Gen. Thomas Hayes obit

[Baldeagle]

From the Washington Post last week:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 03116.html

It says he "flew the only P-51D that participated in the Normandy invasion", were the rest Bs and Cs or is that just one of those stories?

I see also from some internet searching that his Mustang was "Frenesi"




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[chaser]

Yes his airplane was "Frenesi" and this is from Bud Anderson's site which talks about Leroy Ruder being lost that day. So there was another D model and I'm sure there were many more.

"According to the French Historian of Saint-Michel-en-Grève, LeRoy's P-51D was hit by one of the German Gun Batteries near a farm house. After he was hit, He flew for about 1 kilometer and crash landed close to (or into) some cattle. LeRoy was flying at a very low altitude in support of the Allied Ground Forces on D-Day. The cause of his death is unclear. The French historian thinks he was killed on impact, as he was severely wounded in the head. He also states a local Frenchman, Minister Theodore Ruvoen was first on scene. Merle Olmsted's book on the 357th states that he "crashed landed near Cherbourg and although he reported over the radio that he was safe, later records show that he was killed in action." It is unclear to me how he died."

[Jack Cook]

." It is unclear to me how he died."

A hero