Florida 1944

About a month ago I received a correspondance from Steven Johnson who was Angus Johnson's son (passed away in 1963).  After corresponding a bit we traded photos and I received the following photo's taken in Florida, 1944.  This was the time when Austin met and received the crew he would command throughout their time during the war.  I want to take this time to thank Steve for these photos.

The crew, Lt. Austin Simmons back row, 2nd from the left.  Angus Johnson, front row kneeling in front of Austin.

Lt. Simmons and ?? at the beach in West Palm Beach, FL May 19, 1944.

Fast forward to November 2nd, 1944, Austin took a flight up to Spetchley Park near Worcester, England.  It is unclear exactly the reason for this visit.  However, Spetchley Park was used by the 8th Air Force after the Battle of Britain as a place for its pilots to recuperate.  It is also unclear if his entire crew accompanied him on this trip or not.  I would suspect they may have as Angus Johnson took this photo of the outside of the building: 

The Pilot, Instructor and Once Again, the Soldier

Major Austin W. Simmons

A little over a decade after being called to Active Duty Cpt. Austin Simmons was promoted to Major effective April 19, 1955 despite a minor setback with the rejection of his application to become an officer in the Regular Army. A month later the promotion outlined in the April 19th letter was revoked. The reason was simply a clerical error for Cpt. Simmons was promoted to Major on July 31st, 1947 by order of the President of the United States.

It has to be noted here that Austin had only a high school education and unlike so many of those officers who stayed in the ranks had no formal schooling nor was a graduate of West Point. The advantage he had was a commission during war time in which he was able to capitalize on and use to better himself and his family. This is in no way demeaning by any means, as it is thought that promotions during war time carry more prestige, honor and are more deserved. It has been documented on many occasions and relayed by those who knew him personally that he was a very bright individual but lacked that piece of paper to back him up.

The promotion in rank in July 1947 would be his last until right before his retirement in 1963 when he was promoted to Lt. Colonel and then retired. From what his wife Mary told me this did bother him a bit so much so that it is well documented that he took a number of advanced military education courses throughout his lengthy career and received many diplomas within the military education system. If you take into consideration that he was given command of a strategically important radar base in Iceland right as Vietnam and the Cold War was acceleration I would dare to speculate that his superior officers saw in Austin an extremely intelligent and capable officer, yet had their hands tied when it came to promoting an individual without the backup of a college degree. Haven taken that into consideration I wonder what course his career would have taken him had he obtained a degree.

Despite being a Major and having already proven himself to be a skilled B-17 pilot during combat, Austin still pursued the life of a pilot and on June 24, 1955 he officially became rated as a Senior Pilot.
Two years later on April 3, 1957 he was appointed as an Instructor and a Test Pilot for the B-25 Mitchell while stationed at the 766th AC&WRON in Maine. The twin engine B-25 medium bomber was much smaller than the four engine B-17 that launched his career that became famous in 1942 during the Doolittle Raid on mainland Japan.

B-25 Mitchell

It is important to note and I will try and delve into this a bit further as more substantial documents surface to back this up, but while serving towards the end of the Korean War Major Simmons was again called upon to fly combat missions.  This time it was in what he called 'kiddy cars', comparing the flight characteristics of the B-17 to his new weapon, the F-86 Sabre.  Rather than lengthy bomb runs his target was the Russian MiG-15's against whom he would give chase until his fuel supply or national borders would force him to turn and call off the fight.  When he spoke about this in 2004 he recalled that at the time the MiG pilots wanted nothing to do with the American Sabre's and would always turn and flee.  He did get close enough to fire his weapons but was not credited with any kills.  Apparently the Air Force lacked enough experienced pilots and were losing jets and pilots to rooky mistakes.  Major Simmons flew each mission with two 'wingmen' who were there to watch and learn from the more experienced pilot.  Often as he recalls they would land with a 'dead stick' meaning that they had run out of fuel and had to mountain hop their way back to base catching the airflows off the mountain ranges to keep their warbirds in flight. 

F-86 Sabre's in formation over Korea, circa 1954.

Towards the end of his career he was still learning new aircraft and on July 1, 1961 he was designated as Aircraft Commander in R4D type aircraft.  The R4D or Douglas C-47 Skytrain, commonly known as Dakota was used primarily as a military transport plane during WW2 and throughout the 1950's. 

C-47

Military Education Courses:
Dec 9, 1949: Military Management, Great Falls AFB, Great Falls, MT (Note: Spelled his name ‘Auston’)
Mar 17, 1951: Electronics Officers Airborne Course, Keesler AFB, MS
Feb 23, 1954: Advanced Communications Electronics Officer Course, Keesler AFB, MS
July 1, 1954: Officers Leadership, Air Training Command, Mather AFB, California
March 1, 1957: Interceptor Controller, Air Training Command, Tyndall AFB, Florida
Sept 17, 1957: Military Affairs Course, Air University Extension Course Institute
Dec 6, 1957: Air Defense Command Controller Proficiency Training Course, 4750th Air Defense Group (WPNS), Yuma, AZ
Jan 24, 1958: SAGE Familiarization Course XX1616-3, SAGE Technical Training Sqdrn, 3380th Technical Training Grp, Waltham, MA
Mar 12, 1959: Command And Staff School Course No. 3, Extension Course Institute, USAF
June 10, 1960: Graduated Command And Staff College at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, Air University
June 19, 1961: Fund Prin Guided Missiles, Extension Course Institute, USAF
Jan 8, 1962: Government Contract Course #7801 at Gunter AFB, Alabama, Extension Course Institute, Air University.
June 15, 1962: ‘The Economics of National Security’ from the Industrial College Of The Armed Forces, scoring in the upper 25 percent of graduates.

And on June 10, 1960 Mary J. Simmons received a Distaff Diploma from the Air University ‘for having cooperated with Command and Staff College and withstanding the onslaught of Demanding Air Force Requirements, And In General Being A Major Influence In The Satisfactory Completion Of The Resident Course By Her Husband…’

Another Icelandic Rescue: Mrs. Anne Marie Nielson

One of the other (few) stories I heard of my grandfather usually came in conjunction with the rescue of Airmen Mangone (previous entry), although the details were few and often seemed to be told with a bit of hesitation.

Last evening I came upon a document that seems to support and shed a bit more light on this story.  So here I will relay what I've heard along with what little light is shed in this document.

The story takes place sometime in early 1961, although the exact date is still a bit of a mystery.  At the time, Major Austin Simmons was in command of the H-1 base in Iceland, 932nd ACWRON.  A distress call came from Mestersvig, Greenland which was approximately 550 nautical miles due north of his location.  The call was an emergency with a response required immediately and again Major Simmons personally took command of the mission. 
Mary had always said that the woman in trouble, Mrs. Anne Marie Nielson, went into labor with a tubal pregnancy and her life was in jeopardy.  Thus the urgency of the mission. 
The call came in at 2130 hours and apparently during preparations for departure the crew discovered a problem with the radio, something that was urgently needed and required for a mission anywhere north of H-1 as there was only radio beacon available as an aide.  By 2300 they had the radio repaired and were on their way north to the woman in trouble. 
The trip took them up to King Oscars Fjord which required them to land on a snow covered field to pick up the critically ill woman.  According to the commendation issued by Col Benjamin G. Willis on April 25, 1961 they accomplished the mission delivering the patient to Keflavik Airport in record time, saving her life. 

Iceland and Airmen Michael Mangone

I'm jumping quite a bit ahead here, all the way to the end of Austin's military career.  But I had the opportunity yesterday to speak with Reed Thomas who served in Iceland at the most remote and hostile US radar site during the Cold War:  H-4 as part of the 934th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron.  He also runs the website which keeps that little known bit of history alive:  http://www.usradarsitesiceland.org/.

Reed was good friends with Michael Mangone (Mike) who also served on H-4 and H-1 from 1960-61 and was until recently, the Memorabilia Chairman of the site/memorial foundation. 

The story of Airmen Mangone and my grandfather was one of the few stories that were ever really told in any detail.  My grandfather was never a braggard and was an extremely humble individual, who told me a couple months before his passing when asked about his experience during the war, 'I didn't do anything special.'  Like so many stories, this one had become extremely skewed and off by the time it reached me so I was excited to finally after twenty years to hear what really played out that day.  I believe the last version I heard was that he had rescued a Navy SeaBee and had to land on a volcanic beach in a large C-130. 

Below is what really transpired.

There were four radar sites in Iceland which were initially set up during WW2 by the British and eventually taken over and added to by the United States as the threat of Soviet aggression towards the US intensified with the Cold War. 
Two of the US bases were located towards the bottom of Iceland (H-1 and H-2) with the other two (H-3 and H-4) located much further to the north close to the pole.  Major Austin Simmons was in command of H-1 from 1960-1961. 
As was mentioned, H-4 was the most remote of the four radar sites and also the most inhospitable.  As Reed Thomas put it, it was not uncommon for the wind to topple a deuce-and-a-half and max out their equipment which could only read wind speeds up to 135mph.  The base was located near a mountain in which a road just wide enough to accomodate 'a deuce-and-a-half and the width of a sheet of paper', as Reed put it, ran seven miles to the top where the radar dome was located. 
Flying in and out of the H-4 was a feat in and of itself.  The runway was only 800 ft long and the approach as Austin recalled in the 2004 interview, was extremely difficult as there was very little to guage your elevation in relation to the ground and pilots risked 'pancaking' their planes into the snow and ice.  Needless to say there were very few pilots who had the skill or the courage to fly up there, even under the best conditions and preperation.
Due to its inhospitable location, H-4 only lasted a handful of years as it and the rest of the base required constant upkeep.  As Reed put it, 'It took us four years to build it and took the weather four years to tear it down.'
Mike was put to the task of disassemblying the radar at the top of H-4 prior to it's closure.  After their workday on July 30, 1961, he and two others were descending the seven mile road back to base when the deuce-and-a-half lost its brakes.  Two of the men successfully jumped from the truck while Mike became entangled and ended up having the two and a half ton truck roll on top of him, breaking multiple bones and inflicting a lot of injury to his entire body.
The call went out that they had a severly injured Airman and Major Simmons, the H-1 base commander, took the initiative and responded.  Grabbing the Priest as he thought they would need to issue last rights, they both boarded the L-20 (a small single engined plane) and took off for H-4 and Michael Mangone.  It is important to note that the Air Force had SA-16 rescue planes at their disposal, just not the pilots trained well enough for a mission like this.

The Canadian built DeHavilland U6-A 'Beaver' or L-20

While in flight those who were still stationed at H-4 took to the task of pulling the heavy truck off of Mike and had to employ the use of a wrecker to do so. 

As Reed put it, 'The flight up was dangerous and the flight back just the same.'  According to the historian Fridthor Kr. Eydal who writes about the Icelandic Air Defense, planes landed and left the same day.  There was no place to store a plane up there over night or even to tie it down.  Given the verocity of the wind, it could flip a plane easier than that of the heavier, boxy military trucks.

Major Simmons received a commendation for the rescue on August 3, 1961 in which the second paragraph stated, 'Your unhesitating and unselfish response to the need for assistance, combined with your excellent knowledge of the terrain enroute and in the vicinity of H-4 was of invaluable assistance to Captain Lenhart and was a major contribution in the safe accomplishment of a flight made under very difficult weather conditions for a single engined aircraft.' ~Col. O B Steely

In the end, Mike survived and corresponded frequently with my grandfather.  As Reed put it, 'It was rare for an enlisted man to have a close bond to a superior officer.  Maybe he would respect him, but rarely would there be a close bond.  Mike had a very close bond to your grandfather.' 

Michael Mangone passed a couple weeks before Austin did on March 11, 2010 due to a heart attack.  I'm certain they're both having a cup of coffee together right now.

Letter dated 11/30/2002 from Michael Mangone to Austin with accompanying photo of Mike while up in Iceland.

The letter reads,

Sir;

Enclosed are some orders, and other items I liberated from boxes that were stored in an old truck on my property.  Hope you have fond memories of your time at the 932.

Thanks again for the plane ride to the hosp.  Hope you can make it to the reunion in April.  It would be great to get a picture of you and I standing by the L20 they have restored.

Thanks again

Micheal Mangone

Certificate that was given to those leaving Iceland by their commanders.  This one was given to Michael Mangone and signed by Maj. Austin Simmons.  It was a bit of a joke that played on the harsh conditions these men faced up there.

Post War Commission

Austin and his new family began life in the post war era and began the traditional military hopping around the country from base to base.  Between his marriage and the years leading up to the Korean War he held a number of different positions at different bases. 

Before I get into the history of their military trek across the country it is important to note some of the events that played out behind the scene so to speak.  As was stated earlier, his new wife was not too thrilled about his making a career out of the Air Force despite Austin's wish.  Sentiments she later cherished.  However, despite his illustrious career with the 8th Air Force and how highly regarded he was both as a pilot and as a commander, the military began the process of downsizing it's ranks-something Cpt. Simmons quickly learned. 

In December 1945 the 79th Congress issued legislation which outlined the requirements for the post war army.  Within that legislation it permitted an increase of Regular Army Officers from 25k to 50k.  However, the War Department had no interest in filling all of those vacancies. 

On September 1, 1946 Captain Simmons received a letter from Major General Edward F. Witsell outlining the 5 reasons why the War Department had passed on his application for appointment into the Regular Army.  He was offered a chance to reapply per paragraph 4 which it looked like he had done. 

On October 9, 1947 his application was once again rejected by Major General Witsell.  The first line of paragraph two read, 'Your competitive standing among the great many officers who applied for regular commission was not sufficiently high to permit your appointment.'  It then went on to outline his patrotism during war.

Cpt Simmons April 1946.

At some point in 1947 (undated correspondence to Cpt. Simmons) he was relieved of Active Duty.  The order came from the Newfoundland Base Command to Cpt. Simmons who was then stationed at Gander Airfield in Newfoundland. 

On May 26, 1947 he received instructions and the initiative from Lt. Col James H. Reiter to apply for a commission within the Reserve Officers Corps.  A little over two months later he received a written response from the same Lt. Col Reiter that, 'The Secretary of War has directed me to inform you that by direction of the President, you are tendered appointment in the Officers' Reserve Corps, Army of the United States, effective this date...'  The date was July 31, 1947.

Note:  as you will see in the chronology below he was transferred from an officer in the Army (Army Air Corp) to that of an Air Force officer in September of 1947.  The Air Force came into it's own on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947. 

    
Chronology from marriage through 1947:

May 20-July 21, 1945:               B-17 pilot - Memphis, TN

July 22-Sept 7, 1945:                Co-pilot domestic transport- Ft. Dix, NJ

Sept 8, 1945-Jan 9, 1946:         Asst Oper Control Off - Ft. Dix, NJ

Jan 10-June 30, 1946:               Asst Mat Operations Off - Cincinnati, OH

July 1-Oct 13, 1946:                 Asst Mat Operations Off - Memphis, TN

Oct 14-Nov 13, 1946:              Asst Mat Operations Off - HqATLD ATC LI (Long Island?), NY

Nov 14-Nov 21, 1946:             Enroute to join - Newfoundland

Nov 22-Dec 31, 1946:              Casual, Awaiting assignment - Newfoundland

Jan 1-Jan 10, 1947:                   Casual - Newfoundland

Jan 11-Jan 29, 1947:                 Operations Off - Newfoundland

Jan 30-July 1, 1947:                  Admin Off - Newfoundland

July 2-March 31, 1948:             Admin Off - Ft. Pepperell, Newfoundland

(Trfd to Dept of AF per Transfer Order #1, NME, 26, Sept, 1947)