HOW I FIRST MET CHARLES LINDBERGH
by Earl L. Johnson
Maj. Gen. USAF (Ret)

I was assigned to Headquarters, 20'h Air Force on the island of Guam in the last half of 1948. Since I was single, the "overseas tour" was only one year. Due to my previous assignment during World War II on the island of Tinian (125-miles north of Guam) and my war experience as a B-29 instructor pilot when I reported to 20th Air Force, the then Commanding General A. C. Kincaid, kept me at the Headquarters as Flying Safety Officer and later Inspector General. With the initials of ACK Gen. Kincaid soon became known as "Ack-Ack" Kincaid. But with both of us being from Indiana we got along very well.

One can imagine my surprise and eagerness to meet Lindbergh for he had been a boyhood idol of mine since I was a kid back in Indiana. After taking a shower and putting on a clean uniform, I walked across the street at the appointed time and was ushered into the spacious living room to meet Gen. Lindbergh.

He was dressed very casually in grey flannel slacks and a blue shirt open at the collar. The climate on Guam is quite humid so no one ever wore a necktie. The other invitees were either already there or showed up promptly. As I recall there may have been five or six of us invited to meet Gen. Lindbergh.

Filipino houseboys took drink orders and I think most of the Air Force officers took either a coke or a whiskey drink. Lindbergh drank either a coke or ice water.

As the conversation got underway, Lindbergh was interested in where we were all from, how and where we had learned to fly and a little about our World War II experiences in the Air Force. Most of the invited guests were senior in rank to me and it turned out all of them had first learned to fly after they joined the flying cadet program. Others had gone to West Point and then gone into the Army Air Corps.

When Lindbergh got to me, I told him I had grown up building model airplanes and had learned to fly before I got into the Air Corps. I told him I had soloed in a small, Piper Cub and had about 50 hours before I went into the Air Corps flying program. He wanted to know if I had ever flown an airplane with an OX-5 engine. I told him I had ridden in some but had not actually piloted any.

That was about the extent of his questioning except he wanted to know what state we were from and if we had been to a college he might recognize. I told him I had graduated from Wabash College, a small, all-male liberal arts college in my small, hometown of Crawfordsville, Indiana, two years before I joined the Air Corps.

We had a delightful dinner that Christmas Eve and we all went back to wherever we lived about 9:30.

CHRISTMAS DAY 1948

The next morning around 8:00 the phone at my BOQ rang again and it was Gen. Kincaid. He said Gen. Lindbergh wanted to know if I would show him the island of Guam that Christmas day since I had been there a few times during World War II and seemed to know my way around the island. He said he had further picked me because I had learned to fly in light airplanes and knew something about barnstorming. Of course, the answer was immediately forthcoming and I was across the street to the General's quarters in a few minutes.

I normally drove a Jeep around the island but since this was a special occasion Gen. Kincaid instructed me to take his staff car. Gen. Lindbergh was all ready to go - only this time he was dressed in khaki pants and shirt like everyone else but he had no insignia on his clothes and he did not wear a hat like we did in uniform.

We started out with me driving and Lindbergh in the front seat. The car was a Chevrolet with the gear shift on the steering column and I had a little difficulty shifting due to a caste on my left hand from a broken little finger caused by a beach accident. It was nothing serious but it bothered me in shifting and Lindbergh immediately noticed the problem. So he said, "Why don't you let me drive and you just tell me where to go". This was fine with me so I stopped and we changed seats and Lindbergh did all the driving that day which turned out to be rather interesting but that can wait.

THE MAGELLAN HARBOR

One of the interesting places on Guam is a very small harbor near the southern end of the island. It is named the Magellan Harbor and is where Ferdinand Magellan put in on his historical trip around the world in the Year 1521. This harbor is very tiny and it is surrounded by some hills and the entrance to the little harbor is very narrow. I would guess the entire harbor area is not much bigger than a football field. It is quite an historic place and has a small, little monument so I directed Lindbergh to the right roads to take us down there. I would guess it is perhaps ten or twelve miles to get there from where we started which was near the middle of Guam.

Once there, Lindbergh became enthralled with that little harbor. We were up on a hill above the harbor so he could get a good view of it and I noticed he was surveying the entire area and even holding his ringer up into the breeze to determine wind direction. Finally he said, "You know that Magellan was quite a sailor. How he found this little harbor in a sailing vessel over 400years ago is quite miraculous."

I had been down to this location before but had never studied it like Lindbergh did and this was his first trip to Guam. I learned right there that it was no accident that he could make that trip from New York to Paris in 1927, in a single-engine airplane. He was a student of the earth including its winds, weather and oceans.

A CAMERA REARED ITS UGLY HEAD

I knew that Lindbergh hated cameras so in spite of the fact that I had a 35mm camera on Guam, I left it in my BOQ room. But unfortunately, an Air Corps Chaplain in uniform recognized Lindbergh around the little monument at the Magellan Harbor and asked him if he would consent to having his picture taken. Lindbergh didn't say much so the Chaplain handed me his little camera to snap the picture while Lindbergh stood with him. I could tell by the expression on Lindbergh's face that he was not enthralled about having his picture taken but I snapped it and handed the camera back to the Chaplain. He thanked Lindbergh and went about his sight-seeing. Lindbergh pulled me aside and said, "I don't like cameras and wouldn't have done that if he had not been a Chaplain in uniform".

It was obvious the Chaplain was legitimate for he had on Captain bars and the little Chaplain cross on his uniform. Several days later he brought me a copy of that picture but for the life of my I cannot find it among the hundreds of pictures I have collected over the years.

LINDBERGH THE STAFF CAR DRIVER

Around Guam one occasionally runs into a little concrete bridge which is actually under water a few inches. Instead of building a small bridge above little streams they somehow place a little concrete roadbed under the water so one can drive across it without getting stuck. It is usually the width of only one-lane so only one car can go across it. Such a little "underwater" concrete roadbed was across a little stream not far from the Magellan Harbor. One should remember that Lindbergh was driving so I am excused from what is about to happen but it was hilarious, to say the least.

As we were about in the middle of this little concrete roadbed, in about six inches of water, Lindbergh looked up the little stream a hundred yards or so, and saw several little naked, native kids enjoying a swim. Without saying a word to me, he turned the Chevrolet Staff car off the concrete and onto the gravel-bottom stream saying, "Let's go up there and see those native kids". Well, that was fine with me but not with the staff car. We did manage to get all four wheels off the concrete and onto the stream bottom but that is as far as we got. We were stuck for good in about eight or ten inches of water with not a chance of moving forward or backward. And here I was with Charles Lindbergh at the wheel.

The only thing to do was seek help so we took off our shoes and socks off and yelled for the kids to come down and help us. Also other cars seeing our predicament stopped just off the little sunken bridge, took their shoes off and came in to help. We must have had fifteen or twenty "lifters and shovers" with barefooted Lindbergh back in the driver's seat trying to get some help out of the staff car. We finally got the back wheels up on the concrete and he was able to get it away from the water while we thanked all the helpers and tried to wring the water out of our socks and pants. Lindbergh sure got plenty of opportunity to see all the little naked, Guam kids he was so interested in.

In later years, I had the privilege of having dinner at the same table with his oldest daughter. It was some kind of Chamber of Commerce affair here in Orlando. I was telling this daughter of my experience with her father and how we got stuck in a stream-bed on Guam. After listening to this story, I'll never forget her words----"You know, that sound's just like him".

LUNCH AND MORE AIRPLANES

After we had dried out a little we came to a little open-air sandwich place on the eastern shore of Guam and it seemed to be time for lunch so we pulled in and sat outdoors at a wooden-table and ordered something. By this time Lindbergh was doing most of the talking. I had always heard he was known as "Silent Lindy" or words to that effect, but not this day. He couldn't keep from talking.

Eaglerock

A lot of our conversation was about flying and not in B-29's or the modern airplanes of 1948, but about old Jenney's, gliders, Waco's, Eaglerocks, Travelairs, and airplanes of his youth when I was merely a kid in knickers. At one point he asked me if I had "ever landed an airplane looking at the tail". I told him I hadn't but I guessed it could be done with a little practice. He said, "I used to do it a lot in an old OX-5 Eaglerock. It took some practice but I finally got pretty good at it. What you need to do is start looking at the tail the last fifty feet or so before touchdown and keep looking as long as you can then inally you will feel confident to look backwards clear through the touch-down and until you stop."

I could tell he was getting a real thrill out of telling me how he had finally mastered this feat. About all I could say was, "I am sure you took several quick glances up ahead to see there were no cows or horses out in front of you." He laughed and said, "You bet I did, but you'd be surprised how you could make a good, three-point landing looking backwards."

LINDBERGH HAD DEEP THOUGHTS

I don't know what got him started but at one point in our Christmas Day together some 54 years ago, he made a statement which I will never forget. As this is written in the year 2002, it is almost eerie what he said in 1948, given the terrible "War of Terror" which has been turned loose on the civilized world. As best as I can remember, this is what he said.

"I think my flight to Paris came too soon for the civilizations of the world. They were suddenly thrown together by air travel and they weren't quite ready for it."

To hear such a statement from my "boyhood hero" was shocking to say the least, although it would take me another 54-years to understand what he meant. But what he said required some comment so I think I mumbled about as follows:

"Well sir, there were several other flyers about to attempt that same flight and you just happened to do itfirst." He had to agree with that statement so we dropped the subject. But I could tell that he was bothered by what he had done which one has to admit has changed the so-called "civilized" world in which we live.

I have thought about this memorable, Christmas Day many times over the years and decided that it was about time that I write it down for posterity. Not many are as privileged as I was to get to spend a whole day with their boyhood hero as I was with Charles Lindbergh.

Earl L. Johnson
Maj. Gen. USAF (Ret)