George Welch 100 -- May 10, 2018

Madera Tribune, 17-December-1941

Today would have been the 100th birthday of George Welch, one the two Army aviators who was able to get his fighter plane into the air during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  Welch and Kenneth Taylor were returning from an all night poker game when they heard about the attack.  Welch drove at high speed to an auxiliary airfield, where they took off in a pair of Curtiss P-40s.  Welch claimed that he shot down two Japanese dive bombers, but one was only damaged.  

Welch and Taylor received the Distinguished Service Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor.  Welch sold war bonds, then went back into service in New Guinea.  In 1944, he became a test pilot for North American Aviation.  In 1954 he died testing the F-100 Super Sabre.