Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

By Donia MooreFrom Here to…On Dec. 5, 1941, Colonel Robert E. Thacker, or “The Colonel,” as friends and admirers know him, was ordered to fly a new B17 E bomber from Seattle to his home base in Salt Lake City. A pilot in the Army Air Corps, the El Centro native had flown many aircraft, but never in the pilot seat of a B17. His commanding officer brushed that aside. In addition, the navigator assigned to his crew was so recently graduated that he still wore his cadet uniform. He was younger and less experienced than the Colonel. They took off on a cold, crisp, star-studded night flight over the southwest to test their skills before heading to Salt Lake and ended up in Tucson overnight due to snowy weather conditions.The top general in the Army, General George Marshall woke them unexpectedly the next morning. With no warning or explanation, he ordered them to attach themselves to a flying convoy of 13 other bombers headed to the Philippines via Hawaii. None of the planes were armed. The Colonel called Betty Jo, then his wife of nine months, to tell her of his change of orders. The crew didn’t even have time to pick up their cars or their laundry before they had to leave. Betty Jo and a girl friend drove all night through the deep snow of Donner Pass, from their home in Salt Lake City to Hamilton Field, 20 miles north of San Francisco. When the military wouldn’t let her on the base, she cried until they gave in. After dinner with him at the Officer’s Club, she watched him taxi out to the runway, not knowing when she would see him again. He flashed his landing lights at her during takeoff to say goodbye.Whale Spouts?The trip was uneventful, but it was a long 14-hour flight, and the Colonel and his crew were looking forward to a break in Honolulu before continuing on to the Philippines. As they drew closer to Hawaii, they were puzzled as to why there was no radio communication from Hawaii’s Hickham Airfield. The navigator had directed them all the way across the Pacific using only three “star sights” and he was right on target. They could see Diamond Head, but still the radio engineer kept spinning his dials and couldn’t get a signal. “It was eight in the morning of December 7. We had heard about the whales in Hawaii, and we thought we were seeing whales spouting until we got close enough to see that the “spouts” were anti-aircraft artillery shells raining back down and the Japanese Zeros blowing up the battleships still in Pearl Harbor.” They watched as the helpless ships with their crews sank where they were moored, fireballs erupting from fuel storage facilities, smoke plumes signaling where the Arizona went down.He found himself zig-zagging through the hostile fire of Japanese Zeros and dodging friendly anti-aircraft fire during the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He and his exhausted crew had been out of range of radio communication and had no idea that the island was under attack. The radio suddenly crackled to life and cleared them for landing, affirming the ongoing military action. They were almost down when a Japanese Zero shot off his plane’s right wing, destroying the brakes. Only his superior flying skills got them landed safely at Hickham Airfield.He ordered his crew to deplane and run for the swamp at the end of the runway, rather than to the hangars, which were soon blown sky high with other crews inside them. “One of the crews that arrived shortly before we did were on the flight line watching us land when they were strafed by the Zeros,” remembers the Colonel sadly. While we may never know the details, the Colonel believes that the Pacific Command had some inkling that trouble might be brewing and that was one of the reasons for the unusual orders to fly the bombers into the region. He does recall writing letters home to Betty Jo telling her that the American navy was lying on the bottom of the sea, letters that were so heavily censored that any mention of what happened in Hawaii was cut out.Never Lost a Man or Aircraft Under My CommandStories about his daring are legion. He flew missions in every military theater in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, including D Day missions in Normandy. In Port Moresby, New Guinea, he outran three Japanese Zeros that cornered him over the Owens Valley Range in the Battle of the Coral Sea. In Korea and Vietnam he flew high altitude secret missions. Highly decorated by a bevy of grateful nations, his proudest claim is that he has never lost a plane or a man under his command. His marriage to his beautiful Betty Jo after a whirlwind courtship lasted for 72 years. The Colonel proudly had her portrait and name painted on his bomber, which was recently on display in the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.Test PilotA graduate of the Air Force Test Pilot Academy at Edwards Air Force Base, along with Chuck Yeager, the Colonel was called on to flight test new plane prototypes, such as the P-80 in 1945, the first combat ready jet. He also tested the P-82. In 1972, he flew the first experimental solar-powered 32-foot aircraft built by Lockheed.In more recent years, he has contracted out to private industry aeronautical engineers and the military to build highly accurate one-sixth scale models of military airplanes for use in testing facilities, many with real turbine engines that allow the models to travel upwards of 150 miles per hour. He has been building airplane models since he was eight years old. His very first model was a “twin pusher” that actually flew. In addition, the Colonel has found time to compete in national model building and flying contests. As for flying in full sized planes, he occasionally goes up with pilot friends, and he still loves it.Colonel Robert E. Thacker retired from the Air Force in 1970. He holds the distinction of being one of only a few officers that flew two combat tours, one in Japan and one in Europe, during World War II. Born in 1918, he is one of a handful of pilots to have flown in every theater in WWII, with many of his missions still classified as “top secret.” He holds a number of aviation records that have still not been surpassed. One of the most amazing is the flight of a P-82 with the Colonel at the controls in 1947. He still holds the record for the fastest, longest non-stop fighter flight with maximum takeoff weight from Hawaii to New York of a prop plane. Of course, he tells people that he had to wait in Hawaii three weeks for the 20-knot tail wind he thought he’d need.At 95 years old, the Colonel hasn’t slowed down much. He still builds models and flies them sometimes as much as once or twice a week. His workshop is a veritable museum of models he has created, flown, and experimented with over the years. If he is not working on one of them, he is probably on his way down to the beach for his daily walk or playing with his friends’ pair of Portuguese Water Spaniels. His zest for living is evident. He threw himself a recent birthday party. His friends wanted to help, but he told them that when he celebrated his 100^th birthday, they could pay for it. “There were 155 people there. Everybody I invited came. If I had known more people, I would have invited them!” And undoubtedly they would have all come too.