Gabby Gabreski
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Francis Stanley "Gabby" Gabreski (Franciszek Gabryszewski) (born 28 January 1919 in Oil City, Pennsylvania - died January 31 2002) was a Polish-American fighter ace in World War II.
He was present at the attack on Pearl Harbor, where his squadron made it into the air too late to engage the Japanese attackers.
Gabreski, worried about the Nazi invasion of Poland, volunteered for a transfer to one of the Polish squadrons in Great Britain. The War Department approved his transfer, primarily because he spoke Polish. In October 1942, Gabreski reported to 8th Air Force Headquarters in England.
He joined the 315th Polish "Deblinski" Fighter Squadron at Northolt, England, and began flying the new Spitfire Mark IX's. He and his fellow pilots flew patrol sweeps over the Channel. He first encountered the Germans on February 3, when a group of FW-190s jumped his squadron. Too excited to make a "kill," Gabreski learned that he had to keep calm during a mission, a lesson that served him well later in the war.
He is better known for his time with the famous 56th Fighter Group, flying the P-47 Thunderbolt. He made his 28th kill on July 5, 1944, passing Eddie Rickenbacher's record from World War I to become America's top ace (although several pilots passed him by the end of the war.) Not long afterward, his plane crashed during a strafing run in Europe, and he spent the rest of the war as a POW.
He had claimed 28 aircraft destroyed in the air and 3 on the ground in 153 operations.
He flew again during the Korean War, piloting an F-86 Sabre. He was credited with 6.5 kills, making him one of the few pilots to be aces in more than one war.
He ended his career as a commander of several tactical and air defense wings, his last assignment being commander of the 52nd Fighter Wing at Suffolk County Air Force Base in Westhampton Beach, New York. At the time he retired, in November 1967, he had flown more combat missions than any other American fighter pilot. He received another honor in 1992 when Suffolk County Airport (formerly Suffolk County AFB) was renamed Francis S. Gabreski Airport.
Gabreski died of an apparent heart attack in Huntington Hospital, Long Island, New York on January 31, 2002. He is buried in Calverton National Cemetery.
External links
- [Col. Francis S. Gabreski - U.S. Air Force History site]
- [Col. Francis S. Gabreski - U.S. Air Force Museum site]
- [Col. Francis S. Gabreski - 18th Fighter Wing site]
- [Col. Francis "Gabby" Gabreski - WWII Aces site]
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