P51D-5-NA Serial Number 4-11252 31st FG, 307th FS. Flown by Lt. William H. "Bill" Bunn. Bill flew out of San Severo from Jun of '44 until early '45. He was credited with one kill, a JU-88. He very nearly got a kill on a 262 but while pursuing at very high speed on the deck his rudder hinge broke rolling him inverted. He "forgot about the 262" and recovered the aircraft and returned to base. On Dec. 26, 1944 in this aircraft, Janey III, he was one of 4 31st Mustangs that escorted a US Mosquito recon airplane on a mission. While outbound they received AAA fire from an island along the Adriatic, upon their return to base they went down to strafe the sight and 3 of the four were lost. Bill didn't realize he had been hit until his engine quit at about 1500' over the Adriatic. He was able to make a quick radio call to the flight lead and bailed out landing in the water. He was picked up by a PBY of either the 1st or 7th Air Rescue Squadron.
After the war Bill remained in the reserves and was called up for Korea where he flew L-19 and L-17 aircraft for the 3rd Armored Division. From his stories it sounds like Korea was a much more dangerous time with him flying missions such as low level ammo/ration drops under fire to troops in contact -- you know, fly by at 20 feet and throw them out the door!!
I met Bill and his daughter in 2007 at the Gathering of Mustangs and Legends. At the time I was a member of Warbirds virtual 307th FS, 31st FG and several of us squad members were in the hotel bar when Bill walked over and asked "You guys know anything about P-51s?". When we found out he was a 307th pilot during the war is money was no longer any good. Bill and Sherry and my wife and I became close friends and stayed in contact afterwards. Bill passed away early the next year at the age of 85.
I would like this skin in game to honor those pilots like Bill. The guys we didn't read about in the headlines, the "also rans". I would greatly appreciate the skin being in game and I know that his family would be honored as well. Bill Jr. flew F4 Phantoms for the Air Force, Sherry was a flight attendant for Delta for many years.
Janey III was the third of 5 aircraft he named Janey. The first two were P51Bs, the last three were all Ds. Janey III is the airplane he was shot down in on Dec 26, 1944. The nose art was simply "Janey III", according to Bill it was done with the same red paint used to put the stripes on the 31st airplanes. The black 2 on the nose was in black paint. The only detail Bill didn't remember was his aircrafts side code, the Squadron code would be MX. (Perhaps if done using the letter B in his honor would be okay?)
Thank you in advance, I know doing skins is time consuming.
<S>
