jsetchell
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- Joined: 07/09/2008
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Re: RE: Details wanted on Lt.Col Setchell, please.
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07/26/2008 10:05:25 PM
Alex
Greetings from what has been a very warm - well, hot, actually - and sunny day in Ohio. My father flew both the F-8 and the F-5 during WW-II...and assorted other aircraft from time to time. The F-8 was called the Spook, and I have quite a few pictures of it; however, I do not have any photos of my father with any of the F-5s he flew.
The F-8 aircraft was named after me, actually, as he considered me one of the scariest-looking babies he had ever seen...I was an infant at that time and I carry a picture of my father and me from back then in my wallet to this day...y'know, actually, to be perfectly honest about it, I was a pretty ugly baby - he could well have been right!).
Regarding your question about "...what became of him after he delivered the P-38 from the UK to Italy...", he actually flew the Spook from the US to England to Tunisia and eventually to Italy - not a P-38. Please see below.
As recorded in my father's flight notebook and in a number of photographs I have at home, my father and his navigator, Capt Alexander, flew his F-8 "Spook" Mosquito, Serial # 43-34926 from the US to La Marsa, Tunisia, arriving La Marsa on 18 Oct 1943 via Goose Bay, BW1, Meeks, Preswick, St Maugen (i.e., Cornwall!!!), and Casa Blanca. On 10 Nov 1943 he flew the Spook to Algiers with FDR, Jr (who was stationed with him at La Marsa). My father and the Spook transferred to San Severo, Italy on 7 Dec 1943. By 15 Jan 1944 he was at 5th Army HQ, living in a tent with Col Karl Polifka, his friend and commanding officer. (As a side note, I know Karl Polifka, Jr...we met years ago...it was a fascinating experience for both of us). My father's last recorded mission with the Spook was 13 Mar 1944, when he returned from a night mission north of Rome with a bad engine. Some time after that, he transferred to Bari, where he flew F-5s. On 10 Sep 1944 during a high-speed, low-level photo-recce mission over German positions in Greece, his F-5 was hit by ground fire, and he had to crash-land the F-5 into the water just off the coast of Greece. He survived the crash landing, and was picked up out of the water by Greek patriots who hid him out from the Germans until Athens was liberated and he could make it home.
I have seen references to the fact that the Spook was shot down before (as mentioned in Leendert's note above), but I expect such stories may be confused with the F-5 shoot-down, since I learned in 1998 that the Spook ended its career during a crash landing on 19 Aug 1944 while assigned to the 12th AF 29 Jul 1998 letter from the Air Force Historical Research Agency along with a copy of the flight log, not quite a month before my father's F-5 was shot down (10 Sep 1944).
After the war, both Alexander and my father remained in the USAF. My father became ill with a brain tumor in 1958 while attending the Industrial College of the Armed Forces at Ft McNair, and, as noted in shooshoobaby's note above, passed away in 1960. He and my mother are buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Alexander ("Alex" to us) eventually retired in Watsonville, CA (near where Col Polifka's wife Helen lived), and he passed away several years ago.
Bottom Line: I am afraid it does not look like my Dad is the P-38 pilot who might have been associated with the P-38/F-5 pieces located in the north of Italy that are of interest to you; still, I hope this information has been of some value.
Best regards
Bill
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