Jack

P-38J Lightning

The reason I'm posting(reposting) this is to find people who knew my grandfather. Anyone who served with him, might recall working with him, or more than likely, people who's parents/grandparents possibly would have known him. I found an awesome site dedicated to the 9th PRS (http://www.9thprs.org/), but it doesn't seem to have been updated since 2011. And I can only find one photo of him on the site, listed simply by his last name. (I know it's him, those ears are unmistakable.) An email to the webmaster was returned as an unknown email address. So I reach out to you, Imgur.

My grandfather (Back row, far right) was a chief mechanic for the USAAF during WWII. He served in the China Burma India Theater (CBI), stationed in India as part of the 9th Photo Recon. He worked on P-38J Lightnings. The planes he worked on were used for recon.

The story I was told growing up goes something like this...

Before making it to India, he was sent all over the States for training. From the East coast, to the West, back East, then back West again. He was trained in all the latest and greatest techniques to make these beauties purr.

Before his arrival things were not looking great for our boys in the Pacific. We were losing planes and pilots to the Japanese Zeros. Pilots were complaining of being unable to outrun the Zeros.

When my grandfather finally arrived, he set out to work. Utilizing everything he had learned, he pushed the twin-Allison engines to their limits. The pilots noticed an improvement immediately, and personally thanked him upon their safe return to base. They eventually extended an invitation to the officers lounge (reserved for pilots and officers) to him.

Sorry about the quality, it's a picture of a picture, and my sister took it...

P-38 Poster

Twin-Tailed Devils.

Boat Ride Home

This is a picture of Jack W. Rothman on the boat home after VJ Day. From what I've been told, he was quite seasick. And it's a long ride... Not much to do on a boat in the middle of the Pacific during the '40s, so a lot of the guys played cards. A good friend of my grandfathers borrowed $5 bucks from him for a poker game. When he was done, he was repaid the $5, plus $45 for helping him out. I can't even imagine how much the guy won...

Again, sorry about the quality, it's a picture of a picture, and my sister took it...

Insignia

This was the unofficial insignia of the 9th Photo Recon, you can see it on my grandpa's jacket in the photo above.

Yes, it's a cat, riding a lightning bolt, dodging flak, and taking pictures.
It was destined for Imgur.

Supposedly, someone had sent a request to Walt Disney to design an insignia for the 9th, and he did. It was a dragon breathing fire with a camera. But it was too complicated for the boys to reproduce for use on the planes and patches. So they used this instead.
(Source: http://www.9thprs.org/html/UnitEmblem.html )

Unfortunately for me, my grandmother actually sold the patch a few years ago to some guy for $50 bucks... I was very sad upon hearing this news.

Carson Long

This is his class ring from the Carson Long Military Academy, class of '41.

Upon his death in 2002, my grandmother handed this down to me.

Sorry about quality, I took this one with my potato.

Dog Tag

Picture says it all here.

Thank you for letting me share the short story of my grandfather's war years.

My grandfather passed in April, 2002 after a long fight with cancer. I loved him very much. I wear his dogtag around my neck everyday.

I received several of his photo albums from his war years. They're all stored safely at my sister's house in Chicago, I reside in humid Florida, and didn't want to risk them being ruined. I hope to post more pictures of his journeys in Burma one day.