Last Parade

The cold prairie winds sent shivers down their spines and swirled the dust of west Texas in grey clouds. But it was not dust that misted the eyes of the famed 19th Bombardment Group. The old outfit was on its last parade.

The 19th had fought a costly war continuously from the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Manila (TIME, Dec. 7) until it was relieved in Australia last fall. It had lost 65% of its original strength in battles, crashes and prison camps. Now it was being broken up. Now its battle-seasoned officers and men would be scattered, like so many tough & tested seeds, in the fertile ground of other heavy bombardment crews, squadrons and groups.

The 19th is the most decorated outfit in the U.S. Army. At its last parade Major General Robert Olds, commander of the Second Air Force, added a decoration to every man of the Group: a blue bar framed in a gold laurel band which each member is entitled to wear because the Group has been cited at least twice.

Thus Lieut. Colonel Felix Hardison, 31-year-old pilot of the Suzy-Q, won his ninth decoration. Staff Sergeant Kenneth Gradle of St. Louis, 2 2-year-old radioman on the plane that flew MacArthur out of the Philippines, received his eighth award, became the U.S.'s most decorated enlisted hero (he already wore the D.F.C. with oak leaf cluster, the silver star with two oak leaf clusters, the Purple Heart with one). Sergeant Gradle had flown on 60 missions, more than any other man in the 19th, and shot down six Zeros--more than enough to call himself an ace if he were a pursuit pilot. He joined the Air Corps six months after he graduated from high school, because jobs were hard to find.

During the decoration ceremonies many men of the 19th discovered for the first time that the Group had a standard. It was uncovered in a vault at Tucson, Ariz., flown to Pyote, where Olds pinned the four silken streamers on it. No other outfit in the U.S. Army could boast four World War II citations.

Before they said their farewells, the 19th's men danced in the officers' mess with wives and girls, dined on "snaggletooth Texas steer whose rump is stamped 'Suzy-Q, approved,'" and toasted each other at the new Pyote Officers' Club. On the stroke of midnight, an officer stepped to the microphone, asked for a moment of silence "as a small tribute to those we left over there"--to men like Captain Harl Pease, Lieut. Colonel Austin Straubel, Major Dean ("Pinky") Hoevet, Master Sergeant Louis ("Soup") Silva, Lieut. R. B. Burleson and Captain Colin Kelly. The widows of many men of the igth were present.

Promotions and Dispersions. Last week the 19th Group got its orders. A few would remain at Pyote as the nucleus of a new 19th under command of Major Elbert ("Butch") Helton, 27-year-old Texan who led one of its old squadrons for a year. At least a record dozen pilots of the 19th would get commands of other groups stationed from Kansas to California.

First full colonel among the 19th's pilots is 29-year-old Richard Carmichael, the group's commander until it was relieved, now a bombardment officer on Lieut. General ("Hap") Arnold's staff. A sure bet to get a colonel's eagles was Felix Hardison, assigned as operations officer of General Olds's Second Air Force Bomber Command. Lieut. Colonel Ted Faulkner, already assigned to a Kansas air base, and Lieut. Colonel James Connally, assigned to a bombardment tactics school in Florida, were also in line for higher rank. Many enlisted men were being commissioned. The 19th's influence on U.S. air power was already being felt.

Significance. As group commanders the 's graduates may be able to build the bridges between theory and reality that too often have been missing in the burgeoning Air Forces' training system. Said one of the new group commanders last week: "When I got back and told my mother what we are up against in this war she was speechless. She had been reading the papers and she really thought we had been knocking hell out of a bunch of pushovers."

By bringing experienced, battle-toughened men from combat zones to teach new crews the facts of war, the Air Forces had taken a long step forward in its training program. They also had indicated that the well-honored 19th Group will be the base for most future training of U.S. heavy bombardment crews.

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