Gabby Gabreski
Francis S. "Gabby" Gabreski (Franciszek Gabryszewski) (b. 28 January 1919 in Oil City, Pennsylvania) was a Polish-American fighter ace in World War II. He was present at the attack on Pearl Harbor, where his squadron made it into the air too late to engage the Japanese attackers. Gabreski, worried about the Nazi invasion of Poland, volunteered for a transfer to one of the Polish squadrons in Great Britain. The War Department approved his transfer, primarily because he spoke Polish. In October 1942, Gabreski reported to 8th Air Force Headquarters in England. He joined the 315-th Polish "Deblinski" Fighter Squadron at Northolt, England, and began flying the new Spitfire Mark IX's. He and his fellow pilots flew jet sweeps over the Channel. He first encountered the Germans on February 3, when a group of FW-190ss jumped his squadron. Too excited to make a "kill," Gabreski learned that he had to keep calm during a mission, a lesson that served him well later in the war. He is better known for his time with the famous 56th Fighter Group, flying the P-47 Thunderbolt. He made his 28th kill on July 5, 1944, passing Eddie Rickenbacher's record from World War I to become America's top ace (although several pilots passed him by the end of the war.) Not long afterward, his plane crashed during a strafing run in Europe, and he spent the rest of the war as a POW. He flew again during the Korean War, piloting an F-86 Sabre. He was credited with 6.5 kills, making him one of the few pilots to be aces in more than one war. Gabby Gabreski died on Long Island, N.Y. on January 31, 2002. He is buried in Calverton National Cemetary.
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