Oak Park veteran recalls fascinating career

Flying ace served during World War II, Korean conflict, Cuban missile crisis


HIGH FLYER—Clyde East of Oak Park displays the medals he earned during his long career with the United States Air Force. East earned his wings with the Royal Canadian Air Force and later transferred to the U.S.A.F. before the allied invasion of Europe. East and his wingman destroyed two of the only four German aircraft shot down over Normandy on D-Day.

HIGH FLYER—Clyde East of Oak Park displays the medals he earned during his long career with the United States Air Force. East earned his wings with the Royal Canadian Air Force and later transferred to the U.S.A.F. before the allied invasion of Europe. East and his wingman destroyed two of the only four German aircraft shot down over Normandy on D-Day.

While flying a D-Day reconnaissance mission over the roads, railroads and airfields some 100 miles behind enemy lines in Normandy, pilot Clyde Bennett East and his wingman, Ernest Schonard, carved out their own piece of history as the world’s greatest invasion unfolded.

Guiding a pair of P-51 Mustang attack fighters, the pilots destroyed two of the only four German aircraft that were shot down on June 6, 1944.

“For sure we destroyed two, and possibly a third, although we could never get confirmation on that,” said East, an Oak Park veteran who is now 89 years old, as he recalled his brief engagement against the Nazi Focke-Wulf 190s.

East and Schonard were American lieutenants flying for the U.S. Army Air Forces during the Normandy action.

“Since the American squadron was new, it had very little combat experience. So (the two kills were) really something,” East said.

Born on a tobacco farm in Pittsylvania County, Va. in 1921, East immigrated to Canada in 1940 to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was 19 years old.

“I was too young to occupy a position at flying schools in the states, so I joined the Canadian Air Force because I had always wanted to be a pilot and I didn’t want to wait until I was 21 to receive commission,” he said.

Many young Americans joined the neighboring country’s air force at the onset of World War II. Canada was a dominion of the British Empire and it had an active pilot training program.

“When England declared war in September of 1939, Canada did as well,” East said.

Upon finishing advanced flight training in 1942, East transferred to England where he completed combat training on the U.S.-built P-51 Mustang. In May 1943 he flew 26 reconnaissance missions with a Canadian tactical squadron over France, Belgium and Holland.

In addition to photographing enemy targets, the Mustangs attacked rail traffic, motor transport and stray enemy aircraft.

After being promoted to flying officer first lieutenant with the Royal Canadian Air Force in August 1943, East transferred to the 15th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron of the U.S. Air Force in January 1944 in preparation for the coming Allied invasion of Europe under the command of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.

By D-Day, the squadron had flown more than 50 combat missions into the “Beachhead” area of Normandy.

While doing reconnaissance in support of the U.S. and Allied ground forces during the Normandy invasion, East witnessed a large number of ground engagements and made numerous reports of enemy ground force activity opposite friendly troops.

In July 1944, the flying ace returned stateside for a 30-day rest period. He married Margaret, whom he’d met while training with the Royal Air Force at St. Dizier Airbase.

Back in Europe, East flew about 180 more combat recon sorties in support of the movement of Gen. George Patton’s Third Army. He shot down 12 enemy aircraft between 1944 and 1945 and coordinated the destruction of many enemy targets.

After returning to the U.S. in 1945, Capt. East was assigned to Riverside, Calif. to help the 12th Squadron convert to the Lockheed-built Shooting Star, a jet-propelled aircraft, and by 1949 East had become a squadron operations officer in Langley, Va.

At the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, East was assigned to a base in Japan where he served as a flight commander. He was promoted to major in 1951 and reassigned to the unit with which he had previously served in Europe.

From 1954 to 1957, East and his family lived in Italy where he served as an adviser to the Italian Air Force. From 1958 to 1962, East flew the new RF-101 Voodoo aircraft and participated in NATO exercises over Europe.

After the Cuban Missile Crisis, East spent about a year in the Far East before retiring in 1965.

Over the course of his career, East received 43 air medals. He was listed in the “Guinness Book of World Records” from 1955 to 1968 for his unprecedented repeat awards of combat medals.

Although he accomplished much as a pilot, East said the highlight of his career was the day he got his wings.

In 1965, East moved to Oak Park with his family and worked as a military analyst with the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica until 1993.

East’s wife died in 2003, and at 89 the veteran also survives two of his six children, one granddaughter and a great-grandson.

He remains active with several military organizations and is a docent at the Reagan Library. He also volunteers for the American Cancer Society and St. Jude Catholic Church and visits nonprofit groups to share his tales of flying.

“He’s an incredible guy,” said Steve Holt, a Thousand Oaks Kiwanis Club member and former Acorn
editor. “Tom Brokaw called (East’s) generation America’s Greatest Generation, and he’s living proof that they certainly were great defenders of our freedom.”

East’s third daughter, Becky Trask, sees her father as an outstanding man.

“He’s the model of what a man should be, that all others should be measured against,” Trask said.

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