The Flying Knights
PHOTO HISTORY OF THE 9TH FIGHTER SQUADRON

Page 42 Richard C. Kirkland, author of "Tales of a War Pilot" sketched the above drawing. He stated that at that time, Ralph Wandrey was in a great rush to get the photos and Kirkland's drawings to the printer. George Alber: "...in the so called yearbook, what I wanted to point out is the Bing Bong. I saw Dick Bong shoot down a single engine observation airplane and he came back to the formation. After that I called him Bing Bang Bong. The Kozy Joe is a mistake. It should be Cozy George. One time when we were at Gusap we were scrambled and vectored to 10,000 feet. Suddenly in front of me were the Tonys, about 10 or 12 of them, practically head on. All I could do is lead the flight through them and then things got kind of wild up there. There were no shootdowns at that time, but ever since then my patrols and scrambles went up to 20-30,000 feet because I never trusted that radar! Hence the nickname Cozy George." Ken Clark: "We all acquired nicknames in the squadron sooner or later. Nobody was in charge of passing out 'handles.' They just grew out of circumstances." Not all 9FS pilots/members were represented on the "doodles" pages, some may have been out flying combat missions on that particular day.

9FS Nicknames... Nihey?= (unknown) MAJ STITCH= Maj. Wallace Jordan SMITTY= Larry Smith SQUEEZE= General Paul Wurtsmith, 5FC CO JUMP= John O'Neill "Green Dragon" jeep)= Gen. Paul "Squeeze" Wurtsmith- bad roads, he was also known to drive very fast over the bumpy roads.  The "green dragon" (jeep) was the transportation for the 9th, as during an alert the pilots could travel quickly over the rough pathway to their planes [c/o 49FCS Virgil "Chief" Holcomb]. DUNK= James Watkins BLACH= R. Blachly ED= Ed Ball DUNCBUT= James Watkins TWO GUN TICE= Clay Tice DOC= H. Peggs (Sqdn. flight surgeon) CHARLIE= Charles McElroy Pretty Boy Marling= M. Marling MAC= Thomas McGuire Kozy Joe= George Alber DEARBORN= George Alber SAD SACK HAYS= R. Hays ART= W. Arthur Bing Bong= Maj. Richard Bong High Altitude Harvey= Clyde Harvey PETE= M. Alger SKIPPER= Maj. Wallace Jordan CHARLIE= Charles McElroy SNEEZY= Norman Hyland Cocoa Nut Head= Frank Nutter Firewall Lanters=  John D. Landers Big Stoop= John D. Landers LENZ= Ralph Wandrey (aka Iron Ass) WEWAC= William Williams (Wewac Willie) WINDY= M. Marling SMITTY= E. Smith GROVE= Grover Fanning MOO= D. Moore Baggy= J. Bagdasarian CHIEF= Lt. Col. David Campbell Knees= Eddie Howes B.T.O.= John  O'Neill BALDY= A. Hayward 8 BALL= Jim Porter Pening Day= ? Jim (+ iron)= James Harvey The Seam= Maj. Wallace Jordan JOHNNIE EAGER= Col. Gerald Johnson FIN= Floyd Finberg T.O. BODY (The Body)= William Bleecker or Robert Vaught GRIGSBY= C. Griggsby

 

 

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