The Pilot

"We cranked up and squared off," recalled Brigadier General William L. ("Jerry") Lee. "I poured the coal on and, about halfway up the sod incline, decided to let the flaps down to get more lift. I got off the ground all right . . . but I couldn't get enough altitude to get over the hill at the end of the strip." Lee was a lieutenant at the time, on duty in the Philippines.

He turned to the passenger beside him and said: "We ain't going to make it." The passenger, a balding lieutenant colonel, "looked at me but didn't say anything. I was already committed, and there wasn't a damned thing I could do but keep on trying. Just before we got to the hill, I hauled back on the wheel and--over the top we skimmed." The passenger, Lieut. Colonel Dwight Eisenhower, estimated the clearance at about two feet.

General Lee's story in the January issue of Boeing Magazine recalls another little-known fact: Ike Eisenhower learned to fly in the Philippines at the age of 46. He is the first President who ever held a pilot's license, and has logged more than 300 hours' flying time. Ike has always been air-minded, and early in his military career, in 1917, he thought seriously of transferring to the Air Corps. Mamie was against the idea, succeeded in grounding Ike with the news that he was going to become a father. But in 1937, when he was stationed in the Philippines as Douglas MacArthur's chief of staff, he had the excuse of official duties to get around Mamie's objections. Part of Ike's assignment was the reorganization of the Philippine air force. Lee and Brigadier General Hugh A. Parker, both lieutenants at the time, taught him to fly--without letting MacArthur in on the secret.

On Jan. 13, 1937, Lee wrote in his diary: "I rode with Lieut. Colonel Eisenhower 50 minutes this morning while he flew a Stearman PT. His flying was fairly good, but not as smooth as it could be." May 15, 1937: "Lieut. Colonel Eisenhower was out and flew for 15 minutes, making three good landings." May 19: "I flew with Lieut. Colonel Eisenhower for 20 minutes and then let him solo. This is the first solo flight he ever made, and he was very happy." During the war, in North Africa and Europe, General Eisenhower occasionally flew a small liaison plane, an L-4 or L5, but as his work piled up, he found little time for flying. He let his civilian pilot's license lapse, and at last, in 1947, Mamie suggested that he leave the piloting to younger men. Somewhat ruefully, Ike agreed. Nowadays he sometimes sits in the copilot's seat of the Columbine, but refuses invitations to take over the controls.

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