He thought the Japanese were invading Kansas

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

 

 

In 1944, a U.S. military pilot-in-training named Hazel Ying Lee crash-landed in a wheat field in Kansas. But instead of getting help, she found herself in trouble.

The farmer who owned the field thought she was a Japanese soldier and started chasing her with a pitchfork, yelling to his neighbors that the Japanese were invading Kansas. Soon, Lee was surrounded by the farmer’s angry neighbors. But Hazel stayed calm. She kept telling them over and over that she was an American fighter pilot. Eventually, they believed her and backed off.

[Alpo]

Fighter pilot? Woman fighter pilot in 1944??

 

Ferry pilot - yes. Ferry pilot of fighter aircraft - yes.

 

But fighter pilot???

 

I don't think so.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

42 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Fighter pilot? Woman fighter pilot in 1944??

 

Ferry pilot - yes. Ferry pilot of fighter aircraft - yes.

 

But fighter pilot???

 

I don't think so.

 

[Blackwater 53393]

She was flying a fighter airplane!

 

She may not have been a combat fighter pilot, but she most certainly WAS a “fighter pilot”!!

[Rye Miles #13621]

I’m surprised she wasn’t in an intermittent camp!🙄

[Cypress Sun]

5 minutes ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

I’m surprised she wasn’t in an intermittent camp!🙄

 

She may not have been Japanese.

[Rye Miles #13621]

9 minutes ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

She may not have been Japanese.

I looked her up she was Chinese.

Edited June 8 by Rye Miles #13621

[Eliphalet R. Moderator]

She led an interesting life and died in a mid-air collision while flying a P-63 King Cobra.

She and her brother, who was killed in combat, were laid to rest side by side.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazel_Ying_Lee

[Alpo]

1 hour ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

She was flying a fighter airplane!

 

She may not have been a combat fighter pilot, but she most certainly WAS a “fighter pilot”!!

If I was a personal friend of Paul Newman - aside from making movies he also raced automobiles - and he let me take his personal race car out and drive it around the track a couple of times --- just because I drove a race car would not make me a race car driver.

 

As to the girl - both her name and her features say Chinese.

[Tell Sackett SASS 18436]

40 minutes ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

I looked her up she was Chinese.

Do you think FDR would know the difference??

Or care?

[Alpo]

7 minutes ago, Tell Sackett SASS 18436 said:

Do you think FDR would know the difference??

Or care?

Since at the time we were ALLIES with the Chinese and AT WAR with the Japanese - yeah I think he would probably know the difference and he would certainly care.

[Tell Sackett SASS 18436]

Just now, Alpo said:

Since at the time we were ALLIES with the Chinese and AT WAR with the Japanese - yeah I think he would probably know the difference and he would certainly care.

Good point!

But I still hate what he did to the Japanese Americans!!

[Rye Miles #13621]

10 minutes ago, Tell Sackett SASS 18436 said:

Do you think FDR would know the difference??

Or care?

Of course he would, he wasn’t the one going around picking them up anyway. 

[Cypress Sun]

52 minutes ago, Eliphalet R. Moderator said:

She led an interesting life and died in a mid-air collision while flying a P-63 King Cobra.

She and her brother, who was killed in combat, were laid to rest side by side.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazel_Ying_Lee

 

Thanks for the link!

 

More importantly,

 

Thank You Ms. Lee for your invaluable service to our Country.

 

[Springfield Slim SASS #24733]

So if you get sent to an intermittent camp, you're in, then out, then in.......?

[Blackwater 53393]

2 hours ago, Alpo said:

If I was a personal friend of Paul Newman - aside from making movies he also raced automobiles - and he let me take his personal race car out and drive it around the track a couple of times --- just because I drove a race car would not make me a race car driver.

 

If you were allowed to drive Paul Newman’s race car, you were, most likely, a racecar driver.  He was probably more serious about his racing than he was about his acting!  It was something he didn’t fool around about!!

 

As far as the lady in question, she was trained to and qualified to fly fighter aircraft!  ‘Nuff said…

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

6 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

 

Hiya, Al.

 

I love one of his quotes.  This isn't exact but he essentially said "I never memorize anything I can look up."

 

I've pretty much followed his model for most of my life.  Of course there are some things you had better memorize, like family birthdays, your wedding anniversary, your home address, where your guns and ammo are, things like than.  Do in self defense.  ;D

[Rye Miles #13621]

A friend of mine’s wife, actually she’s a friend too, is Japanese born in California. Her parents and paternal grandparents were all put in intermittent camps. She of course was nor born yet. She says they weren’t treated badly and when the war was over they of course were let out but being accepted by neighbors and friends was another thing. They were discriminated against for awhile. 

[watab kid]

i have told my stories before but my father fought in the pacific , B29  left gunner , but when he camer home we embraced a family friends war bride - she became a fau aunt to me , but on the other side of my family , my mothers parents forbade me from learning german - they thought it would be detrimental in my life , in fact it would have been very beneficial , 

 

later in life i met my wife , she had been raised in japan [born in pearl harbor] during VN , later our parent met and became very close friends , after our parents passing and her mothers going to he nursing home [she is 93] we now have a room in our home that is all japanese , my father would have approved , he left the wa zone with no hatred , her father would approve he spent the end of his naval career  collecting what we have , 

 

while i fully understand , the times and communications being understood , i think our treatment of our japanese americans was deplorable , im not saying it should have been different given the times and perspective but in hind sight , i would do it differently , but isnt all of life that way , if we could have the foresight of a few dea=cades we might handle things differently , 

 

BUT - im not for this current trend of boys playing girls in girls sports - i suspect we will reflect back in the fiture and wonder why ....WHY is this happening , had this come up in the days of my father there would have been a really sad end and it would not have made the news , this is just crazyt 

Edited June 9 by watab kid

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

14 hours ago, Alpo said:

If I was a personal friend of Paul Newman - aside from making movies he also raced automobiles - and he let me take his personal race car out and drive it around the track a couple of times --- just because I drove a race car would not make me a race car driver.

 

As to the girl - both her name and her features say Chinese.

 

Well... you certainly were a race car driver at the time you were driving the race car.  

 

Simple grammar!  

 

[Widder, SASS #59054]

I just got home from a big Cowboy Shoot.

I didn't shoot any Cowboys (or Cowgirls)..... but I had a BIG time!

 

..........Widder

 

[watab kid]

17 hours ago, Widder, SASS #59054 said:

I just got home from a big Cowboy Shoot.

I didn't shoot any Cowboys (or Cowgirls)..... but I had a BIG time!

 

..........Widder

 

thats what its all about .......................

[Utah Bob #35998]

On 6/8/2025 at 9:03 AM, Tell Sackett SASS 18436 said:

Good point!

But I still hate what he did to the Japanese Americans!!

Of course we all do. Roosevelt didn’t want to do it.But he was brow beaten into it by Stinson and he gave in. Never should have,

[Utah Bob #35998]

I saw George Gobel on the Tonight Show decades ago. He was an instructor pilot for the Air Force in Oklahoma during the war.😂

found a clip.

 

[Rip Snorter]

Unforgivable, in retrospect, yes.  We had been attacked, and among the innocents, agents of the Empire of Japan with no filter available.  Easy to condemn with a current lens viewing the past.

[watab kid]

"..........As to the girl - both her name and her features say Chinese.........." i missed that , both , but you ae correct in at least my re-read of the thread , sometimes it happens , im gettin old , 

 

at that time we were sending flyers over to defend them they were allies , funny how things change , friends with the japanese these days and enemies with the chinese , weird how thingsturn over , ...........................why cant we all get along ????

[Utah Bob #35998]

On 6/8/2025 at 7:56 AM, Rye Miles #13621 said:

I’m surprised she wasn’t in an intermittent camp!🙄

You mean like only on Tuesdays? 😂