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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sure, Richard Heyman is 100 years old. But when it comes to recalling old war stories, he can tell them with the best of ’em.
That was clearly evident on Oct. 10, when Heyman was the guest of honor at the “Spirit of the Battle of Britain” Banquet at the storied Mayflower Hotel. Hosted by the Royal Air Force Museum American Foundation (RAFMAF), the celebration marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day. The Foundation exists to ensure the shared aviation heritage of the United States of America and the United Kingdom is kept alive in the memories of both nations.
Heyman, the longtime Creswell resident, was in his element. It was almost like he was 19 again, piloting a P-38 plane in the summer of 1943 while finishing his cadet training to be a World War II fighter pilot.
The room was filled with three- and four-star generals, and all sorts of high-ranking dignitaries from both the U.S. Air Force and the Royal Air Force. But on this particular evening, they were all saluting King Richard, who owned the stage with his scintillating war stories and dry sense of humor.
“Is this getting boring?” Heyman asked while sharing one of those stories.
A resounding ‘no’ comes from the audience.
“OK, Barbara, tell me when to shut up,” he said, looking out to his wife of 65 years.
One of the true highlights for everyone in attendance was watching Richard and Barbara enjoy a lively and spirited first dance as the premier USAF band, the Airmen of Note, ended the evening with their brand of Glenn Miller big-band music.
Heyman, the retired Lieutenant-Colonel, is reaping the rewards of his 32-year military career, which, astonishingly, also included being a fighter pilot two decades later, in Korea and Vietnam.
But it all started when he enlisted fresh out of high school in 1942. He had started his cadet training to be a P-38 pilot early in 1943, and soon began his illustrious career as a fighter pilot, destroying enemy targets during World War II.
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Heyman was having some issues with his hearing aid during the banquet, which made it difficult for him to hear many questions … but it also provided some light-hearted moments.
“I’m sorry, I’m deaf. I can’t hear worth a damn,” Heyman said. “You want me to tell you what a great fighter pilot I was…. I suppose this isn’t show and tell.”
Then he started recalling his involvement on D-Day, the June 6, 1944 invasion of Normandy, France that was the largest-ever seaborne invasion.
“Before D-Day, I had been in a bad fight – another fellow and I had made a mistake of attacking about four or five ME 109s (Messerschmitt Bf 109s) over France and we had got the hell shot out of us. We shot down a couple of them,” Heyman said. “Anyhow, I was sent to a rest camp. They said I was flak-happy – Hell, I was always like that – so I went there, and they had these beautiful English girls that escorted us around and played tennis with us.
“It was only about four or five days of relaxation and then one day I look up and see these aircraft going over with funny stripes on them. The stripes identify all of the Allied Forces. So we called the base and said ‘What’s going on?’ They said, ‘Oh, we forgot all about you guys.’ Two of us were there at the rest camp just having a ball. It was fun.
“Anyhow, they flew down in this Norseman plane and picked us up. And on the way back, the engine quit, and we had to land in this wheat field, and the damn fool landed it crossways to the ferrules.
“We left the airplane sitting there, and we stopped a truck and got a ride back to the base. That evening, they called all the pilots – I was 19, I was the youngest guy in the outfit – and told us tomorrow morning is the invasion. They told us our assignment is such-and-such, and we’ll start the mission. The next morning – I was flying P-38s at the time – we took off and we flew down to the channel, and there were all these ships sitting out there in the channel. We started strafing any targets we could find.
“And it was open season on any moving vehicle. Soon as we finished our load of ammo, it was back to the base and strike some more. It was like a pig-in-a-poke. You can imagine turning a firebomb loose with six machine-guns loaded.
“What can I say? Anyhow, we flew our mission…. It was open season. This is what we were trained for. And this is what we wanted to do. Kill the enemy. It sounds terrible today, doesn’t it? But that was our job. I think I flew three missions that first day.”
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John Haddock, a navigator with the RAF, who’s now blind, was unable to make the trip “across the pond,” but he was also honored by the RAFMAF for patrolling the English Channel during D-Day.
“We went out every night but we’d only had a little training in bombing, so it was very hit-and miss,” Haddock said via video. “They were shooting at us with anti-aircraft cannons, which were quite effective, so it was very scary at times. I remember one night very vividly, when there was so much fire going off around me that I was convinced there was no way we would make it out alive. But somehow we did.”
Also honored during the banquet were Major Austin J. Baker USAF and Squadron Leader Alex Gledhill RAF, who were presented with RAFMAF Swords of Honor from their respective USAF and RAF Chiefs.
Frank Kendall III, the Secretary of the Air Force, was also in attendance at the banquet.
But the night belonged to former Colonel Richard M. Heyman, who retired at age 50, and is still going strong, 50 years into his retirement with Barbara.
Retired Major General Larry Martin USAF, the Chairman of the Royal Air Force Museum American Foundation, asked Heyman what his favorite airplane was.
“The favorite airplane I had was whatever got me back home,” Heyman said.
After reflecting for a moment, he added:
“I was flying P-38s in combat at 19 years old. You turn a kid loose with something like that. Think about it – how would you feel, thinking back to when you were 19 years old?
“Man, I had the world by the tails.”
