Bill Cheolas completed advanced pilot training in the late summer of 1944. Before being transferred to the European Theater he along with the current power pilot were pooled and sent to glider training. These men continued to fly as C-47 pilots but were slated to fly a CG-4A gliders for the VARSITY (invasion of the German Homeland). Bill flew C-47 resupply mission once in the ETO in December and on 24 March 1945 he was assigned to fly the CG-4A glider for the 86th Troop Carrier Squadron (5K), 437th Troop Carrier Group. After flying a combat glider into a hostile landing zone where the highest majority of pilots lost their lives in a combat operation (87 Glider pilots KIA), Bill came back to fly C-47s on combat missions into Germany, resupplying the fast moving Allied Army and returning with wounded, POWs and Forced Laborers during April and May of 1945.
As a member, Bill is attending the Glider Pilots Association reunion and is given an opportunity to fly a C-47 again after 70 years. This opportunity was given to him by the Mid America Flight Museum in Mt. Pleasant TX.
For information about the glider program of WWII visit our website at www.ww2gp.org You may also contact the Association's research team the Leon B. Spencer Research Team at nwwiigpa@gmail.com
4 фев 2017
