1Lt Donald Shady, C-47 pilot 1944-45, Market Garden, Bulge

[MattS]

While reviewing yearbooks from Blackland AAF near Waco, Texas yesterday, I saw a name from a neighboring town. I don't know why, but I searched it out and found a phone number. I left a message and last night he called me back and we talked for a half hour. Mr. Shady was born in Indiana in 1924 and joined the army in December of 1942. After basic training in Kansas, he went trough pilot selection. "What a process that was!", he stated. Most of his flight training was in Texas at fields near Austin, Waco, and San Antonio. "I got to know Texas pretty well from the air." In July of 1944, he took a C-47 by the northern route (Nova Scotia, Greenland, etc.) to England. By September he was assigned to the 78th Troop Carrier Squadron, 435th Troop Carrier Group. His plane loaded paratroopers (he thinks they were 101st) early in the morning. "They were so loaded down with equipment that they needed help getting off the ground." His squadron encountered flak over Europe and several planes were lost. Once they had dropped the paratroopers, they headed back for England. He said while he was flying, his headset went silent. He noticed the wire had been clipped by a bullet. The crew flew all the way back to England and landed only to find fuel running down the belly of the plane. "We didn't know we had been hit that bad, it's a miracle we didn't catch fire." Although he got to return after dropping the paratroopers, he said his squadron lost a lot of planes and there were a lot of "empty bunks that night".

In December of 1944, he carried loads of gasoline to Patton's tanks during the Battle of the Bulge, landing on mats laid down in pastures. He said the whole plane was full of 5-gallon Jerry cans, but the tanks needed it badly. In 1945 he hauled liberated POWs out of Germany. He said many were Polish and he flew them back to Poland and flew some others to Belgium. 1Lt Shady returned to the US in July of 1945 by the southern route (Africa, Ascension Island, South America) and decided to leave the service. I asked if he had any uniforms, and he stated that the moths got into them and they were pretty eaten up. It was an honor to talk to him, I hope to be able to meet with him soon!

 

[jonesy1275]

Thanks for posting. Glad to hear another ETO Troop Carrier member is still out there. The unsung heroes.

[BEAST]

Nice contact Matt! I hope to hear more.

[Fender Rhodes]

Nicely done. Always good to hear from the men that made the history.

[AAF_Collection]

Thanks for posting MattS,please let us know if you meet him.

 

Regards,

 

Matt.