by Stout, Jay
Indeed, another investigation was performed by the DPAA just as this manuscript neared completion. Sadly, as with those completed during the previous decades, nothing noteworthy was discovered during this particular search. “As of this most recent investigative mission in February 2016, DPAA has not discovered any definitive details regarding the circumstances of [the] death of Col[onel] Righetti. DPAA is in contact with local researchers, however, who can often be instrumental in such cases, and will continue to follow up on all possible leads in the case.”26
The disturbing certainty is that there remain more than 73,000 American MIA cases from World War II and that there is little chance that even a tiny percentage of them will ever be resolved. Admittedly, the majority of them were lost at sea and are not recoverable. And, notwithstanding the evident incompetence and lassitude of the various government agencies that have been charged with finding and bringing home the nation’s dead, landscapes have literally changed, as have governments and their willingness to assist in recovery efforts. Perhaps most important is the sad and inescapable reality that most of those persons who could have provided worthwhile information are now dead.
Despite the fact that the details surrounding the ultimate fates of the nation’s World War II MIA servicemen and women remain unknown, it is good that they are honored and remembered. Cynics might make a logical case that there is little value in recovering bone shards, teeth and rotting relics at great expense, only to return them to families who have little memory, or even knowledge, of those to whom they once belonged. But such thinking fails to consider the spiritual obligation to these men who were once vital and beloved sons and brothers and fathers. They went into the fight believing that if they perished, their nation would bring them home or, failing that, preserve their legacy.
This book, hopefully, is a small part of that preservation.
EPILOGUE
The car started down the drive. Elwyn Righetti’s sister Elizabeth, past her ninetieth birthday, turned and walked back toward the house. She didn’t watch the car leave, nor did she wave good-bye to her visitors. “I waved Elwyn down the drive in 1944. He didn’t come back. I’ve never since waved anyone down the drive.”
The house and barn and silo and much of the ranch as it was during Elwyn Righetti’s childhood are still extant. The family has grown and many descendants remain in the area. Consistent with the changing character of the area, the one-room schoolhouse—the Independence Grammar School—where Elwyn and his siblings matriculated, is now a wine-tasting room.
Mom and Pop stayed on the farm. Understandably, they were never able to reconcile themselves to the loss of their son. When the Veterans Administration wanted to name a new center in San Luis Obispo after Elwyn, Mom would not allow it. In the event he ever returned, she did not want him to think that the family had given up hope. She passed away in 1959. Pop followed her in 1963.
Sister Elizabeth had married in 1936 and except for two years in the Sacramento Valley, spent the rest of her life in the San Luis Obispo area where she and her husband raised four children. She loved to garden and entertain, and developed a real talent for artwork—especially watercolors—and was a charter member of the San Luis Obispo Art Association. She was well-respected as an administrator for several superior court judges and finished her public service as the county jury commissioner. She passed away in 2009 at age 95.
Family stalwart Ernie Righetti stayed on the ranch until passing away in 2014 at age 97. He left a wife and four sons. Perhaps the steadiest and hardest-working man the family ever produced, he continued to grow the ranching operation and in 1967 was the first to introduce avocado farming to the area. He remained active with 4-H and with the Future Farmers of America and served in many community organizations. Like his brother, he was a man of action and operated a bulldozer for the State of California as a contract firefighter, once having to shelter under his machine as fire overtook his position. His love of hunting continued, and he traveled internationally to take mountain sheep from several different continents.
Like Elizabeth and Ernie, both Lorraine and Doris stayed close to San Luis Obispo following the war. Doris married a local businessman and ran the bookkeeping side of their plumbing business. They lived for many years in a house they built on their portion of the original ranch, and raised two sons and a daughter. She remarried after her first husband passed. She died, at age 93, just as this epilogue was being written. Like Doris, Lorraine also raised a family and still lives near where she and her siblings grew up.
Brother Maurice finished the war with the 40th Bomb Group as a B-29 copilot on Saipan, and separated from the USAAF in 1946. Impetuous and fun-loving, he was a favorite with subsequent generations of Righettis. He owned an AT-6 Texan after the war and, as a certified flight instructor, kept aviation in the family through plane rides and instruction. Among several jobs, he worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Rapid Transit District in Los Angeles. He died in 2002, leaving two daughters.
Cathryn—“Katydid”—had two children with Robert Mailheau, but the marriage did not survive. During the late 1950s she brought Kyle and Kyle’s new brother and sister to San Luis Obispo, close to Elwyn’s family. She eventually married a rancher and lived happily before passing away too young in 1979.
All the family was hurt by the loss of Elwyn, but perhaps the most unique hurt was endured by his daughter, Kyle.
My father vanished from my life before I was three years old, too young to remember much about him; a memory here or there or a story told me often enough that it seemed like a memory. There is, however, one incident that I consider a true recollection. We were probably living on base at Randolph Field in San Antonio, Texas. It was daylight and I was seated between big feet, big legs, and riding low to the ground and holding onto those legs around the calf. No faces, only the sound of the scooter being driven on the street. I don’t know where I was going, but I know I was with my father. This is a preverbal memory … and it is what I have.
The “missing in action” years as I was growing up seemed to pass in interminable days, weeks and months. Scattered here and there throughout the years were hopes and new stories. My mother, aunts and uncles and grandparents were waiting for word, as well. There were fading expectations that he would return although those were only the change from “when” to “if” and never really spoken about. And since we do not know what happened even now, we who remain continue to wait and wonder.
His legacy to us has been kept alive with loving recollections and respect for his contributions to all of us. Having a hero in the family is an honor … but I missed having a dad.
AUTHOR’S COMMENTS
This is obviously a story about Elwyn G. Righetti who spent his combat career with the 55th Fighter Group. Accordingly the focus of the effort is on him rather than the 55th as a whole. Although there was a great temptation to write more about the 55th and its men, I felt that doing so would have taken the emphasis too far from Righetti. Accordingly, I covered the group’s history and the men who made it only enough to allow me to put Righetti’s service into context.
As this work is intended to be a popular history rather than a particularly academic or scholarly treatise, I sometimes edited official documents or personal quotes for clarity and readability. I believe these edits improve the reading experience and do nothing to diminish the meaning or intent of the original material or the interviewee.
I considered “novelizing” this story but ultimately took great pains not to do so. There is already too much confusion about Righetti, and cluttering it further with make-believe elements would do him and his family a disservice. Accordingly, there is no dialogue outside of what I found in Righetti’s letters or other reliable sources. The actions described are largely based on eyewitness accounts, interviews, mission summary reports, encounter reports and, of course, the letters written by Righetti and his family. Consequently, the book has a real or even raw, character, as I let his words and ideas st
and and did not make the man something that he was not. Righetti, as described in these pages, is a person based on evidence.
Much of the material that was used to set context for the story is footnoted. However, I did not footnote the letters between Righetti and his family. Doing so would have added no value for the typical reader, especially as the letters are not in the public domain and, if footnoted, would list nothing beyond the correspondents and the dates.
To be sure, Righetti’s legacy is to a minor degree disadvantaged by the fact that I had no alternative but to recreate him using the sources I noted above. In comparison, the most compelling combat accounts to come from World War II are autobiographies. Most of those were written long after the fighting and from vantage points seasoned by the maturity and grace that is developed after living the greater part of a lifetime. Righetti obviously never had that opportunity.
Righetti’s words are often sensitive, but sometimes seem coarse or unfeeling. Again, this might be due to the fact that I never met him. However, his words and attitude are not atypical for a man in his late twenties at war with a grim, brutal and deadly enemy. So far as he knew, his letters were private and would always remain so. He definitely did not write them for public consumption by an audience of thousands more than seven decades after the events described.
One problem with relying so heavily on his letters is that I was not part of the close-knit tribe that was his family. Where there was nuance, it is possible that I did not detect it. Where there was sarcasm or a shared family perspective it might not have been apparent to me. Where it was obvious to the family that his words had meanings other than what was written, it was not necessarily so to me. And although his brash, devil-may-care writing style was popular during the 1940s, it can sometimes seem cartoonish to the modern ear. I ran a risk then, in misinterpreting the man.
Further complicating my task was the fact that only a couple of the many letters that Righetti and his wife Cathryn exchanged are known to exist. These lost letters, no doubt, would have exposed his more tender and temperate side. Certainly they would have been more private. But Cathryn married two more times following Righetti’s death and, compelled by a need to protect the intimacy they once shared, or perhaps by the sensitivities of her subsequent husbands, she might have destroyed them. Regardless, they are apparently lost.
Nevertheless, I feel that my experience as a fighter pilot who went to war at the same age—admittedly to a very different and certainly less dangerous fight—helped me develop an empathy and understanding for his occasional bravado and bellicosity. Moreover, I had the benefit of history at my fingertips; the air war in which Righetti fought is now well understood whereas it wasn’t even finished at the time he presumably perished. And finally, a few of his friends and family members remained to help me in my interpretation of the man.
I hope I have done him justice. As one of the war’s most aggressive, charismatic and effective fighter group commanders, his legacy deserves it.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Firstly, heartfelt thanks go to the extended Righetti family for giving me the opportunity to tell this story. Elwyn’s daughter Kyle was especially helpful, albeit understandably nervous about how the project might turn out; I hope this work meets her expectations. David Middlecamp, sister Betty’s grandson, is a professional photographer and journalist who has also written about his great uncle’s combat career. He is perhaps more familiar with Elwyn’s service than most of the family, and pointed me to articles, documents and photographs that I would otherwise not have found. David’s father Bob, Elwyn’s nephew, liaised with other members of the family to help me winkle out details that were important to the overall story. Sister Doris was gracious enough to interview with me, and sister Lorraine also shared information.
I have already identified Tony Meldahl as the individual who made me aware of this story. This book would not have happened had he not done so. Kenneth Renkert, cousin to the Righettis, was very interested in Elwyn’s life and career and collected a good deal of information that he shared with Tony Meldahl who subsequently passed it to me. John Gray’s book The 55th Fighter Group vs the Luftwaffe, helped me put the 55th Fighter Group’s activities in context, and I enjoyed corresponding with him as I did so.
Likewise, Robert Littlefield’s book, Double Nickel-Double Trouble, provided details about many of the 55th’s men that were not available elsewhere. And Frank Olynyk, inarguably the world’s foremost expert on American aces and victory credits, was very generous with his time and knowledge. My friend Dr. James Perry has always been my “go-to” man when I feel that the first draft of a book is ready to be seen by someone. As usual, his comments were on the mark, and very helpful. Lieutenant General (Ret) Michael Linnington, the head of the DPAA, was very helpful in getting public release authority for information that Dr. Nicole Eilers prepared for me. Thanks to both of them.
Steve Smith, the acquisitions editor at Casemate, recognized the value of this story and was quick to bring it on board. When other opportunities took him elsewhere he ensured that the project was left in capable hands. Those capable hands belonged to Clare Litt, Tara Lichterman, Ruth Sheppard and Hannah McAdams, among others. It was their final polish that made this book as good as it is.
The preservation of the 55th’s records, maintained by the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, was apparently performed by eight-year-olds. Badly reproduced and terribly organized long ago, the condition of the group’s official documents is consistent with the official records of most of the USAAF organizations I have researched. It is something about which the government should be greatly ashamed.
Finally, I have a German Shepherd dog. Her name is Frankie and she is big and beautiful and loyal and has a huge personality. She had nothing to do with this book, but she adores me and makes me happy. My no-good wife and daughters are rolling their eyes as they read this.
NOTES
Introduction: “I’ll See You When I Get Back”
1. John M. Gray, The 55th Fighter Group vs The Luftwaffe (North Branch: Specialty Press Publishers and Wholesalers, 1998), 120. All references to, and quotes by, Downes are from this source.
2. Compilation of various correspondence between Anthony C. Meldahl and Paul Reeves, 1993. Unless otherwise noted, all subsequent quotes by Reeves are derived from this collection.
3. Telephone interview, Jay A. Stout with Frank Birtciel, February 8, 2015.
4. Compilation of various correspondence between Anthony C. Meldahl and Carroll Henry, 1996. Unless otherwise noted, all subsequent quotes by Henry are derived from this collection.
“I Now Have Cancer”
1. Gray, The 55th Fighter Group vs The Luftwaffe, 133.
“He Loved Flying More than Anything”
1. Interview, David Middlecamp with Elizabeth Righetti Middlecamp, April 20, 2004. All other quotes by Elizabeth Middlecamp are derived from this interview.
2. Interview, Jay A. Stout with Doris Righetti Dixon Ahrens, April 11, 2015. All other quotes from Ahrens are derived from this interview.
3. Patrick S. Pemberton. “A Fertile Heritage,” San Luis Obispo Tribune (June 8, 2008), A1.
4. “Young Rider Injured,” The Morning Tribune (October 25, 1897), n.p.
5. “Fall of Tree Takes Life of S.L.O. Pioneer,” San Luis Obispo Daily Telegram (September 7, 1929), 1.
6. Letter, Ernie Righetti to Anthony C. Meldahl, June 5, 1995.
7. “Deaths, Fights Mark Lumber Salvaging,” San Luis Obispo Daily Telegram (September 13, 1938), 1.
8. Letter, Ken Renkert to Anthony C. Meldahl, November 23, 2011.
“My Flying Has Been Pretty Good Lately”
1. Patrick S. Pemberton, “A Fertile Heritage,” San Luis Obispo Tribune (June 8, 2008), A1.
2. Advertisement, “Ryan School of Aeronautics,” Popular Aviation (April 1936), 235.
3. Henry Arnold, Global Mission (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1949), 181.
4. Ibid.
5. Bruce Ashcroft, We Wanted Wings: A History of the Aviation Cadet Program (Maxwell AFB: Air Education and Training Command, 2005), 30.
6. Arnold, Global Mission, 190.
7. Ibid., 192.
“I’d Rather Fly than Eat”
1. Linton Weeks, “The 1940 Census: 72-Year-Old Secrets Revealed.” NPR (April 12, 2012). Accessed March 31, 2016. http://www.npr.org/2012/04/02/149575704/the-1940-census-72-year-old-secrets-revealed.
2. Navy Cyberspace, “Military Pay Chart 1922–1942.” 1922–1942 U.S. Commissioned Officer Pay Chart. 2016. Accessed March 31, 2016. https://www.navycs.com/charts/1922-officer-pay-chart.html.
3. Office of Statistical Control, Army Air Forces Statistical Digest, World War II (Washington: Headquarters USAAF, 1945), 308.
4. Ibid., 16.
5. Arnold, Global Mission, 206.
6. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Address at University of Virginia (June 10, 1940). Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=15965.
7. “Wings Awaiting 200 U.S. Flyers,” Sweetwater Reporter (July 25, 1940), 1.
“I’m Really Enjoying This All”
1. Arnold, Global Mission, 200.
2. Wesley Craven and James Cate, The Army Air Forces in World War II, Volume VI, Men and Planes (Washington: Office of Air Force History, 1955), 429.
