When asked to name the
greatest team he was ever on,
Ted Williams said, "The
US Marines".
Ted Williams was John
Glenn's wingman flying F-9Fs in Korea.
I didn't know this about
Ted Williams...............
The Boston Red Sox
slugger who wore No. 9 as a major leaguer, would now be
assigned to an F-9
Panther jet as a pilot. Ted flew a total of 39 combat
missions in Korea. He was
selected by his commander John Glenn (later the
astronaut, senator, and
'septuagenonaut') to fly as Glenn's wingman.
While flying an air
strike on a troop encampment near Kyomipo, Williams'
F-9 was hit by hostile
ground fire. Ted commented later: "The funny thing
was I didn't feel
anything. I knew I was hit when the stick started
shaking like mad in my
hands. Then everything went out, my
radio, my landing gear,
everything. The red warning lights were on all
over the plane." The F-9
Panther had a centrifugal flow engine and
normally caught fire when
hit. The tail would literally blow off most
stricken aircraft. The
standard orders were to eject from any Panther with
a fire in the rear of the
plane. Ted's aircraft was indeed on fire, and
was trailing smoke and
flames. Glenn and the other pilots on the mission
were yelling over their
radios for Williams to get out. However, with his
radio out, Williams could
not hear their warnings and he could not see the
condition of the rear of
his aircraft.
Glenn and another Panther
flown by Larry Hawkins came up alongside Williams and lead him to the
nearest
friendly airfield.
Fighting to hold the plane together, Ted brought his
Panther in at more than
200-MPH for a crash landing on the Marsden-matted
strip. With no landing
gear, dive brakes, or functioning flaps, the
flaming Panther
jet skidded down the runway for more than 3000 feet. Williams got out of the
aircraft only
moments before it was
totally engulfed in flames. Ted Williams survived
his tour of duty in Korea
and returned to major league baseball.
Pssst: Ted missed out
flying combat missions during WW II, because his
flying and gunnery skills
were so good that he was kept as an instructor
for much of the War.
During advanced training at Pensacola, Florida Ted
would accurately shoot
the sleeve targets to shreds while
shooting out of
wing-overs, zooms, and barrel rolls. He broke the all time
record for 'hits' at the
school. Following Pensacola, Ted was sent to
Jacksonville for advanced
gunnery training. This is the payoff test for
potential combat pilots.
Ted set all the records for reflexes,
coordination, and visual
reaction time. As a result of his stunning
success he was made an
instructor at Bronson field to put Marine aviation
cadets through their
final paces.
By 1945 Ted got his wish
and was finally transferred to a combat wing, but weeks later
the War was over. He
was discharged from the military in December of 1945. Seven years
later, in December
of 1952, Ted was recalled to active duty as a Marine Corps
fighter
pilot.
