#p 40b

[usafphantom2]

P-40B Tomahawk

@Sylvia70485099🇫🇷🇺🇦viaX

[usafphantom8]

British pilots in response to an alert, running to their American-made Curtiss P-40b (Tomahawk ) fighters at an airfield in North Africa. 1941 - 1942.

@Destroye83 via X

[usafphantom2]

P-40B Tomahawk

@Sylvia70485099🇫🇷🇺🇦via X

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P-40B Tomahawk

@Slyvia70485099🇫🇷🇺🇦 via X

[usafphantom2]

THE TUXEDO-PANTS DOGFIGHT

The story of 2nd Lieutenants George Welch and Kenneth Taylor at Pearl Harbor is one of the most legendary tales of American heroism from December 7, 1941, and the wild part is that almost all of it is true.

These two young Army Air Corps pilots from the 47th Pursuit Squadron had been at an officers’ club dance and an all night poker game, crashed around dawn, and were jolted awake near 8 a.m. by explosions as Japan struck Oahu.

Still wearing their formal evening trousers and dress shoes, they didn’t wait for orders. Taylor grabbed his Buick, the two tore up the highway (while being strafed) racing 10+ miles to the remote Haleiwa Auxiliary Field, where ground crews armed two P-40 Warhawks as fast as humanly possible. They took off into a sky filled with burning aircraft and swarming Japanese fighters, ran through their ammo, landed at the burning Wheeler Field to rearm, and went back up again.

Between them, they scored six confirmed kills (Welch four, Taylor two), accounting for some of the very first American air victories of WWII. Welch was even nominated for the Medal of Honor, denied only because they launched without orders. Both received the Distinguished Service Cross. Their courage that morning is not myth; it’s documented fact, etched into the opening chapter of America’s war in the Pacific.

Americans don’t need perfect conditions to fight. We don’t wait for ideal orders, ideal timing, or ideal gear. When the alarm sounds, we improvise, adapt, and hurl ourselves into the sky if that’s what the nation needs.

To Americans: that spirit is still in you. To our adversaries: never mistake a quiet night (or a pair of tuxedo pants) for weakness.

This country wakes up fast, and when it does, it fights back hard.

@infantrydort via X

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US Air Force pilots with Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters at Hickham airfield. 1941

@destroye83 via X

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Curtiss P-40B Warhawk

@ron_eisele via X

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@Sylvia70485099🇫🇷🇺🇦via X