Milford chronicle., 1941-12-19
Geo. S. Welcll,
First War Hero,
ILautIed dByCoy.
Continues from FIRST rassj

WEIGH with continued good healtl
so that he may continue the fin,
successes with which he has started
in this war.
Parents Proud
Receiving the congratulations O
swarms of neighbors who called a.
the Schwartz home, the pilots par.
ents declared, Were proud Of him
We knew he'd do just what he did
Young Welch, whose brother
Dehn Welch, 21 years old. is a pri-
vate in a meteorological detach.
ment at the Army's McChord Field
in Washington, was given his mo
theirs maiden name as surname
because Of their fathers bitter ex-
perience with a German name dur
ing Americas participation in the
first World War.
The Schwartzes told also how
their son, junior at Purdue Uni
versity, wired them while they were
on trip to Mexico, pleading for
permission to join the Army as a
flying cadet.
I'VE finally broke down and gave
it," the youths father recalled. That
was little more than two years
ago. Since then the young man has
seen little of his home
Expected Him To Do 1t
Il expected him to do just what
he has done,H Welch's father de-
clared ''Who knows? Maybe he
saved a battleship by getting those
fellows. He's natural-born fiier.
Doesn't fear anything. don't sup
pose there's much more to say than
that"
Mrs. Schwartz arrived in Will
mington from a visit to Hawaii on
Sunday, December 1.-THE day of
the attack in which her son helped
to fight off the Japanese attack
there.
She recalled flying with her son
over Pearl Harbor early in Novem-
Der, and remarking to him of her
surprise that the navy's base there
could be seen so clearly from the
air. At that time, she said Lieu
tenant Weleh explained commercial
planes were barred from the area
over the base.
Visited Europe In 1886
"Of course, shall always be
worried about him" the attractive,
dark-haired woman continued, "be-
cause flying is so hazardous, even
under normal conditions and we
all realize that conditions are ever
so much more serious now"
Lieutenant Welch, a member of
the Wilmington Y NJ. G. A, since
he was 10 years old, was in a group
from the Boys Division that toured
Europe in 1886.
Lieutenant Welch has been inter-
ested in airplanes ever since child
hood, his parents often making
plane models for himself and his
friends while he was still of grade-
school age. When he joined the Air
i. Corps, he still had his preferences. |
HE didn't like bombers. his I
father said. ~He said they drove
like trucks. So he got into pur-
suit squadron
The army communique praising
the work of Welch and his fellows /
revealed they were flying Curtiss
single-seater pursuit planes when,
early in the raid, they attacked a
formation of six Japanese planes.
Welch and Second Lieutenant Ken
meth M. Taylor of Hominy, OKLA,
brought down two planes each. The
other Japanese planes escaped.
Two Get Six Planes
"A short time later" the COM
munique added, Lieutenant Welch,
alone, engaged two Japanese planes
and, after maneuvers worthy of a
veteran fighter, shot them both
down. Thus, two young American
officers destroyed six enemy planes
in their first actual fight"
Welch got his commission as a
second lieutenant on October IA,
1910, after training at Randolph |
and Kelly Yields, Texas, then went
to Hamilton Field, California, be-
fore volunteering for Service in I
last February. His mother /
said he had told her, in casual con-
versation during her visit with him,
that he had been recommended for
a first lieutenancy, but that his
commission had not then come I
through.
Born in Wilmington, the young
flyer was educated at Friends
at st. Andrews School, at 1
Middletown, and studied aeronauti- /
cal engineering for three years at !
Purdue University. where he was
a second lieutenant in the ROTC,
When the Air Corps was opened to
officers of this organization, he i'm
mediately Joined as an air cadet.
George s. Welch's Own St0ry OF
His Part In the Pearl HarbOr Raid
Jap air fighters nearly got See
ond Lieutenant George S. Welch of
Wilmington who emerged as one of
the American aces nj the December
Z surprise attack upon Hawaii.
One bullet hit the propeller of
his plane. The second hit his motor.
.and the third was right behind
his seat, a few inches from his
head.
Il was mad because they had
caught us on Sunday morning so
went up and fixed Them" Lieuten-
ant WEIGH smilingly told an In
ternational News Service CORE.
spondent Tuesday of this week at
Honolulu. He described how he
bagged four Jap bombers in the
blitz attack that catapulted the
United States into the World War
while battling 1O-to-one odds
"All hell broke loose" said Lieu
tenant Welch, who was at Hickam
Field when the attack came.
Before knew it, the air was
full Of Japanese planes. went up
and picked out the nearest one and \
went after it. | blazed away Moth