"Personal Observations about J.C. Meyer" |
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| by James O. Bleidner |
| 352nd Fighter Group, 487th Fighter Squadron Armorer / “Petie 2nd” and “Petie 3rd” |
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 “When a mission was on, almost all of the pilots reported to their planes about 15 minutes before ‘start engines’. The Squadron Commander, J. C. Meyer, usually came strolling casually out of the ready room with less than five minutes to go, pulling on his long leather gloves, white scarf flying in the breeze. Underneath his flight suit he had on long winter underwear, which was probably never washed for superstitious reasons. He also wore a sweater with a big ‘D’ from his time at Dartmouth College.
Bill Conkey, Bill Kohlhas, and I would be anxiously waiting at the plane and would offer a salute as he approached. J.C. would climb into the cockpit and settle himself in as Conkey and Kohlhas fastened his seat belt. Then Conkey would start up the engine. Meyer always refused to start the engine because he felt that Conkey knew all the idiosyncrasies of the engine. J.C. would hand me a small piece of onionskin paper that had the details of the radio calls, rendezvous times, and headings to be put into a cellophane envelope attached to the control panel. Of course, I would be trying to do this as the engine started and the prop wash threatened to take it away. One day that happened and he flew without the memo. When he returned, he gave orders to the intelligence section to give me that piece of paper so I could get it in place before engine start. |
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| On one occasion, he took some light flak while strafing a Nazi airfield. As he leaned over the hood of the plane to fill out the flight report, I noticed some pieces of aluminum stuck in the fabric of his flight suit, pulled them out, and showed them to him. There was a report a few days later that he had been granted the Purple Heart. The next time that he came out to the plane, I saluted him and said, ‘I see that you got the Purple Heart, Sir’. He answered, ‘That will be enough of THAT, Sergeant!’ |
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| Bernie Howard was a clerk in the squadron Headquarters, and was the duty officer on the night in early November, 1944, when he backed a jeep into the tail section and damaged ‘Petie 2nd’. He was going around to check on the guards that night when he ran into the aircraft. Sympathetic crew chief, Bill Conkey, sent ‘Petie 2nd’ to the maintenance shop. Conkey and Kohlhas selected another aircraft and changed all the colors and named the plane ‘Petie 3rd’. There was not a lot of activity during the week or so before the November 21 mission, so there was not a rush job to switch aircraft to have ‘Petie 3rd’ ready for November 21. I was not involved until the plane arrived on the hard stand to have the guns checked out. Conkey and Kohlhas did not tell Meyer about the problem. Meyer didn’t notice until later that the serial number of his plane was different, because he did not do the ‘walk around’ preflight that other pilots did. Meyer only scored two kills in ‘Petie 2nd’. After repairs, ‘Petie 2nd’ became Sheldon Heyer’s ‘Sweetie Face’, coded HO-N. |
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| Sam Perry designed the 487th Squadron logo at Meyer’s instructions. The riding whip (swagger stick) that is shown in the logo was ordered made by Meyer for the pilots of the Group. The handle was made of the brass cartridge of a 50 caliber machine gun round. |
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| Even though he did not ‘fraternize’ with his ground crew in the way that the other pilots did, he knew and respected us, maintaining the proper officer/enlisted man relationship. When he was in New York City on leave just before D-Day, he intended to visit my father, who was the head of the furniture department in Lord and Taylor on Fifth Avenue. As it happened, he was courting Lt.(jg) Mary Justine Moore, his future bride, and wrote a nice letter instead to my father, stating that I was in good health and spirits. I still have the letter. |
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| The Y-29 experience was one example of where he thought like a German and prepared to take off on a dawn patrol on New Year’s Day of 1945. Another example was, late in the war when the Germans had lost many aircraft, they would use a natural landmark, like a big lake, to rendezvous and form up from several airfields to attack the bombers. Meyer noted that there was a big lake near the route that the bombers would take. He changed the order of battle and took his squadron about ten minutes in front of the bombers to circle the lake. Sure enough, he ended up circling the lake as the German fighter aircraft came up. A fight broke out when they recognized a fox in the chicken coop. That was when the second squadron of the 352nd spilled over in front of the bombers to even the odds. Then the third squadron came in to decisively break up all the German fighters. The bombers were not challenged on that day. The action was one that was recognized by an award to the Group. |
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| In my biased opinion, John Charles Meyer did not receive anywhere near the recognition that he deserved after WW II for his expertise as a fighter pilot and leader of men in the air and on the ground. He did not have family and friends who documented his memory, as did George Preddy. I offer these words to give you a further idea of the man whom you depicted in your painting.” |
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| (Thanks are due Jim for providing photos and stories) |
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