Home Page : News: News: CAT Pilots Honored Last Updated March 25, 2010
CAT PILOTS RECEIVE FRANCE'S HIGHEST HONOR!
Remarks of Dr. Bill Leary Called upon for remarks, Dr. Leary said that he wanted to express the congratulations of several individuals who wee unable to attend: Pierre Guin, commander of the French aerial resupply unit at Cat Bi; Jean Arlaux, the sole survivor of the McGovern-Buford crash; and Bob Rousselot, CAT's VP for Operations. Dr. Leary also spoke of the late Al Cox, CAT's president in 1954 and senior CIA officer in SE Asia. In many conversations with Leary, Cox had expressed his admiration for the services of the pilots at Dien Bien Phu. It was not hard to believe, he told the pilots, that somewhere Al Cox was lifting a glass in their honor. Dr. Leary then offered his own congratulations. Historians, he said, would be examining the battle of Dien Bien Phu for hundreds of years to come. While not sure about how they would interpret the battle, he was certain that the valor of the men who fought there would be a constant theme. And among these men, the 37 pilots of Civil Air Transport would have an honored place alongside their French brothers-in-arms. William M. Leary February 24, 2005 For the Record: Airdrops at Dien Bien Phu When I published Perilous Missions in 1984, I included in Appendix C a list of airdrops made by CAT pilots between March 13 and May 7, 1954. The list was based upon documents (“Squaw Flight Time for March, April, and May 1954”) that I found the personnel records of James McGovern. Since publication of this list, additional information has caused me to modify it. 1. The list (for unknown reasons) did not include Wallace Buford. According to McGovern’s log books, Buford flew 42 airdrops as Mac’s copilot, including the final mission. As Buford also flew at least one mission with Paul Holden, I have included him on the list with 43+ airdrops. 2. R. S. Richardson, E. L. Porter, and G. Anastasakes have been removed from the original list. A document that I later discovered shows the arrival and departure date of pilots for Operation Squaw. Richardson and Porter arrived in Haiphong on May 20, 1954, while Anastasakes appeared two days later. It is clear that the three did make airdrops in Indochina, but after the fall of Dien Bien Phu on May 6. 3. George Stubbs has been added to the list with 5+ airdrops. As CAT was short of copilots in late March, Robert Rousselot pressed into service C. M. Pinkava, whose primary duty was as a navigator, and Stubbs, who worked in maintenance. Pinkava held the appropriate pilots’ license and could be manifested (and paid) as a copilot. Stubbs, however, lacked this license. Because of potential legal problems, Stubbs (to my knowledge) was never manifested as copilot. Nonetheless, it is clear (and Rousselot has confirmed) that Stubbs flew at least five airdrop missions in the right seat of a C-119.
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