The Great Air Race by John Lancaster

Author:John Lancaster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liveright

22

“The Man of a Hundred Wounds”

Junk, as Gish had christened his DH-4, was living up to its name. He and his mechanic, Sgt. George C. Pomeroy, had gotten only as far as the first control stop at Binghamton before the plane’s bracing wires lost tension, causing its wings to sag. Before they could safely continue, “it was necessary to practically rerig the machine,” Gish recalled. The engine also was giving them trouble. Its water pump and radiator leaked, and the contact points of the distributor, which routed electricity to the spark plugs, required cleaning at nearly every stop. During their layover in Cleveland on the night of Saturday, October 11, through Sunday, October 12, Gish and Pomeroy replaced the radiator, changed the spark plugs, installed an air pressure gauge on the gas tank, and secured gas, oil, and water connections. It wasn’t until Sunday night that the overhaul was complete.

At a few minutes past seven on the morning of Monday, October 13, Gish continued his journey west. The press and the public cheered him on. Though far behind, Gish had emerged as one of the most colorful and prominent pilots in the race, in part because of the cumbersome metal braces he wore on both legs. After he landed in Chicago later that morning, the sight of him hobbling from his plane prompted someone to call for the ambulance on the field (Gish waved it off). On Tuesday morning, the Chicago Tribune would marvel at his courage in attempting the race despite crippling injuries suffered “in a night bombing attack in France a year ago.” That false claim—Gish had crashed on a training flight—was part of an expanding mythology surrounding his wartime service, some of which Gish had encouraged. Other newspapers reported that “the tail of his plane was shot off,” credited him with downing multiple German planes and balloons, and attributed scars on his wrists to machine-gun bullets, calling him “the man of a hundred wounds.”

But there was no denying his grit. After reaching Omaha’s control stop that Monday the 13th at 4:22 p.m.—guided by flares in dense fog—Gish encountered yet another spell of low ceilings and heavy rain that kept him on the ground until the following afternoon. He took off into more fog, which forced him to fly to St. Paul below 200 feet. With sunset near, he attempted to make North Platte, but by then the visibility was so poor that he had to turn back. Along the way, he landed in a field to refill his new radiator, which already had sprung a leak. Bad weather held him at St. Paul for two nights, until Thursday morning, October 16, when he took off for North Platte.

There was more trouble ahead—in Gish’s case, there was always more trouble ahead. A blizzard delayed his departure from North Platte by ninety minutes, and at Salt Lake City the next morning, he lost more time as his leaky radiator and water pump were repaired. Then, hurrying to get off the ground, he turned too quickly into the wind to begin his takeoff run, breaking his right wheel.

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