The Story of The “General Billy Mitchell Group”
468th Bomb Group (VH) – From the CBI to the Marianas
C. L. Passieu Received Distinguished Flying Cross Medal
After Heroic Missions Over Japan
Source:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080725133143/http://www.camdencounty.org/pinebarrens/p
assieu.html
Some of the swagger is gone. He no longer walks upright. In fact, he mostly moves
around his home in Folkston in a wheel chair, but the same electric tinkle lights up his
eyes. Flash back a half-century, Flight Officer C. L. (Louie) Passieu of Folkston was in his
usual combat position aboard an Air Corps B-29 - the "Raiden Maiden," America's
newest and biggest bomber. Passieu and his crew looked six-miles below, on enemy
ground, the home island of Japan. The Raiden Maiden dodged anti-aircraft fire and ackack bringing shrapnel death from the guns below.
Passieu was the flight engineer aboard the massive bomber. His duties kept up with the
functions of his aircraft. Passieu's back was turned to the pilot and co-pilot as the three
sat in the cockpit of the lumbering B-29 Superfortress. This was the usual position of a
Flight Engineer - monitoring giant instrument panels that the Pilot and Co-pilot were
unable to see because they looked out the big plane's windshields.
From his 30,000 foot-high platform in the sky, Passieu must have thought back to earlier
days in Folkston when he worked at his father's Chevrolet agency, Passieu Chevrolet
Company. Young Passieu had teethed on the steering wheel of a cut-down Buick
convertible that he and his father's mechanics had converted into a wrecker. Passieu
was seen week after week, driving the dark blue Buick wrecker a hundred miles an hour,
trying to outrace other Folkston wreckers to the scene of an automobile accident. Most
happened at "dead man's curve" on U. S. 1, north Charlton County. Passieu always won
the wrecker race. He hooked his crane onto the wrecked car and towed it back to his
father's garage in Folkston, to command a healthy wrecker bill.
But, it was long ago during World War Two that the daring and bravado of Passieu
played a leading role in America's battle against Japan. Passieu had followed the
development of the B-29 from the drawing board through its assembly. Now he would get
to test out the bomber he so often bragged about. It had better be good. His life
depended on it.
Passieu was stationed on the Pacific Island of Tinian deep in the Marianas, the same
island from which later the Enola Gay, another B-29, ended World War Two. The Gay's
pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets, dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima:
awakening the world to the terror of atomic power. Passieu's flight crew was stationed at
the opposite end of the island from Tibbets, who, with his group were practicing for that
monumental explosion in 1945.
The Story of The “General Billy Mitchell Group”
468th Bomb Group (VH) – From the CBI to the Marianas
Photo from the collection of Bob Becker
Courtesy of the New England Air Museum
Passieu's bombing missions into the heartland of Japan had become almost routine:
dropping conventional bombs on industrial targets and returning to Tinian to get ready
for the next bomb run. Passieu's plane had aboard the famous George Putnam as public
information officer. Putnam was married to Amelia Earhart, the pioneering aviatrix who
The Story of The “General Billy Mitchell Group”
468th Bomb Group (VH) – From the CBI to the Marianas
disappeared in the Pacific in 1937 while seeking a world flying record. Passieu called
Putnam "Put," as did the rest of the crew.
Often the Raiden Maiden did not make the trip back to Tinian in one flight. On one return
flight, Passieu and his crew were chased by Japanese fighter planes. They "turned on the
coal," to escape. That exercise drained the precious fuel as the plane flew over China.
Passieu and his crew elected to crash-land the huge bomber on a small fighter strip in
the heart of China, where the Japanese were seizing one airfield after another in rapid
succession.
Editor’s note: This mission actually occurred prior to the 468th Bomb Group’s transfer to
Tinian. The mission originated at Pengshan, Chengtu, China.
Passieu's pilot called to Passieu, "How much fuel left, Chuck?" Passieu replied
sarcastically, "About enough to fill your cigarette lighter." The decision was quickly
made to attempt a crash landing on the tiny fighter airstrip in the interior of China,
precariously held, at that time, by Americans. Among the troops at the China base was a
neighbor of Passieu's from Folkston, Dick Mays. Mays was a radar operator for the
American airmen holding the China fighter airstrip. Passieu's B-29 circled tightly among
the mountains surrounding the airbase, losing altitude and speed. Still coming in "hot,"
the B-29 blew out all its tires as it braked hard on the super-short fighter strip, halting
just short of the end of the runway. Miraculously, no one was injured on the Raiden's
rough landing. Immediately, Passieu's crew sent fighter planes to another airbase for
new tires for the B-29. They had to get away by daylight. The Japanese were on the
outskirts of the fighter base, and the next day Japanese troops would claim the base
from the Americans, who fled just ahead of the on-rushing Japanese.
Passieu never got to visit with Mays, as time was too short. The B-29 strained for take-off
just at daybreak, the morning following the landing. Mays and his Flying Tigers air group
barely got out ahead of the overrunning Japanese forces. Passieu's B-29 cleared the tall
mountains just as the sun was breaking over the horizon. The rising sun of the universe
was in the front windshield, while the rising sun of Nippon in the rear view mirror.
Such heroics were almost commonplace with Passieu. The Air Force Times and Stars
and Stripes newspapers wrote several stories where Passieu led his charmed life in that
far-off Pacific during those World War Two years. Passieu, for his heroics received the
nation's Distinguished Flying Cross medal with oak leaf clusters.
As NBC newsman, Tom Brokow, writes in his book, "The Greatest Generation". World
War Two was America's greatest adventure. With 19 Charlton County young men going
off to war and never returning, Passieu was among the lucky. He lived to "come home,"
run a Chevrolet Agency in Folkston, and be elected Mayor of Folkston, and Chairman of
the Charlton County Commission.
Today, still an active member of the Charlton County VFW Post, Passieu's adventures
aboard a B-29 over Japan in World War Two, are mostly unknown to the five generations
born since those dark days of World War Two.
The Story of The “General Billy Mitchell Group”
468th Bomb Group (VH) – From the CBI to the Marianas
The Raiden' Maiden, after years of war service, was relegated to a scrap heap. This
nation owes so much to the bright aluminum bomber, and to the crew who risked their
lives on scores of occasions flying over the heartland of an enemy Japan.
Wheelchair bound, or not, the smile still comes on Passieu's 80-plus year-old face when
World War Two is mentioned. The smile also comes when mention is made of those
races in that cut-down Buick wrecker, chasing down a rain-soaked Dixie Highway in
1937, on the way to Mattox's Dead Man Curve, in search of a towing-fee, so badly needed
in those depression years.
Indeed, Passieu and his generation are truly the Greatest Generation of Americans. The
American flag today still flies freely, in a nation made great by the like of Passieu and his
generation fighting all around the world in World War Two.
Mr. Charles Louie Passieu, 82, of Folkston, died Wednesday, December 15 1999 at Satilla
Regional Medical Center in Waycross after a long illness. He was born in Hilliard, but had
lived most of his life on Folkston. He was a member of the Folkston United Methodist
Church, Folkston VFW Post #9560, Folkston Masonic Lodge F & AM #196. He was a
charter member of the Folkston Lions Club and the Folkston Volunteer Fire Department.
Mr. Passieu served as chairman of The Charlton County Commissioners and served as
Mayor for nine years.
He also was a veteran of the Unites States Air Corps as a Flight Officer during WWII.
Survivors are wife, Kathryn Passieu; 2 sons, C.J. (Susan) and Robert (Kim) Passieu; 2
daughters, Rollene (Fred) Colley and Tina (Dwane) Knowles all of Folkston, GA; 1 step
son, Carol (Faith) Moore of St. Marys, GA; 1 stepdaughter, Karen (Fred) Purvis of Yulee,
FL; sister, Joann (Bob) Helphenstine of Punta Gorda, FL; 19 grandchildren; 14 great
grandchildren. Funeral Services will be held Saturday, December 18 at 11:00 AM at the
Folkston United Methodist Church with Rev. Ross Tracey, officiating. Burial will be in
Pineview Cemetery. Arrangements under the direction of SHEPARD FUNERAL HOME,
Folkston, GA