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| -Obits- |
| RIP Kenneth H. Dahlberg, WWII Triple Ace Fighter Pilot |
| 2011-10-06 |
| Kenneth H. Dahlberg (1917- October 4, 2011) was an American businessman and highly decorated World War II fighter ace. He was drafted into the army in 1941 and originally desired to become a cook. He eventually became an aviation cadet in the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), where one of his instructors was future Senator Barry Goldwater. After training, Dahlberg flew the P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang with the USAAF 353rd Fighter Squadron, 354th Fighter Group Ninth Air Force in Europe. As a fighter ace, Dahlberg was credited with 14-1/2 aerial victories. He received numerous awards and decorations, including the Distinguished Service Cross for leading a flight of 16 P-47 Thunderbolts (354th) against an attack of 70 German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters on December 19, 1944. Dahlberg shot down four enemy planes that day. Dahlberg was shot down three times, the last on February 14, 1945 near Bitburg, and became a Prisoner of War for the final three months of the war. Continuing his military service after the war, Dahlberg served with the Minnesota Air National Guard until 1951. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #7 I've been told by a senior fighter pilot who's spent time flying UAVs that it's a totally different experience. Pilots fly in part through kinesthetic experience as the plane moves, and that's totally missing from simulators or UAV screens. Some studies show that excellent pilots integrate sensory inputs into a dynamic 3 dimensional spatial reference system that most of us cannot approximate, much less master. Interestingly, on average women and men tend to use different spatial systems in day to day life. For instance, in western cultures many men prefer an absolute "look down at the map" perspective and many women prefer a relative "from the perspective of the person moving" frame of reference. However, excellent female pilots use the same spatial reference system as that of excellent male pilots. It's linked to a degree of sensory processing and real time integration that's not common in the wider population. |
| Posted by: lotp 2011-10-06 20:22 |
| #6 Johnny Johnson of the RAF, "Screwball" Beurling RAF/RCAF, Don Blakeslee USAAF, many others of note, all had great SA - Situational Awareness. Johnson and Beurling were great shots, Blakeslee not so much . . . . . but they ALL had great SA. |
| Posted by: Canuckistan sniper 2011-10-06 18:35 |
| #5 'moose, you can save a lot of money using simulator for winnowing. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-10-06 16:52 |
| #4 I just don't think a simulator can do it, for the same reason that a person can't be trained to be a superior concert pianist. Many will be adequate, even gifted, but it is those precious few that just leave everyone in amazement. A simulator might "prove" an ace in a 'turkey shoot' environment, but that is not real life. Some of these WWII pilots had close to a sixth sense in locating enemy planes and ships, hitting them at *just* the right direction, and hitting their targets at the worst possible places for damage. It was almost uncanny. John S. Thach, inventor of the "Thatch Weave", invented brand new tactics to give himself a decided advantage over his enemy, but he was never more than a "good" pilot. Somebody like Joe Foss, however, just couldn't seem to fly without some Japanese pilot ending up in his cross hairs. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-10-06 14:54 |
| #3 You can try people out and see if they're a good pilot nowadays... without them getting into a plane |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2011-10-06 13:29 |
| #2 Douglas Bader crashed a Spitfire in training because he forgot to take the prop out of coarse pitch, and got a very stern official "please don't do that again" for his troubles. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2011-10-06 12:58 |
| #1 It has long bugged the heck out of AAC and later USAF that they have never been able to profile who will make a good pilot until they are in the air fighting with the enemy. Pilots like Joe Foss, who almost washed out of flight school because he was such a poor student, Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, and his disciplinary disasters flying circus, and several others were the just as likely as some golden boy to become aces. This applies even today, not just to fixed wing aircraft, but to gunship pilots as well. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-10-06 12:36 |