Oak Mackey

Military

Entered service at Shepard Field, TX January 1943. Joined 392nd BG September 1944. His rank at end of WW II was 1st Lieutenant. His Pilot was Jack Clarke.



Oak Mackey was one of a large farming family from Okemah Oklahoma - hence the nickname, He got his first taste of flying aged 12 in 1934 when a barnstorming pilot was offering flights at a neighbouring farm. He had another go the following year, this time in a monoplane, but doesn't recall any ambition to become a flier himself. After High School he worked on the family farm for three years happily driving a tractor planting cotton and corn. In June 1942, then aged 18, he became eligible for the draft and decided to volunteer so that he had some choice in the matter. He and a friend eventually decided on the Merchant Marine and accordingly drove up to Oklahoma City on a Sunday only to find the recruiting office closed. So they strolled over to the Aviation Cadet facikity instead and - as luck would have it - were on time to take a four-hour test in the basic school curriculum. Mackey, to his amazement, passed out top and next day enlisted in the UA Army Aviation Cadet programme.



Orders did not arrive until the end of January 1943 and on the 30th of that month, having passed all entry requirements, he was on a train bound for Army Basic Training at Witchita Falls Texas with a hundred other 'greenhorns'. After that he moved to a College Training Detatchment until deemed ready for Cadet Classification Center near San Antonio where he arrived on July 3rd. Later in the month he celebrated his 21st birthday and went into town to order his very first beer. On the 1st August another celebration as he became - a long last - an Aviation Cadet with a $25 pay rise. Military discipline was tight and the work load heavy but he did make it to PFTS two months later.



So on 2nd October exactly one year after enlisting Mackey started his pilot training on a Fairchild PT-19 monoplane; 'each instructor would have four students so, until we soloed, we would get less than an hour of flying a day'. Just seventeen days later he did solo. However that was just the beginning and in December he was at Goodfellow Field for the next stage; instrument flying and radio navigation. After that in February 1944 Advanced Flying Training on AT-6s at Foster Field, still in Texas, where at last they were considered to be fully-fledged officers and a tailor measured them for the appropriate uniforms for which they had to pay $150 (monthly pay still $75). They graduated, complete with 2nd Lieutenant gold bars and pilot's silver wings on 15th April and Mackey got his first home leave in a year.



A month later he was posted as a co-pilot to a 4th Air Force replacement depot in California where he - and just one fellow pilot from the long training period - was put on a train with 400 other fledgling air crew headed to a desolate spot in the Nevada desert where they crewed up (Oak with pilot Jack Clarke) pending assignment to a B-24 Liberator. they trained intensely, practising night-flying, navigation, cross country and gunnery, relieved by the occasional three-day pass; Mackey went to Las Vegas and walked away with $80 profit. Finally in August they take the train to San Francisco to be kitted out for overseas and - just a few days later - 55 complete B-24 crews board another train for the 4 day ride to Camp Kilner New Jersey. From there to New York city to board the 'Ile de France' 'this was our first contact with the British and we found them friendly, polite and efficient'. For Mackey and his crew it was a unique experience, none of them got seasick and Bing Crosby was on board with a USO troupe for entertainment. It took only four days to reach Scotland. The crew was first sent to a redistribution base in Staffordshire and the briefly to Northern Ireland before finally being assigned to 579th Squadron 392nd Bomber Group at Wendling in Norfolk.



On 1st October after a 3.am 'wake-up' call they were briefed for their first mission. The lead crew took off at 10.30; all following B-24s at 30 second intervals - target Hamm in Germany. The two pilots 'trade-off' every hour or so and just off the Dutch coast the P-51 escort joined them. No problems on this first trip and - as they land at home base - they tell each other' one mission done, only 34 to go'. They flew nine missions in October and on the 26th took advantage of the monthly pass with a trip to London for some well-deserved R&R and where - according to the unwritten rules - officers and enlisted men went their separate ways.



Back at Wendling they flew three missions in as many days; mission No 13 was different in that it was in support of Patton's troops trying to break through the Maginot Line. Returning from the 16th mission Wendling was fogged-in and the entire Group diverted to RAF Benson, one of the pre-war permanent bases, 'a room of my own, a real bed with sheets and maid service in the morning.....these Brits were very, very friendly and hospitable, they were all Spitfire fighter pilots who we envied so much...' By lucky chance his December pass began on the 23rd and the crew spent Christmas in Liverpool where Oak visited an English home for the first time. The Group missions in January 1945 were mostly in support of troops engaged in the Battle of the Bulge. On the 10th just after take-off and in atrocious weather an engine failed, Clarke's plane left the Group, dumped their bombs in the North Sea and crashed landed at Seething, missing the control tower by some 100 ft. In February the crew were sent to France on detachment to collect a B-24 belonging to 91st BG and managed a quick visit to Brussels. Mackey, now a 1st Lieut., flew his final mission on 7th April 1945 the day when - coincidentally- the Luftwaffe had planned a 'last ditch' stand and threw everything they had - including the ME 262 - at them. Oak Mackey sailed home on a converted troop transport, did a spell as an observer on a C-47 and was officially discharged on 31st July. He had learned in his 30 months with the USAAF to love flying and was fortunate - a year later - to be taken on by United Air Lines with whom he flew for the next 38 years.

Connections

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Units served with

The insignia of the 392nd Bomb Group.
  • Unit Hierarchy: Group
  • Air Force: Eighth Air Force
  • Type Category: Bombardment

Places

Revisions

Date
Contributorjmoore43
Changes
Sources

Added verbage to the "Summary biography" for clarity.

Date
Changes
Sources

Biography completed by historian Helen Millgate. Information sourced from correspondence files and articles held in an IWM research collection related to the acquisition of various items and ephemera belonging to Oak Mackey.

Date
ContributorAAM
Changes
Sources

Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / Page 338 in the book 2ND AIR DIVISIONby Turner Publishing Company, 1998 edition (D790.A2S45)