Editor’s NotE: Not
every fighter pilot
becomes an ace.
Regardless, every pilot
in combat is embroiled
in the same “kill or be
killed” environment
and, once in a while,
finds himself in the
right/wrong place
at the right/wrong
time as a witness to
history. That was the
case with Bob Brulle,
who, in the middle of a
melee, found that his
Thunderbolt gave him
a 50-yard, field-side
seat for the Operation
Bodenplatte attack on
Y- 29 in France on New
Year’s Day, 1945.
Surviving the Luftwaffe’S
new Year’S SurpriSe partY
BY Lt. CoL. RobeRt V. bRuLLe, uSAF, Ret.,
as TOlD TO aND wRi TTeN By JAmeS P. buShA
I literally crashed and burned during my first aerial adventure. As a young boy growing up in Chicago, I made rubber-band balsa-wood airplane models. One day, to impress the neighborhood gang, I
sprinkled a little gas on the nose of the airplane, climbed up on our garage roof, set the plane on fire,
and launched it. It promptly dove straight into the ground, setting my father’s well-kept lawn on fire.
My father forbade me from ever doing stunts like that again. Although I promised him I would not, I
was hooked on flying and wanted to be a fighter pilot like Errol Flynn in the movie The Dawn Patrol.
On Thanksgiving Day 1942, my path to the skies began as I was sworn into the Army Air Force
(AAF), and I went on active duty in late January 1943. By the time I earned my wings, I had 208 hours
of flying time in Stearman PT-17s, Vultee BT-13s, and North American AT-6s. And just like my hero,
Errol Flynn, I became a fighter pilot on February 8, 1944.
An Angel in
My Pocket
