Lt. William Bullard
P-51B-7-NA "El Malo Hombre" (C3*X)
S/N 43-6830
363rd FG, 382nd FS
England, 1944
This is the P-51B-7-NA Mustang (S/N 43-6830) coded C3*X and named "El Malo Hombre" flown by Lt. William Bullard of the 382nd Fighter Squadron, 363rd Fighter Group out of England in 1944.
Born in Burkburnett, Texas on Oct. 2, 1919, Bill joined the Marine Corps in 1938 and was assigned to Pearl Harbor. Following his discharge, he went to work in the oil fields to save money for college. Although he had no further military obligation following his Marine service and could not be drafted, he signed up after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to be a fighter pilot.
He deployed to England in December of 1943 (note: his obituary says 1944 but this is likely a typo). The P-51 Mustang was just becoming operational when he arrived, and as there was no time to check out on it his first flight was in combat. He flew 50 missions in “El Malo Hombre” and was about to leave on R&R when he accepted a 51st mission--while wearing his dress uniform--against impossible odds during a surprise Luftwaffe raid on 18 July 1944. He was shot up near Normandy (Falaise, France), but managed to crash land his badly damaged plane in a grain field at Clinchamps-sur-Orne only 1,000 yards inside enemy territory. Wounded, he was captured by the Germans and sent to Prisoner-of-War camp Stalagluft I where he spent nine months as a POW. He eventually escaped his captors and made his way back to friendly forces just as the war was ending.
Bill remained in the Air Force after the war and became an all-weather jet interceptor pilot and instructor, with assignments from Texas to the Azores and Taiwan. He retired as a Lieutenat Colonel having been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Purple Heart among other recognitions of his military service.
Bill met his wife Birdie on a blind date the day that Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. They married two weeks after his July 1945 return from the war and had two children (Linda, Gene).
Bill returned to France in 1994 for the 50th anniversary of the date he had been shot down and captured by the Germans. The town where his plane crashed gave him a magnificent hero’s welcome and he was made an honorary French citizen. He also visited the site in Germany where he had been kept in the “cooler” before being shipped out to the POW camp, and had a very moving meeting with the German wingman of the adversary who took him down (and saw him hit). In 2010, notwithstanding being in hospice following a massive heart attack, he returned to England for the 66th anniversary of D-Day to unveil a memorial to his fighter group at Staplehurst Advanced Landing Ground in Kent County, again being honored.
He owned a small ranch named “Yumadoll Ranch” in the Texas Hill Country near Kerrville where he raised pecans. He passed away on 14 September 2015.
Note: For those who like the unusual... The cowling chin scoop is olive drab but that's not easy to see in the shots.
(My squaddie Hombre59 will get a real kick out of this one. LOL)
