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Tom Tipps flew his last mission on Oct. 18, 1944. After his P-51 Mustang was hit by German anti-aircraft fire, he bailed out at 18,000 feet over German territory but drifted into Belgium.
The World War II veteran shared this and many other stories on Oct. 21 at a reunion for P-38 fighter pilots at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas. Tipps flew 61 missions during World War II, 50 of them in the twin-engine P-38 Lightning aircraft. Of the 83 pilots who flew the P-38 in the war, only seven are alive today.
“We had a great reunion,” Tipps said. “We flew together every day. We got to be brothers.”
The Air Force treated the pilots to meals and lodging free of charge, as well as a tour of the base.
Tipps said the reunion is a very important time for him and the other pilots.
“You flew with those boys and you flew for your country,” Tipps said. “It’s a time to get together, shake their hands and thank them for saving your life.”
Tipps flew 11 missions in the single-engine P-51 Mustang, including the mission that put an end to his aviation career.
On that fateful October night in 1944, German flak put a hole in the engine of his aircraft, which he called the Zaneis Wildcat.
“The twin engines of a P-38 brought me back plenty of times,” Tipps said. “If a P-51’s engines are hit, you’re dead, you’re going down.”
With his engine holed and his instrumentation shot, Tipps had no choice but to bail out of the doomed plane. Tipps thought he was headed to hostile German soil.
Luckily, he landed in Belgium, breaking his back and both legs. Friendly forces took him to a Canadian hospital, and he soon returned to the United States - in a body cast.
“It was all over for me,” he said. “I gave them 61 good missions, and I’ve never been in a plane since.”
Tipps said he hopes to go to the next reunion, to be held in Miami next year.
“If I’m alive, I’m going to go.”
Tipps came back to Oklahoma, where he served as state senator from 1950 to 1962. He said he is proud of his service during both war and peacetime.
“That was a hard war,” he said. “They were tough, those Germans. I can look back on those missions, and I don’t see how anybody lived through them, but I did.”
Phil Banker 221-6542
Tom Tipps flew his last mission on Oct. 18, 1944. After his P-51 Mustang was hit by German anti-aircraft fire, he bailed out at 18,000 feet over German territory but drifted into Belgium.
The World War II veteran shared this and many other stories on Oct. 21 at a reunion for P-38 fighter pilots at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas. Tipps flew 61 missions during World War II, 50 of them in the twin-engine P-38 Lightning aircraft. Of the 83 pilots who flew the P-38 in the war, only seven are alive today.
“We had a great reunion,” Tipps said. “We flew together every day. We got to be brothers.”
The Air Force treated the pilots to meals and lodging free of charge, as well as a tour of the base.
Tipps said the reunion is a very important time for him and the other pilots.
“You flew with those boys and you flew for your country,” Tipps said. “It’s a time to get together, shake their hands and thank them for saving your life.”
Tipps flew 11 missions in the single-engine P-51 Mustang, including the mission that put an end to his aviation career.
On that fateful October night in 1944, German flak put a hole in the engine of his aircraft, which he called the Zaneis Wildcat.
“The twin engines of a P-38 brought me back plenty of times,” Tipps said. “If a P-51’s engines are hit, you’re dead, you’re going down.”
With his engine holed and his instrumentation shot, Tipps had no choice but to bail out of the doomed plane. Tipps thought he was headed to hostile German soil.
Luckily, he landed in Belgium, breaking his back and both legs. Friendly forces took him to a Canadian hospital, and he soon returned to the United States - in a body cast.
“It was all over for me,” he said. “I gave them 61 good missions, and I’ve never been in a plane since.”
Tipps said he hopes to go to the next reunion, to be held in Miami next year.
“If I’m alive, I’m going to go.”
Tipps came back to Oklahoma, where he served as state senator from 1950 to 1962. He said he is proud of his service during both war and peacetime.
“That was a hard war,” he said. “They were tough, those Germans. I can look back on those missions, and I don’t see how anybody lived through them, but I did.”
Phil Banker 221-6542
