Stories & Memories

How I Got One WWII Aerial Victory Without Flying A Fighter!
Author: Joe Noah

Major George Preddy, the world’s top Mustang ace, ended his career in the Army Air Corps on Christmas Day 1944 when he was shot down by friendly ground fire during the Battle of the Bulge. At the end of the war, and until the 1950s, he was credited with having shot down 27.5 enemy aircraft, and with destroying another five by strafing. When the Fighter Victory Credits Board convened in the 1950s, they reduced Preddy’s aerial score by two and added 1/3 which he never claimed. According to his CO, Lt Col John Meyer (later the Vice Chief of Staff of the USAF), George had shot down others that he hadn’t claimed either.

George was my first cousin and my idol and I wanted to see him rightfully accredited. In 1955 I discovered that his score had been reduced to 25.83 from 27.5. At the time I was a Captain in the USAF based at Griffiss AFB in Rome, NY. I investigated and found that one of the two victories that had been disallowed was one for which Preddy had been awarded the Silver Star. According to the Board’s rules, they had to allow that one. But when I asked them to correct their mistake, they replied that the Board had been adjourned and the official score could not be changed.

That initial research led to the first book I wrote about George Preddy, Wings God Gave My Soul which was published in 1974.  I researched and wrote the book while working for The RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, CA. In that book, I made the case for adding one victory back into George’s official score. I sent the book to the Historical Division at Maxwell AFB where it remained until another Board was convened in the 1970s. That Board’s findings were published in 1978, and they allowed the victory scored on December 22, 1943 for which Preddy was awarded the Silver Star.

The second victory disallowed was for a combat that occurred on April 30, 1944. To date I have been unable to prove that Preddy did or did not get a victory that day. So Major George Preddy’s current official score is 26.83 aerial plus five ground victories, making him the top Mustang ace in the world, the third highest ETO ace, and the sixth ranking Air Force ace. Only aerial victories were counted to determine if a pilot was given ace status. It took five aerial victories to become an ace with the most hazardous victories being those scored while strafing enemy airfields.

One reason, among others, that spurred me to investigate Preddy’s score reduction is that he received a telegram from America’s highest scoring WWI ace, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker congratulating him when he surpassed Eddie’s WW I score of 26 victories. Let the congratulations stand!

George had a brother Bill, younger by five years. Bill Preddy got his wings in 1944 and joined the 339th Fighter Group in early 1945. He claimed two aerial victories in March, and was shot down in April by enemy ground fire while strafing the airfield at Ceske Budejovice, CZ. Bill was listed as Missing in Action after being shot down. No one in his squadron knew what had happened to Bill and his CO, Captain Ray Reuter. We did not learn what had happened to them until 1991 when Manuel Van Eyck published an article telling us where they were shot down. The only brothers to be killed in action while flying the Mustang are George and Bill Preddy.

      
In 1990, while Sam Sox and I were working on a new book about Preddy (George Preddy, Top Mustang Ace), we flew into Winter Haven Florida in my Comanche to meet Mustang owner Vlado Lenoch. On arrival we had to go around on our first approach due to a thunderstorm over the field. The storm quickly passed and we landed, but the turbulence knocked the Comanche about. A bit later Vlado landed in his Mustang and made a perfect landing. He had come up from Marco Island to give each of us a ride in his Mustang “Moonbeam McSwine. The thrill of flying in Vlado’sP-51 was the experience of a lifetime for both of us.Vlado’s Mustang is painted in the markings of Preddy’s squadron mate and ace Bill Whisner; this made the experience even more special. (Bill was one of only seven pilots to become an ace in both WW II and Korea.) I vividly recall how smooth the take off was in comparison to our landing in the Comanche. Vlado took us up one at a time and performed a few low level aerobatics, an amazing and unforgettable experience.

I have had many unforgettable meetings with owners of Mustangs, such as in 2005 when Tom Patten flew Sweetie Face to Greensboro to help re-dedicate Preddy Boulevard. The Preddy Memorial Foundation is delighted that both Kermit Weeks, owner of Cripes A’Mighty 3rd and Ken Wagnon, owner of Cripes A’Mighty have honored George Preddy by having their Mustangs restored in his markings.