Chapter 59 member Bill Skinner has been with us for about ten years, has been our newsletter publisher since about 1995, and is also the Waco Air Safety Council Representative for Chapter 59.  But his interest in aviation goes a bit further back than that.  His first memory of airplanes was at about age three or four when his family visited the local airport to watch the barnstormers fly.  He soon had his own “biplane” he stormed around the local sidewalks on.  

Bill was seventeen when he started flying real airplanes in his native California.  He forged his mother’s signature on his application for the Student Pilot’s License but she soon discovered what he was up to and gave him a good chewing out for participating in such a dangerous activity.  Bill’s response shut her up.  He simply got out the old photos of his mother riding and racing motorcycles in her youth, and pointed to them!  “After all,” he told me, “I came home from the hospital in a sidecar!”  It was 1937 when he got those first lessons in a 40 horse J-2 Cub and soloed in a J-3.  It was the depression, however, and money being scarce, further lessons were delayed until 1939.

By 1939 Bill was working at Safeway in the daytime and at Bay City Flyers at the Oakland Airport in his spare hours to earn flight time.  While there he flew a wonderful variety of airplanes including a Travelair Speedwing, Fairchild 24W, Ryan STA, Porterfield, Rearwin Speedster, Culver Cadet, Bird, OX-5 Waco, and an OX-5 Curtiss Robin.  He also got to fly one of the early Great Lakes trainers with a Curtiss in-line 4 cylinder engine, and tailskid.  A friend of his bought it for $400.  Bill also remembers getting a ride in a Curtiss Jenny. At age 20 Bill was awarded a scholarship for flight training through a government program and he obtained his private license in September of 1941.  He was then selected for advanced training at the prestigious United Airlines Training facility, but had to decline because of the outrageously expensive tuition ($500.). 

When December 7th came along Bill soon found himself in San Francisco standing in line at the US Navy recruiting office.  The line was way too long, which was a lucky break for the Army Air Corps.  In January of 1942, he was sworn in as an Aviation Cadet ending up in Santa Anna, California, for preflight, then Hamet, California, for Primary flight training in the Kinner powered PT22.  Next Bill went through Basic flight training in the BT-13, then to Advanced at Williams Field, AZ, to fly the AT-6, 9,10, and 17.  The AT-9, 10, and the 17 were all twin trainers with the AT-17 being the bomber/trainer version of the UC-78 “Bamboo Bomber.”  He was then assigned to the B-25 and transition school was at Greenville, SC for the next three months.  He completed that training in December of 1942, and was on his way to Chakulia, India for a year to fly bombing missions over Japanese targets in Burma.  Bill flew 47 missions there, first as Co-pilot, then as Aircraft Commander. Targets were rail lines, oil refineries, and shipping targets on the Irrawady River.  Most of the opposition was from anti-aircraft artillery as Bill saw fighter attacks only a few times.  They had no fighter escorts while he was there.  Weather crossing the Chin Hills (elevation 11,000 feet) was the biggest hazard, according to Bill.  Only near the Himalayas are 11,000 foot mountains called hills and flying through thunderstorms crossing them was dreaded on each mission.  Bill’s scariest mission was crossing the Chins returning from an airstrike.  They flew into thunderstorms with 6000 ft./min. climb showing on the VVI, then 6000 ft./min. down.  This went on for about an hour in severe turbulence.  Bill said they had more losses due to weather than actual combat losses where he was.
After his one year tour in India, Bill was sent to Karachi to help establish a gunnery school for the B-25.  He taught tactics to be used in air-to-air engagements using P-40 fighters in the mock attack roles.  It was here that Bill unknowingly was getting into the EAA spirit. 

They had an old AVG P-40B there that had been ground looped with serious damage to one wing.  Bill and an Enlisted man put it in a hangar on blocks and started cleaning it up, repairing damage and repainting it to be used in their training missions.  They scraped together parts from here and there including a wing from a P-40C model.  The replacement wing was ten inches longer than the B model wing, but close enough to work with a little re-trimming in-flight.  Bill checked himself out and flew the P-40 about a hundred hours during the eight months he spent in Karachi.  Bill loved aerobatics and flying the P-40 in mock attacks was an enjoyable experience for him, though he did admit to a head-on pass on a bomber, with an  aileron roll thrown in which tightened his grip a bit on the seat cushion.
In August of 1944, it was back to the States for duty as an AT-25 Flight Instructor.  He was shuffled around from school to school in the typical wartime fashion before finally landing in Waco at the Blackland Airfield.  In August of 1945, he was moved over to Rich Field to fly PT-19s and was converted to a Texan when he met his wife-to-be. From there, he was shuffled off to Enid, Oklahoma, as a T-6 and B-25 instructor, then to Warner-Robbins, Georgia, as a Disposal Officer for the War Assets Administration.  With five years of active service, Bill and most others were also considered “war surplus” and released from active duty.  Bill’s wife made him promise not to go back to flying, so he returned to California, and worked various jobs with the phone company, a boat harbor, and a cabinet shop.  He and his wife returned to Waco in 1953, where he worked at Sears until retiring in 1986.  
Bill has some great memories of the airplanes he flew in his youth.  I noticed a photo of a beautiful Ryan STA (one of my favorites) he had and he told me about the time he flew it from the Walnut Creek Airport up to San Jose.  He flew directly over Mt. Diablo (elevation about 4,500’) on the return flight.  He saw a man on the observation deck and did a slow roll about 200 feet over his head.   “I just couldn’t help myself” he said, “and it was kind of funny to watch the guy dive for the ground.”  Bill also has pleasant memories of he and his friends watching United Airlines fly their Boeing 247s into the Oakland Airport, and watching TWA make engine running offloads and boardings with their new DC-2s. 

Bill’s wife died in 1991, and he decided the following year that it was time to start flying again.  A friend of his had a Cessna 120 he kept at Wings for Christ Airport, so Bill went out there with him to take a look at it.  That’s when he met Howard Pedigo and fell in with the rowdy AAF bunch.  They made him feel right at home and the flying flame was rekindled.  Soon, he overheard someone say they had a 1967 Cherokee 140 for sale and Bill said “I’ll take it!”  Through the AAF, Bill got involved in EAA Chapter 59, and he has been an active member ever since.  Bill sold his Cherokee in 2000, when he felt his health was no longer up to it, but remains active as the 59 Grapevine publisher, and is always there to lend a hand at Chapter 59 events.  Bill is also active as a General in the Axtell Air Force, and is a member of the China, Burma, India Veterans Association.  It’s a great honor to have aviators like Bill Skinner in our organization.  Thanks Bill, for making us all a little richer by your presence!

 
- McMains