Major Tucker was C.O. of the 402nd F.S. in the 370th F.G., flying P-38s in the 9th Air Force in Europe. His letters home were recently unearthed. I will share an excerpt from a most interesting letter of August 6, 1944 to his wife.
"I had expected to spend a quiet evening, have a shower & write to you and the folks. However, at the last minute I had to fly. I'm glad that I did, too, as I havent had so much fun for many a long day. There is a jerry flak gunner over here that is sharp as a tack, and he came so darn close to getting me last night that it pretty near knocked the enamel off my teeth. I thought sure as hell I was hit for a minute, but Margie III didn't have a hole in her anywhere (except the one I bit in my parachute).
We had amazing luck last night. We caught several trucks and cars, and my flight straffed a jerry armored car. When we left, it looked like a 1920 Studebaker that had stood in a junk yard for 15 years, & was on fire. On the way home I spied a couple of trucks on a road. I took my flight down & we clobbered them, and as I pulled off I saw about 25 jerry armored cars hid along a little lane. We ran a regular old Groton gunnery pattern on them for about ten minutes & what a mess we left behind. Boy is it fun shooting them! I was shooting 100% armor-piercing incendiaries, and you can shoot the guns on these P-38s just like a rifle. You just give them a squirt & they light up & seem to get red hot all over. Pieces fly off like they are made of phonograph records & they just slump down and burn. We sure did a job last night & Margie III got her nose all black from powder smoke. . .
The outhouse on the photo? Well you may well ask. It's from an old story about the swain visiting his girl, who was troubled with gastral disturbances. Anyway, when she was in serious difficulty, she played real loud on the piano. Afterwards, she asked if he had heard the storm scene & he said, "No, but I heard the lightning strike the ----house." It's naughty but it's the vote getter for the best insignia. Naturally it has nothing to do with you."
Major Tucker was shot down by flak and killed four days later.
"I had expected to spend a quiet evening, have a shower & write to you and the folks. However, at the last minute I had to fly. I'm glad that I did, too, as I havent had so much fun for many a long day. There is a jerry flak gunner over here that is sharp as a tack, and he came so darn close to getting me last night that it pretty near knocked the enamel off my teeth. I thought sure as hell I was hit for a minute, but Margie III didn't have a hole in her anywhere (except the one I bit in my parachute).
We had amazing luck last night. We caught several trucks and cars, and my flight straffed a jerry armored car. When we left, it looked like a 1920 Studebaker that had stood in a junk yard for 15 years, & was on fire. On the way home I spied a couple of trucks on a road. I took my flight down & we clobbered them, and as I pulled off I saw about 25 jerry armored cars hid along a little lane. We ran a regular old Groton gunnery pattern on them for about ten minutes & what a mess we left behind. Boy is it fun shooting them! I was shooting 100% armor-piercing incendiaries, and you can shoot the guns on these P-38s just like a rifle. You just give them a squirt & they light up & seem to get red hot all over. Pieces fly off like they are made of phonograph records & they just slump down and burn. We sure did a job last night & Margie III got her nose all black from powder smoke. . .
The outhouse on the photo? Well you may well ask. It's from an old story about the swain visiting his girl, who was troubled with gastral disturbances. Anyway, when she was in serious difficulty, she played real loud on the piano. Afterwards, she asked if he had heard the storm scene & he said, "No, but I heard the lightning strike the ----house." It's naughty but it's the vote getter for the best insignia. Naturally it has nothing to do with you."
Major Tucker was shot down by flak and killed four days later.
