Being that my blog’s “Comment” sidebar isn’t working (“aaargh”!), here’s a new post pertaining to Major Milton Joel, WW II 8th Air Force P-38 fighter pilot, based on a comments by Mr. Patrick Wood. Patrick is the son of Robert W. Wood, the 38th Fighter Squadron’s Communications Officer and Executive Officer. I corresponded with his father some decades ago, and his help – though I never anticipated so at the time! – proved to be instrumental in creating this series of blog posts.
And so, here’s Patrick’s comment:
“My Dad, Robert W. Wood, from Sioux Falls, SD, I believe, was Major Joel’s executive officer in England. They became close friends and Major Joel’s death was very hard on Dad. He kept in contact with Mrs. Joel for many years until finally there were no responses to his letters.
Dad was convinced that Major Joel’s death was avoidable but for the unwarranted – in his opinion – decision by another squadron commander to turn back to England sooner than he should have. This left Major Joel and his squadron more vulnerable to Messerschmidts.
My sister has some of Dad’s papers; the next time I visit her I’ll see what else I can find.
One of Dad’s duties was to write letters to the parents and families of the pilots who did not return – “too many empty beds,” he said.”
My thoughts?
Patrick, I was more than happily startled to receive your entirely unexpected message. I immediately recognized your father’s name, for we corresponded with one another in the late 1990s, and he provided information that was essential in unravelling the story of the 55th Fighter Group’s mission of November 29, 1943, let alone shedding light upon Major Joel, himself – simply as a “person”. This information figures in the blog posts: “A Monday in November: Major Joel’s Last Mission [Updated Post! – January 14, 2021]”, and, “Fragments of Memory”.
Your comments bring forth many thoughts and musings. As far as the loss of contact between your father and Major Joel’s widow – she later remarried and became Elaine Friedlich – I think this might be explained by the fact that (as indicated by her obituary at FindAGrave) she passed away in 1981 at the young age of 60, after a long illness of an unspecified nature.
Your father’s relationship to Major Joel is well attested to by the beautiful letter – a form of tribute, really – he wrote to the Major’s parents in January of 1947, which is available and fully transcribed under “Fragments of Memory,”, and, your father’s preservation of diary entries made by the Major during the 55th’s crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to England, in 1943.
Your mention of a contributing factor to Major Joel’s death (and relatedly the deaths of Lieutenants Albino and Garvin of the 38th, and Gilbride of the 343rd, plus the capture of Lt. Carroll of the 38th) having been the decision of a man who at that moment was leading the 343rd Fighter Squadron, is more than alluded to in my post about the November 29 mission. Suffice to say that though I’ve refrained from specifically calling out the man’s name, if one reads the two above-mentioned blog posts thoroughly – from beginning pixel to final pixel – your father’s allusions to the man, and his name (like the names of all the 55th FG pilots on the mission), are present.
In the way of the world, though everyone involved in this story has since passed on, my analysis of the November 29 mission leads me to believe that your father was in essence correct.
Without recapitulating the blog post in these comments (it’s been a couple of years since I wrote it, and like most of my blog posts, it’s really, really (really) long):
Repeated radio calls were made by Major Joel (and maybe others in the 38th) asking for help, which were definitely received by Captain Rufus Franklin of the 343rd. But, the 343rd (I don’t know how far a point that squadron attained over the continent) was by then headed west, back to England. The probability that Franklin was the only man to receive these radio calls would have been, I think, astronomically low. During its return to Nuthampstead, the 343rd went into Lufbery circles twice. Captain Franklin and his wingman, Lt. James Garvin, in an act that to me bespoke of tremendous courage and independence of thought, broke out of the Lufbery and headed back east to help the remnants of the 38th, which were under pursuit by Me 109s of III./JG I.
Regarding the man in question, the historical records of the 38th Fighter Squadron reveal that he joined Major Joel’s Squadron on April 29, 1942, but for a reason left unexplained, transferred to the 343rd on February 2, 1943. His rise through the 38th was in a word meteoric, for he reached the rank of Lt. Col. on April 29, 1945 and received the Silver Star in July of that year. Postwar, his rise within the Air Force continued. Suffice to say that even as early as the 1950s, the P-51s he flew had already gained a measure of attention. I’ll leave it at that.
This was quite unlike the experience of Captain Franklin, who also remained in the postwar Air Force, but only reached Colonel in 1955. I think he more than merited the Silver Star for his actions on November 29, 1943, but as you can see from his obituary, he never received that award. Well, I don’t adjudicate those things (!), and it’s in the past anyway. (But is past is ever really past?) Interestingly, he was transferred out of the 55th to the 20th Fighter Group on February 23, 1944 … three months after the November 29 mission. Echoing Elaine Joel’s life, Capt. Franklin passed away in 1969 at the very young age of 48.
In closing, my review of Missing Air Crew Reports shows about 60 such documents were filed for 38th Fighter Squadron pilots. So I can imagine the impact this would have…
Thank you, again, for your interest!