Another Ace passes away, RIP

[NickM]

My local paper (Contra Costa Times) announced the passing of Pinole native Stanley Silva, age 83; a veteran of the 354th Fighter Squadron, 355th Fighter Group. He was based at Steeple Morden, England and was credited with 8 victories; after being discharged he had a career in hardware, from which he retired in 1987. He lived in Napa, Ca since 1972 & is survived by His wife of 59 years, Catherine, Daughter Ellen & son Donald;

RIP; peace on your final flight & condolences to his family & loved ones;


NickM

PS: it's kind of rare to find an Ace in our part of the Bay Area; the only other one that I Knew of was Alexander Vraiciu (sp?) the Hellcat ace, who lived in Danville, also not too far from me;

[Frank Olynyk]

Silva is not an ace. I do not have my ETO materials here at work with me, so I don't know what his score actually is. I assume that air-to-air and air-to-ground credits have been added together; but only the air-to-air credits count today.

Frank.

[NickM]

OK, Frank; probably the paper included air AND ground vics;

NickM

PS: wasn't there a US fighter group nicknnamed 'the Steeple Morden Strafers'?

[Tom Semenza]

Nick,

Silva was credited with 1 air and 6 ground victories. The 355th Fighter Group was indeed known as the Steeple Morden Strafers, which is in fact the title of a group history by Ken Wells.

Tom

[drgondog]

Stan Silva flew WRB "My Catherine S" for the 354FS. Curiously enough, He got all six ground scores on missions my father led, 3 on 22 March and 3 on 13 April 13, 1945. His air score was over an FW 190 on December 5, 1944 near Berlin.

While Frank is correct about official 'acedom', in the eyes of the 8th AF Silva was an 'ace' - god knows the 355th FG (and 4th and 55th and the 78th) lost one hell of a lot of pilots strafing German airfields when the 8th declared scores on the ground counted same as in the air - they deserve any title the 8th bestowed at the time.

He flew WRB 44-11667 for all of his ground scores. Very good guy.