OUTGUNNED & OUTMANNED

A losing battle against a well-equipped foe

- ERIC HAMMEL

Steve Hinton is at the controls of this beautifully restored, ultra-rare P-40B over the San Gabriel Peak in California. This warbird is now owned by the American Heritage Museum in Hudson, Massachusetts. It is the only surviving combat aircraft from the Pearl Harbor attack and is similar to the P-40E Jack Donalson was flying in the Philippines, facing the same insurmountable odds a thousand miles away. (Photo by John Dibbs/Facebook.​com/theplanepicturecompany)

When we departed San Francisco on November 1, 1941, there was little doubt in any of our minds that we would soon be at war with the Japanese. Aboard the SS Coolidge, I was one of 14 pilots, together with members of the 21st Pursuit Squadron ground crew. The remainder of the squadron was expected to follow on the next convoy out of San Francisco.

The 21st Pursuit Squadron was under the command of a gent who we knew would turn out to be one of the great air commanders in the Pacific. He was 1st Lt. William "Ed" Dyess, a 6-foot, blond Texan who commanded respect by his outstanding leadership and flying ability, a man who would never ask anybody to do anything that he wouldn't do himself. Ed was a natural pilot. He had first flown at the age of four with his father, also an aviation enthusiast, and from that time on, he wanted to be an aviator. When Ed issued orders, it might have been in a slow Southern drawl, but you only had to look into his steel blue eyes if there was any doubt they would be carried out. Ed had all the characteristics one expects in a professional American military officer. He had married shortly before we sailed, and I am certain it was their mutual love that carried Ed through his darkest days during the Bataan Death March.