Yogi's 50th Anniversary Observed

The year 2022 will mark the 50th anniversary of New York Yankees great Yogi Berra's induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., an event that was attended by Greg Fieg in 1972. 

Greg, covering the event as editor of the Freeman's Journal, was privileged to meet the man who was his favorite player as a boy, Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra, who began his major league career 75 years ago this year. Greg also met Sandy Koufax who was inducted on the same day, and spent time in the Yankees dressing room where he was asked to hold manager Ralph "the Major" Houk's "soda pop" (NOT!) while Houk signed autographs.

It was a touching scene when Yogi broke down and cried because his close friend, Dodgers stand-out Gil Hodges, had recently passed away and missed the happy occasion. 

Also inducted on that day into the Broadcasters' Wing was Joe Garagiola who grew up with Yogi in St. Louis.

Yogi, who won eighteen World Series rings as a player, coach, and manager, died in 2015 at the age of 90, at that time the greatest living Yankee.

His MLB batting average was .285, with 358 home runs and 1,430 runs batted in.

Beyond his stats he is best remembered for quotations known as Yogi-isms:

"Nobody goes there any more; it's too crowded."

"It ain't over till it's over."

"It's deja vu all over again."

You can observe a lot by watching."

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

(On Yogi Berra Day in St. Louis) "Thank you for making this day necessary."

"Always go to other people's funerals; otherwise they won't go to yours."

"A nickel ain't worth a dime any more."

"If you can't imitate him, don't copy him."

"Ninety percent of the game is half mental."

"I really didn't say everything I said."

"The Mick bats left, the Mick bats right; he's amphibious."

Cousins Greg Fieg, left, and John Roman meet New York Yankees great Yogi Berra, center, in Cooperstown, N.Y. in 2007.

 

 

Veterans Day 2021 Commemoration

On Veterans Day 2021, we honor of all the veterans in the Fieg family and say thank you for your devotion to protecting our country.

Cousin Doug Fieg put together this story about a mission flown by his dad, Lothar "Bud" Fieg, during World War II.  Four brave men set out on Feb. 8, 1944, but sadly only two made it back. How grateful we are that Uncle Bud was one of the two who returned from this harrowing mission! BTW, the names of his planes were in honor of Catherine Shafer, who was to become his bride after the war!

Here are the details from Doug:

I recently recovered the Army Air Force's file on the final mission of Lt. James Meagher and Lt. Harold C. Nussman on February 8, 1944.  These pilots, along with Lt. Lothar Fieg (age 24) and Lt. Raymond Phillips comprised the four pilots who flew a World War II mission to escort a disabled bomber.  Only Lt. Fieg and Lt. Phillips made it back to the home base alive.

Notes from the declassified document:

     On 8 February 1944, the 352nd Fighter Groupreturned from an escort mission at 1315hours.  After all the aircraft had been checked in and reports were received from forward fields, two (2) aircraft were found to be missing from the 328thFighter Squadron.

     LT. J. MEAGHER, TURNDOWN 55, Ship No. 5556LT. H. C. NUSSMAN, TURNDOWN 53, Ship No. 3419Ops "B" at Walcott was contacted and asked if they had any information on them.  They had not, but would let u sknow if anything was heard.  A check on our VHF log shows that the 328th Red Flight lead by Lt. Nussman, were jumped by five enemy A/C while they were escorting a lone Fortress.  Lt. Fieg who was flying with them stated that Lt. Meagher was shot down by enemy aircraft.  Nothing has been heard or seen of the other aircraft at 1800 hours, so it is assumed they were lost due to enemy action.

 

 Doug's annotated version of his father's report (above):

 8 February 1944 [This was just a 119 days, or about four months, before D Day. The German Air Force was still strong.]
SUBJECT: Pilot’s Statement on Missing Air Crew Report
TO: Commanding Officer, 352nd Fighter Group, Station F-141, APO 637, United States Army.
1. This statement pertains to Lt James Meagher.
2. I was flying Turndown red #4, escorting an abortive bomber. [As Dad’s flight flew over Mons, Belgium, they heard a radioed plea for help from a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber that had been forced to drop out of its formation because of damage and was being attacked by a German fighter. Red Flight winged toward the bomber. The B-17 had more range of flight than the fighters. The fighters would depart or abort and head back home (England) when they had half their fuel left.] An F.W. 190 [The Fokker Wolfe 190 was one of the two deadliest German fighter planes.] attacked the bomber from 9 o’clock [from the bomber’s left] which was out of the sun [In February the sun would have been in the south, so the F.W. 190 was coming from the south, probably higher than the bomber, in the sun, and the bomber was flying west.] and 6 o’clock to us. [Dad’s flight was also flying west, and was in formation ahead of and to the left of the bomber. Hence the F.W. 190 was directly behind Dad’s flight of four P-47 Thunderbolts.] We turned into him [flew toward the F.W. 190 and returned the attack] and as he broke off [stopped] his attack on the bomber he took a 90 degree deflection shot at me. [The F.W. 190 shot directly at the side of Dad’s P-47 Thunderbolt, by aiming ahead of Dad’s plane (a so-called deflection shot) so that the shot would hit Dad in the side by the time the shot reached him. The P-47 Thunderbolt was a long range fighter with heavy armor in the rear and belly, but not so much the sides, which means the enemy knew where to attack it (a 90 degree deflection shot).] The second [rear] element became separated from the first [lead] element, so we the second element, took up a course for home. [Dad’s pair, or element, got separated from the lead pair, which left the foursome exposed.] A few minutes later we bounced [shot at] a bogie [unidentified aircraft] which turned out to be a [friendly] P-47. [Apparently this P-47 was piloted by Lt. John H. Walker, Jr., who also died on this mission.] He joined us and the three of us took up a course for home at about 20,000 ft. [This altitude was likely the same altitude that the bomber was flying.] [Then] A flight of four F.W. 190’s bounced [shot at] us. [Dad’s flight aborted early and set course for home, just to be attacked by more enemy on the way.] They were in range [We were in their shooting range], dead astern [directly behind us] when I first saw them and called for the flight to break [break formation]. All three of us did a split “S” [a coordinated evasive maneuver]. I observed that Lt. Meagher, red #3’s engine was on fire. I got in the clouds [below the F.W. 190’s where they could not see Dad because of the clouds] which were 9/10 [90% cloud coverage and 10% daylight] at 4,000 ft [a very low altitude, which risked flying into a mountain] and came home in the clouds [where the visibility was low, but where he was safely hidden from the view of the F.W. 190’s].

Lothar Fieg, 0-666909
1st Lt., Air Corps,
328th Fighter Squadron.

NOTE: During World War II the Eighth Air Force was stationed in England in an area north-northeast of London called East Anglia. The Eighth Air Force was subdivided as follows:
Bomber COMMAND
Fighter COMMAND

GROUP Each group was operated from an airfield. Dad was part of the 352nd Fighter Group at Bodney, England.
SQUADRON There were three squadrons of 16 planes in each group. Dad’s was the 328th squadron.
MISSIONS All 16 of the (usually) Mustang P-51s within a squadron were put up for a mission.
FLIGHTS There were four flights per mission. Each flight was composed of four planes.
ELEMENTS There were two elements per flight. Each element had two planes.
Each flight of four planes was assigned a color. The color for the flight that is the subject of this report is red.
The red “flight lead” was Lt Harold Nussman, who was killed.
The code word to identify each of the aircraft in the 328th was “Turndown.”
For example, the absolute identifier for Lt. James Meagher's aircraft, when not referring to a mission, was "Turndown 55" Lt. Nussman's was "Turndown 53." But, in reference to a mission, the four aircraft in a flight were referenced as "Turndown 1," "Turndown 2," "Turndown 3," and "Turndown 4." Since the flight color was red, these are also referred to as “Red #1,” “Red #2,” “Red #3,” (Dad used this terminology to refer to Lt. Meagher’s plane.), and “Red #4.”
 

The two elements in each flight were designated the "lead element" and the "rear element." The two planes in each element were designated the "lead" and the "wing man." The code-word numbering system for the flight that is the subject of this report was as follows:
RED FLIGHT COMPOSITION
Turndown #1 - Lead of the first (lead) element (Lt. Harold Nussman, assuming that the lead for the flight would also be the lead of his assigned element)
Turndown #2 - Wingman for Turndown #1 (Lt. Raymond Phillips, who survived by making an emergency landing at Lympne, England.)
Turndown #3 - Lead of the second (rear) element (Lt. James Meagher, who was killed during this mission. Lt. Fieg was the last one to see him in the air with an engine that was on fire.)
Turndown #4 - Wingman for Turndown #3 (Lt. Lothar Fieg). Dad refers to himself as “Red #4.”
Dad was in the most vulnerable slot of the foursome as Turndown #4. His role was to protect the rear of the offensive plane Turndown #3 immediately ahead and left of him.
On this mission of February 8, 1944, the pilots were flying P-47 Thunderbolts, not Mustang P-51s.

From Lt. Meagher's obituary as published by Rolling Thunder. Inc.:

1 LT Meagher already had flown 40 missions and was well on his way to the 200 hours of combat flying time needed before a fighter pilot could be sent home for a month. But unlike many in the squadron, he hadn’t shot down any enemy planes.

1 LT Meagher and four other young Thunderbolt pilots — lieutenants Harold Nussman of Salisbury, N.C., flying a plane named “Dixie Boy”; Raymond Phillips of Newton, Iowa, in a plane named “Hildegarde”; and John Walker Jr. of Los Angeles and Lothar Fieg of Oneonta, N.Y., made up what was called “Red Flight” that day. 

As they flew over Mons, Belgium, they heard a radioed plea for help from a B-17 bomber that had been forced to drop out of its formation because of damage and was being attacked by a German fighter. Red Flight winged toward the bomber. Suddenly, from the direction of the sun, where pilots are blinded, four German FW-190 fighters came diving at the five Thunderbolts, each firing four 20 millimeter cannons and two machine guns. Lt. Nussman tried desperately to warn the others they were under attack even though an enemy fighter had perfect declination on him.

Thanks to Nussman’s self-sacrificing warning, Phillips and Fieg managed to break away from the fight, their planes shot up. They never saw what happened to Meagher, Nussman and Walker. But when those three failed to come home, they were declared missing in action. When the Germans failed to report that they had been captured, suspicion grew that they had been killed. But no one knew for sure.