u/PopsThePainter

Despite her decade of uncertaintly, she is still sitting in the same place. Have visited her many, many times.

in 1942, Lt. Louis Curdes, USAAF, got his first victories, the flying in a P-38 Lightning, when he shot down three Bf-109 in his first 10 days in action. By the end of his first three months, he achieved Ace status (all 5 victories against the 109's). In the following month, he claimed three more victories, including an Italian MC.202. Unfortunately, he was then shot down himself over Salerno, and captured by the Italians.

When Italy surrended in September of 1943, Curdes and a handful of pilots took advantage of the confusion within the Italian military to escape before the German SS could take control of hte camp an move the prisoners north. Curdes was given end of tour paper and sent home, but the ace fighter pilot was not yet ready to return. He volunteered for a second combat tour, and was assigned to the Philippines where he moved to the P-51 Mustang.

Soon after arriving in the Philippines, he downed a Japanese Mitsubishi reconnaissance plane over Formosa, and became only the third pilot to have victories against all three Axis powers!

However, things were about to take a surreal twist. While on patrol over Batan, Lt. Curdes wingman was shot down. As he circled the downed pilot, waiting to guide in the rescue aircraft, a C-47 USAAF transport approached and was on path to make a landing (mistakenly) at the Japanese held airfield on Batan. He could not reach the C-47 by radio, and mulitple attempts at visual contact failed to waive off the transport. Knowing full well the accounts of Japanese soldier towards captives, he made a hard decision.

Lining up his P-51 behing the C-47, he fired into the port engine and knocked it out of commission. Trying again at visual communication without success, he felt he had no choice but to fire on the starboard engine, forcing the C-47 to ditch, resulting in the big plane landing within a football field distance from his wingman, who had deployed his small life raft and bobbed in the water, watching the scene unfold above him. Curdes, very low on fuel and with nightfall coming, returned to base for the night. The next morning, he again took off in the Bad Angel and flew cover for a PBY as is rescued his wingman and well as two crew and 12 passengers from the C-47, including to female nurses.

For his actions in shooting down an unarmed C-47, preventing the capture of 14 americans, Lt. Curdes was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He was allowed to display an American flag alongside the seven German, one Italian, and one Japanese victories, becoming the only American pilot to every do so.

My first post was popular, and I got a few DM's about the nose art in particular, so here are a few more (more mix of generations). Enjoy! Apologies in advance if I duplicated any of them

I have been to a lot of museum and airshow (and lived on more than a few bases) in my 60 years. This is just a few of my collection, taken through the lens of my camera, over that time. (note: My first post got taken down, although I am not really sure why. Please do not take this one down).

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Anyone know what kind of token/medal/commemorative this might be? And if there is any value? I have not been able to identify it (short of it being about John Quincy Adams)