Usaaf Victory Not Listed By Frank Olynyk
 

Hi All (and particularly Frank Olynyk if he reads this)

On another site there is a statement about an article written in 2003 (where the article is from is not stated) by Lee Kendall (whose name was Solie Solomon back then) who claims he scored the last kill in the Pacific when he shot down a Tojo (Ki-44) on Aug 16th, 1945, operating out of his unit's (548 NFS) base at the Island of Le Shama.

In Frank Olynyks Victory List No 3, USAAF (Pacific Theater) Credits for the destruction of enemy aircraft in air-to-air combat World War 2, this victory is NOT listed.

Can anyone, especially Frank, comment on the above statement??

Best Regards
Stig

Re: Usaaf Victory Not Listed By Frank Olynyk
 

Don't have access to my books right now, but isn't this the "chased it into the sea" story? I'm sure I've seen the incident before in reference to P-61s.

Re: Usaaf Victory Not Listed By Frank Olynyk
 

The 548th NFS has two claims which I did not list in my Victory List #3 USAAF Pacific, because I had no official documentation on either of them; they are not referenced in the unit history. Neither is listed on the website for the USAF HRA http://www.au.af.mil/au/afhra/wwwroot/avc/avc.php
Both claims were made in the same aircraft, by different crews, near Ie Shima; P-61B-2 42-39713 "Lady in the Dark". I have almost no information on the first claim, August 14, 1945 between 1800 and 2400, an Oscar I believe claimed chased into the water, by Lt Robert W Clyde and Lt Bruce K Leford.

For the second claim there is some information on the web at http://www.military.cz/usa/air/war/f.../p61_docum.htm
This is a claim for a Tojo, also chased into the water by Capt Solie Solomon and Lt John Scheerer. I was able to contact Solomon, who has changed his name to Lee Kendall, and he supplied a copy of the mission report for the claim.

I have since added both claims to my database, referencing Lee's report for the second claim, but only "folk lore?" for the second, since I have no other source than Lee's memory for it. Does anyone have any contact with either Clyde or Leford? "folk lore?" is probably too strong a term, but without contemporary documentation it is the best I can do.

Frank.