P-47 THUNDERBOLT/P-51 MUSTANG JERSEY

JERK MAJ. GEN. DONALD STRAIGHT, 356TH FG, 361ST FS

“When our group first arrived at Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, everyone wanted to put a name on their airplane. I thought I would call mine Jersey Bounce. I came from New Jersey, and at that time, it was also the title of a popular song, so I thought it would look nice on my airplane. Trouble was, so did some other pilot in the group who beat me to it. For the first five missions, my plane remained unnamed. When I came back from that last mission, my crew chief, Staff Sgt. “Doc” Watson was signing off the maintenance forms and said to me, ‘Sir, we have a name for your airplane. We want to call it the Jersey Jerk.’ I was absolutely floored, insulted to say the least, especially the crack about my home state! ‘Hell, I’m not a jerk,’ I thought to myself. Watson, seeing me turn three shades of red and sensing my displeasure, said, ‘Well, let me tell you something, sir. Anybody that would get in a single-engine airplane, fly it across the North Sea in winter, then take a chance getting his ass shot off by flak or mixing it up with the Luftwaffe and being on the receiving end of an FW 190 has gotta be a jerk!’ Watson was 100 percent right! I flew my newly christened Jug and later my P-51 Mustang with great pride and confidence, knowing full well I had the best damn ground crew in the ETO.”