Original Banshee shares 89th heritage

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Candy Miller
  • 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  The Air Force officially retired the T-37B Tweet from active service July 31, marking the end of a historic era in pilot training for the service. 

Perhaps an equally important portion of the aircraft's heritage comes from World War II when the 89th Fighter Squadron, and retired Air Force Col. Phil Adair, soared the skies of Southeast Asia in P-40 Warhawks as the Burma Banshees. The Banshees' name carried on to the 89th Flying Training Squadron, the last home of the dependable Tweet. 

As the retired colonel scanned the audience of a heritage breakfast July 31 and other festivities Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, hosted to commemorate the Tweet's retirement, he said one thing stood out that hasn't changed since he began flying. 

"I... look at everybody here and I can see the Air Force is in good hands," he said. "These look like some of the same guys I used to fly with." 

Colonel Adair became part of Army Air Corps and Air Force history in 1943 when he returned from a mission. The alarms went off signifying an imminent enemy attack, so he climbed into his P-40 and took to the skies. 

But something was missing when he climbed to altitude - his fellow Airmen. What wasn't missing was the incoming Japanese attack, made up of bombers and fighter escorts. 

According to historical records, Colonel Adair took action and defended his airfield. Although out numbered, he managed to take out a couple Japanese aircraft. However daring that might have been, he soon realized that he, too, had taken on enemy fire and had a damaged aircraft. 

The colonel was unable to keep his damaged aircraft nose-up on his return back to the airfield. At one point, he thought he was going to have to evacuate the aircraft and ditch it. But, he realized that a simple maneuver would enable him to return to the base safely. 

A series of half barrel rolls and flying inverted for a period of time ensured he would reach the airfield and safely land. 

"I was like most other people there, just doing my job," he said in a 2001 interview with the Free-Lance Star, a newspaper in Fredricksburg, Texas. "As far as being a daredevil, I wouldn't call it that, but there was nothing I wouldn't attempt with an airplane. But there were a lot of people like that." 

The colonel said his desire to fly in the sky began early in life. 

"When I was a kid, my dream was to get into the Air Force," he said, but a recruiter told him he needed at least two years of college to become a pilot. Colonel Adair said the recruiter may as well have said "go to the moon first." 

After completing a civilian pilot training program in November 1941, he was offered a job as an instructor, but was told he couldn't start until January. But fate would change his status Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked U.S. Naval and Army bases in Hawaii. 

"All of the sudden the Army Air Corps wasn't so picky," he said. 

That began the colonel's military flying career - a dream that was finally fulfilled. 

"I'll never forget the first time I flew the P-47," he said. "Once I got it in the air, I remember thinking 'how am I going to get this thing back on the ground.'" 

Colonel Adair said he signed up in 1942 during a time of war, learning how to fly P-47 Thunderbolts and expecting to go to Europe. Instead, the colonel and the rest of the 80th Fighter Group went to the Pacific. He said the 89th FS was assigned missions to protect the C-47 and C-46 near the Himalayan Mountains. 

"The only place we could protect them was over the 'hump,' " He said, a location in the eastern end of the Himalayas. "We called it 'Hell's gates' and for good reason. Six-hundred and seventy-six aircraft were lost between there and China." 

The colonel's heroic efforts eventually became the cornerstone of success for thousands of Air Force and Allied pilots - although many years later - to train the world's most advanced, powerful and coalition aerial defense unit ... the 89th Flying Training Squadron.