnut453
Captain
Fair winds and following seas brave aviator!
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I just found out that an acquaintance of mine passed away on Christmas day, 2016.
Jack Goad was 95 years young at the time of his passing and some may recall my mentioning him in a few threads regarding D-Day, as he was with the 82nd Airborn.
He was also attached to General Eisenhower's security detail as well as being tasked with standing guard over General Patton during the preperations for his funeral.
He was easy to talk to and one of his recollections about D-Day and the weeks following, was that any German armored vehicle they encountered was assumed to be a Tiger - it's reputation was that great.
He also mentioned that of all the Allied aircraft he observed attacking German positions, the Typhoon and P-47 were the ones that impressed him the most.
It's a shame, that in this age of instant information, we still get left in the dark.
Rest easy, Jack (and you still owe me a beer for fixing your truck's radio!)
Goodbye to WWII pilot Dean "Diz" Laird, the only U.S. Navy ace to have air combat victories in both the Pacific and European theaters, flying 138 fighter missions during that war. The recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross (and the 2015 Congressional Gold Medal), Laird also served in the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and was the lead stunt pilot for the 1969 film Tora! Tora! Tora! He retired from the Navy in 1971 as a Commander, and still holds the record for the most arrested landings on a straight-deck aircraft carrier. He died August 10 at 101.
An Ace in the Hole: "Diz" Laird
U.S. Navy Commander Dean “Diz” Laird went from shooting down Japanese airplanes to flying replicas of them over Pearl Harborwww.historynet.com