Billy H. Escapes Indictment:

Billy: You'll be pleased to know I have determined not to proceed with charges against you deriving from your disrespect directed toward a Prince. I refer to the comment of 13 Nov.on the posting "The Shootout". The charges were "Lesse Majestie" in nature- specifically that you were "disrespectful of a Prince." I see a technicality here makes it unlikely that you could be convicted and forced to levy up the tremendous judgement I was hoping to win from you which would at least be an "une anees" worth of "Cold Beer and Tamales" (same being considered Legal Tender, I think you will agree?) You have escaped by virtue of mispelling the name of the defamed: it was Prinz, not "Prince". "Le Roy" the given name. A delightful character if not much of pursuit pilot. Le Roy had been an acrobat. He was always regarded with great joy by the old vets of the "First Pursuit". One of them, recalled that the greatest experience "overseas" was not his "first solo", not his "winning his wings', not his "first patrol" nor his "first victory". No! the greatest experience was seeing Le Roy in a Gorilla suit, swinging by one hand from a chandelier (probably in the Hotel Crillon)and throwing bananas to the ladies while the orchestra played an arrangement he had given them of "All The Girs Go Wild Over Me." Le Roy never shot at "Rick" either: The story goes like this: Leroy was a third-stringer, everyone knew it- but he was not without courage. "Rick" said he'd allow L. to join a patrol if he could get a ship and permission from Hartney. He obtained permission from one of the "first team" to borrow a Nieuport. Hartney was dubious but allowed him to go. Some time later everyone was back from the patrol but L. who had (predictably) lost the formation early in the sortie. L landed at a terrific speed, wiped the gear off the '28 and jumping from the wreck raced into "Chateau 95" bar area and ordered drinks for everyone. "I think I got two of them", he announced gleefully. "They never saw me! I opened up on them from behind and they both went straight down through the clouds!" His happy pronouncements were interrupted by one of two grim looking pilots, at the end of the bar, who had landed a few minutes before L. "No Leroy," said one, "you didn't get "them"- but don't ever shoot at us again you little S.O.B." When Ernst Udet came to L.A., in the mid-thirties, a gala in his honor was held at the Biltmore. In his remarks he mentioned that he and LeRoy had compared notes and they mutually thought L. had been U's. "40 something or whatever victim"- "But I'm told," continued Udet, "that I should not claim him because all his pals assure me he would have crashed later on anyway!" This was all spurious and spoken in the spirit of the festive evening of course- as Le Roy never flew enough to get shot down by anyone. Prinz became a outstanding dance director in Hollywood and was noted for the elaborate den he had with many photos and other memorabilia of the Air Service. He was a frequent visitor to the "Cross and Cockade" sessions back in the '60s. He visited here at Flabob Airport on the occasion of Jim Appleby rolling out a new replica N-28 back in the '70s. Le Roy was failing badly and the twin guns of the '28 perplexed him. For some reason he, in his own mind, had reverted back to the N-17 experiences of his training days and assured all that there should be just one gun and that should be mounted above the cockpit on the top wing! There were days on the ground for every minute in the air and Le Roy made them happier days for his buddies of the "First Pursuit". BTW: Don't fail to recall the noted arrival of Lafayetter James Norman Hall to his new U.S.A.A.S. squadron at Epeiz. The landing of a N-28 resulted in the near destruction of the plane. The on-lookers wondered "where that idiot had learned to fly?!" It was their new leader Jimmie Hall..so my man Le Roy wasn't alone in turning a routine landing into a spectacle for all to wonder at! Regards and again I am happy to be able to drop these most serious charges you were facing! Later! LEB

Lee (The Phenom) Branch, Greetings: Vous avez raison: it was PRINZ, not Prince, but prince nevertheless, since Prinz = Prince. My source for this enemy resource was in a book called Flight, a short column dealing with pilots who did not have the right stuff, and who took advantage of his charisma and boyish good looks. Hartney's book lists Prinz as being transferred to the 94th, then shunted from there to Orly, and out of the war, which he was never in. He reminds me of a 'buddy' of mine. We were standing along side a runway at K14 in Korea watching the F86s come back from the Alley. One pillot flew about 25 feet above the runway with a rocket hanging,tail down under the wing. The usual prrocedure was for the pilot to take the craft up and try to centrificate off, but when that did not work he was told to come in and land, which he did, knocking the rocket loose. As it was skidding toward us us I looked at my 'buddy' and immediately thought that he was going to jump on that wild thing (like a cowboy would a steer). Before I could say "Don't!" he jumped that spark throwing piece of lightning and was gone before I could say'Sayonara!' I went to the crash ambulance and told the medic,"There's a rocket pilot on the runway who needs some help." "Daijobi," said the medic, but did nothing to move the Red Cross toward the hero. "What's wrong?" "Nothing, I'm going to sit here fore ten minutes." " What for?" "If the rocket pops, I won't have to sew him up." Now you know why it takes us so long to win our wars, and why 20% of the airmen did 80% of the fighting. To me, its ironic that a cowardly buffoon like Prinz gets to drink champagne with Udet while Frank Luke lies under that cross in Romagne with the 20%. A favor Lee: Send me your copy of September Rampage. Why? Jim Streckfus, president of The League and editor of OTF ran through the book and found some mistakes, which we corrected for the second printing. And again last night I went through it again and found some more typos. We're going to our printer tomorrow; we want to send you a corrected version. Don't forget the return address. (We'll return the cost of S&H). Best regards, from Rampagin' Billy./11/16/99.