This is Dick Cubbins, pilot of the SWASHBUCKLER. During our last mission the SWASHBUCKLER was shot up so badly we wound up in the olive grove which caused additional damage to the bird.
We were shot down for the third time a short time later and became POWs in Romania.
As it turns out, a pilot that I flight checked a couple of days before we went down over Girugiu, showed up at Bari with a flight of COTTONTAIL aircraft to pick up us former POWs and haul us back to Manduria.
The lead aircraft, flown by the fellow I had flight checked, was named PEEKIN' THRU. I could easily see the shadow of my SWASHBUCKLER logo that the paint had etched into the nose skin.
Incidentally, the pre-combat check ride was essentially to see if the new pilot had the guts to make a high-speed pass between two, brick, multistoried Italian Navy buildings on the Mediterranean just North of our swimming beach.
Whoever happened to be swimming at the time got a close haircut from the "buzz job.
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