From Barnstorming to Bush Pilot

By Colonel Don G. Gaylor

My life story began in 1915 and here it is ninety-four incredible years later. Sixty-seven of these years have been the story of Pegs and my life together. A most successful partnership! Our life has been unique in that together we have enjoyed an unusual panoply of adventures and excitement in exotic areas around the globe during some of the more turbulent and historical periods of the modern world. For us to have been a small, active participant, we are surely blessed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Nov 29, 2010
• ISBN: 9781450257831

Colonel Don G. Gaylor

This book tells the story of Don Gaylor and his experiences traveling the world during his years in the service. He then became involved in property development in the central Florida area, in particular during the time that Walt Disney World was being created. He was contractually involved in its development programs, which turned out to be fortunate timing in that it coincided with his retirement from the military. As of the publication date of this book in 2010, the author resides in Vero Beach, Florida and Wolfeboro, New Hampshire with his wife, Peg.

Book preview

From Barnstorming

to Bush Pilot

Colonel Don G. Gaylor USAF (Ret.)

iUniverse, Inc.

New York Bloomington

From Barnstorming to Bush Pilot

Copyright © 2010 by Colonel Don G. Gaylor USAF (Ret.)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-4502-5784-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4502-5783-1 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 11/11/2010

DEDICATION

At the behest of our children and with Peg’s help, I have written our story. We trust it will jog some pleasant memories of our exciting journey together.

For other readers of our story, please bear with the rather casual and family conversation style of our narrative.

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark nor even eagle flew—

And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

Table of Contents

DEDICATION

CHAPTER ONE

MY EARLY YEARS

CHAPTER TWO

NEW GUINEA

CHAPTER THREE

THE PHILIPPINES

CHAPTER FOUR

PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE

THE DARK CONTINENT

CHAPTER FIVE

SOUTH AFRICA

PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA

TRACKING STATION NEGOTIATIONS

THE ATLAS LAUNCH

COMMUNIST COUNTRY INTRIGUE

EUROPE MAINTENANCE FLIGHT

ETHIOPIA

SOUTH AFRICA NEIGHBORS

KRUGER NATIONAL PARK

VICTORIA FALLS

ANIMAL VIEWING FLIGHTS

BRITISH PROTECTORATES

AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE FLIGHT

THE CONGO AFFAIR

MY CONGO ‘ARREST’

SOUTH AFRICA MISSIONARIES

SEARCH FOR GENERAL

DAG HAMMARSHJOLD

CHAPTER SIX

THE END OF OUR ADVENTURE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CHAPTER ONE

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MY EARLY YEARS

On November 19, 1915, the date of my birth, WWI, which supposedly was the War to End All Wars in Europe, was one year old.

My first awareness of the fact that there was a war in 1917 was when my Uncle Walt came home and I thought he was a giant in his uniform. However, the effect of WWI on our family was minimal.

From 1929-1930, I was aware of conversations between my parents and grandparents of the stock market crash, bank closures, and unemployment. All these things had a lasting impression on my young mind. Those years weren’t bad for us kids because we never lacked for food or clothing or things to do. Although we didn’t have any luxuries such as a bicycle and my parents didn’t own a car, we had all the other things you needed such as baseballs, a basketball with a hoop, a swing and the fun of playing in the woods and so forth. In the winter time we had sleds and the old Flexible Flyer you could steer down the hills.

We had a good life, but for my parents, life was rough in their early years. It was physically hard. My dad often worked twelve hours or more walking to and from work, coming home carrying two bags of groceries and my mother would send us up to the corner to help carry them. We didn’t have a washing machine or an electric sweeper. Mother would have to wash the clothes by hand with a scrub board. We had to take our rugs outside as we didn’t have carpeting, of course, and we’d beat them on the clothesline to clean them. Every spring we changed the windows from screens to storm windows for the winter. So life for my parents was a little rough in the beginning but all in all we were happy. As I say, we lived pretty well and even though we weren’t able to take vacations, we did other things such as going on picnics in the woods. I do remember we often had hobos come to the house asking for food and mother would give them something. There was always a rumor that each hobo marked a home so other hobos could come by and know that that house was his.

I remember going up to the corner as a little kid and sitting on the curb waiting for the lamplighter to come along and light the gas lamp. Those were the only street lights we had for many years. And I didn’t know at that time, but New York City only had amber lights on their streets and didn’t get a full street light system until about 1930.

Fort Dodge, Iowa in Webster County was the county seat and had a population of probably somewhere around 7000-10,000 when I was born. Fort Dodge had previously been a fort in the 1800’s during the Indian uprisings and was closed in the early 1900’s. The only other reputation that Fort Dodge had was as the home of the Cardiff giant which Barnum and Bailey deemed was the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on man. It was a giant piece of rock which was cut out of an area right outside of Fort Dodge and then carted somewhere up in New York and carved into a man – supposedly a petrified man.

Dad worked for a local hotel and then became the general manager of the complex which included another small hotel and a separate apartment building. Eventually, after we left home, my parents moved into an apartment in the hotel.

At certain times of year, manufacturers of clothing and other wares would come to the city to have their showings for the local merchants at the hotel. There was a grand staircase from the lobby of the hotel to the mezzanine floor where the showrooms were located. Local merchants from the surrounding areas would come to view the merchandise and place orders for the upcoming season. Sometimes my brother Bob and I would help these manufacturer reps set up their displays and we looked forward to these events. Dad was always offered samples of the latest clothing or other items at cost or less. Consequently, we always had the best and latest in summer or winter clothing.

I remember one time there was a rope and twine company display that included a huge roll of twine that must have been about six feet tall. After the showing was over, the rep had left instructions for some transport company to come and pick up the roll of twine and ship it someplace else. In the meantime, the following week there was an American Legion convention in town and the hotel was loaded with American Legionnaires who got to be pretty feisty and were having quite a good time. They managed to get a hold of the roll of twine and rolled it down through the lobby of the hotel, out the front door, and around all the lights up and down the street before the police finally got a hold of them. They had really made a mess. Dad got out a couple pair of scissors and gave them to Bob and me so we could help the police cut the twine that was wound around everything. We even got a little notoriety from the local newspaper for doing our civic duty.

In the 1930s, the major form of civil aviation in the country was ‘barnstorming’. Barnstormers were World War I pilots who purchased the Curtiss JN-4 bi-plane they flew as fighters during the war and toured the U.S. offering aerial shows and short rides. In the small towns of the Midwest, they would make a deal with the local farmer to use his field as a temporary runway and advertise for folks to meet at Farmer Brown’s barn. Hence the term: Barnstormers. They would fly over the town, drop handbills offering rides for $1.00 to $5.00, and perform some daring feats of aerial deviltry.

It was at that time, when I was permitted to go to the edge of town and watch these barnstormers fly in, that aviation became a major influence in my life. I dreamed of being a pilot. Charles Lindberg, one of my early heroes, whom I later met at Patrick Air Force Base, was a barnstormer. The first year I went out to the fields I was able to get a job with one of the local barnstormer pilots helping him carry things to his airplane. After each flight, I would wash off the oil that had dripped on the fuselage during the flight. Then at the end of the day, the pilot would give me a short ride for free. The second year that I did this, I worked for the same pilot. At the end of the day when I got my free ride, I asked if he would do a loop-de-loop, normally forbidden with passengers. He flew higher and did a loop which I was able to brag about to all my buddies for the next couple of years.

This early interest in flying stayed with me through the years until I was able to finally get a pilot’s license through the civilian pilot training program. I really enjoyed seeing the barnstormers and watching their aerobatics kept me interested in aviation for many, many years.

* * * * * * * * * *

When I was about 14 years old, I probably had the first real adventure in my life up to that point. I had a buddy whose father was a food broker and sent carloads of chickens to New York City market. The chicken cars on the train were open with mesh siding and the chicken cages were stacked inside. They kept the feed and water where the open doors normally were and someone would ride in each car to New York and feed and take care of the chickens en route.

My buddy, whose father had the business, had done this a couple of times in his early years and when he was about sixteen, I tried to get him to convince his father that I could go, even though I was only fourteen, and ride one of these trains to New York City. I needed to get my parents to agree. His father knew my dad and convinced him it was a very safe trip and his representatives in New York would see that we were put on a train and returned back to Fort Dodge. Fortunately, mother and dad gave permission and I was allowed to take this particular job going to New York and seeing the exciting world beyond Fort Dodge. I always had an adventurous spirit and after being exposed to the barnstorming pilots, I wanted to see the rest of the world.

It took about four days and we stopped in various big cities en route where they would rearrange the train by adding or taking off box cars. When we got into New York, my buddy’s father’s manager paid us off and told us where to go to get the train back to Iowa. My buddy and I figured we had a few hours before the train left that night and decided to go into New York City as far as we could and look around. We got as far as Columbus Circle and there was a big gathering with speeches being made with liberals criticizing the government and other things. There was also a big crap game going on and my buddy got into it and lost a good bit of his money before he decided to stop. I had also given him a couple of dollars of my money since I knew nothing about shooting craps.

At this point we were