JD Lock

Having participated in a number of the Pacific Theater of Operation’s major campaigns, Lieutenant Andrew McGirr would eventually fly 71 combat missions, 68 of them as the bombardier/navigator for the squadron commander’s lead aircraft.

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During that time, Ange would be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for volunteering and participating in a daring, unescorted reconnaissance flight over enemy territory, two Air Medals and the Presidential Unit Citation for his Bomber Group’s support of the Okinawa Campaign.

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Ange’s wartime aircraft was the B-25 Mitchell, a medium bomber considered to be one of – if not – the most versatile aircraft of the war.  Serving in all theaters of the war from the Pacific to Europe with the ability to be reconfigured in the field with heavy machineguns, cannon, rockets and torpedoes, the Mitchell executed a wide range of missions to include high, mid and low-level bombing, close air support (CAS) ground attack and strafing, anti-shipping and even reconnaissance, given stripped down variations of the bomber could fly nearly as fast as the primary Japanese fighter, the Zero.  

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Perhaps the aircraft’s most famous variation was in the first months of the war when it became the only medium bomber to ever fly off the deck of an aircraft carrier when, in April 1942, it executed the Doolittle Raid against capitol of Japan, itself, Tokyo.  

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Later, post war, the B-25 even played a staring role in Joseph Heller’s book, Catch-22, which was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1962 and has become a classic of American literature.  Fittingly enough, the story's primary protagonist was a Mitchell bombardier/navigator.  Later, in 1970, the book was adapted into a movie that, despite an initial mixed reception, has developed a significant cult following that sees it not only as a classic but, also, a significant work of anti-war cinema.  In addition, the movie most likely even prevented the possible extinction of the B-25 Mitchell, given 15 of the 18 flyable aircraft used in the movie still remain.

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As for the bomber crewmen, themselves, while all positions on a bomber and within a unit were important, a case can be made that none was more, or even as, important and stressful as that of the squadron commander’s bombardier/navigator – in this case, LT Ange McGirr.  For, while the squadron commander would make command decisions that all of the other aircraft would follow, it was Ange who would tell the commander where to fly, order the squadron to drop their bombs when he released his and, then, when all others were wiping their brows, thankful the attack mission was complete, it would be on Ange’s shoulders to get them back to home base, flying over 100s of miles of water with no terrain features, at times during the night with no other visual references, and all this with no modern navigation equipment like GPS which we take for granted these days.  And, he did this 68 times; successfully.  

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Well done, Lieutenant; well done.