[Nortonfan]

Greetings to all,

I was quite interested in reading the anecdotes about Jerry Delarm. Here is my story.

During the mid 1950's I was attending junior high school in Guatemala City, Guatemala. These were very turbulent times for this small country, who had recently elected a socialist for President. Things were going rather well, at first, for the newly elected government, but it soon became infested with commies of the most undesirable kind including, Erenesto Che Guevara and his ilk. My father was a very close friend of the President, Jacobo Arbenz, they had been best of friends during their four years in attendance at the Escuela Politecnica -- the Guatemalan West Point, if you will. Things began to fall apart soon and the CIA formed a mercenary army, which also included a few aircraft and pilots. Jerry Delarm being one of them. After the overthrow of the Arbenz goverment, Jerry and his family lived in Guatemala City for a number of years -- the neighborhood were he and his family lived was Santa Clara. Jerry had two daughters who were part of my social network. We hung around together and were good friends. He was a very cool dude to be around and as a young teenager I was quite impressed with his black, '32 Ford roadster, hot rod which he drove all around town, sporting his Ray-Ban shades. He would often leave town for days or weeks at a time, but I never had any clue what he was up to.

During the overthrow of the Arbenz government, he flew a P-47. I will never forget the day he flew over my parents home as we watched him go by from our terrace. He was flying very low, headed toward a ravine where some army troops were lying in wait, two hundred yards from our home. Jerry was on to them, all along, and lined up to clean them out. I still remember, quite vividly, the sound of the .50cal. guns going off over our heads. The sound of the return fire was also quite scary. .50 cal. shell casings from Jerry's plane landing into our yard, still smoldering, just a few feet away from where we were standing. Jerry re-entered the ravine once he had finished strafing the army's position, and followed this narrow gap until he ended up at the National Palace, totally confusing the army as he caught them off guard, and he then proceded to strafe their positions. It was one of the most thrilling days of my life. These kinds of missions were flown a few times before the President tendered his resignation.

I left Guatemala in the early sixties, and Jerry and his family were still living there. I have no idea how long they remained after I left. I still remember him, a very cool, brazen and charismatic individual. I remember the '32 Ford roadster, and the wonderful sounds that came from it. And I also remember those wonderful friends.

Cheers,
Norman C