As his unit shipped out, Jim planned to bide his time by attending college, waiting for the moment he was old enough to become a flight cadet. Jim was just 19 and a recent high school graduate in the summer of 1940 when he was on maneuvers with the Guard as they were called to active duty. At that time, cadets were required to have two years of college behind them and be at least 21-years-old. With his passion for flight raging on and some time in the cockpit under his belt, Jim focused himself on the ultimate goal: to become a fighter pilot with the Army Air Corps. It was very interesting for someone in his teens to cut his eye teeth like that.” Most of the Guard pilots had been combat pilots in World War I. “I got some stick time with some really wonderful people. A senior in high school at the time, he spent a year with the Guard riding along in 1932-vintage aircraft. “He belonged to the Air National Guard, which was at a small military airfield at Griffith Park in Los Angeles, which was very unusual.” The man recognized Jim’s interest in aviation and suggested that he join. “I met one of my local heroes when I was a youngster,” he recalls. World War II began in 1939, and 16-year-old Kunkle wanted desperately to point himself toward the cockpit and be prepared to stand when called upon. He’d earn his wings no matter what it took. I might then get a 10- or 20-minute flight in an airplane and maybe have the controls for a few minutes.” That energy surged through the young Kunkle’s blood, and his future was solidified. My only pay was at the end of the day when anyone would have enough money for gasoline. I would work around the airport, help wash airplanes and do anything really. “That was the air terminal for Los Angeles in those days. “My mother would take me out to Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale,” remembers Jim. It was the golden age of aviation, and California was at the helm of innovation and enveloped in Hollywood glamour. Jim and his mother moved to Beverly Hills. “She was a pistol,” he says laughing, fondly remembering the woman whose feisty spirit kept the two of them charging forward. It was nothing but a mud hole back then,” he remembers. “She asked me, ‘do you still want to go?’ I said ‘yes.’ She had never driven, but she took a few lessons, bought a Chevy and the two of us drove to California from Pennsylvania on Route 66, which was just being constructed. The family had been on the cusp of a move to California then, and Jim’s mother turned to him with a question that would change his life. “He never really got the chance to fly,” says Jim, “but he inspired an interest in aviation for me that started before I can remember.”Īn only child, Jim was just 9-years-old when his father passed away. Jim and his father shared a love of aviation, with the elder Kunkle having dreamt of becoming a pilot in the war. A veteran of the war, Jim’s father died young in 1932, a result of injuries sustained in a wartime accident. Jim Kunkle developed a love of aviation as a small child in Pennsylvania, flying with his father as they would call on customers in the post-World War I era steel industry. One such GI was a young man with a fire in his belly for flight. Over 11 percent of the United States population donned a uniform and bravely supported the Allied mission in one fashion or another. The fate of the world as we knew it was at stake. While the atmosphere within the ranks was electric, invigorating and ripe with purpose, the weight of the mission was grasped fully. Roughly 16 million served in World War II and over 400,000 didn’t come home. The toll was heavy, the losses were unfathomable and yet the pride felt by those marching into battle was immeasurable. We owe them an immense debt of gratitude for guiding the world toward the bright light of freedom and away from the perilous grasp of Nazism and the Tripartite Pact nations. They call it the ‘Greatest Generation.’ An era of men and women whose grit, sacrifice and love of country shaped the future of America. Decorated World War II Hero Jim Kunkle Reflects on Service, Longevity and a Lifetime of Adventure in the Skies
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