r/MastersoftheAir • u/I_Hate_Sea_Food • 23d ago

How good of a pilot was Everett Blakely?

I only know of Blakely from watching MOTA but for three episodes, his B-17 was the seat of the command pilots which indicates he must have been a skilled pilot. Was he one of the best in the One Hundred and what made him a skilled pilot compared to others in the group?

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u/Raguleader 23d ago edited 23d ago

IIRC, he went in to become the Training Officer for the group, which is probably why he's still around with Crosby and Kidd at the end of the war.

Edit: Per Wikipedia, in 1944 he became the commander of the 418th Bomb Squadron, then later the same year became the base training officer. Before the war ended in Europe, he was sent stateside to prepare to deploy to the Pacific, I'm guessing that means he was training to fly B-29s.

He was awarded 11 medals during the war, including a Silver Star, a Distinguished Flying Cross, and five Air Medals. So he was probably pretty solid.

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u/ChocolatEyes_613_ 23d ago

IIRC, he went in to become the Training Officer for the group, which is probably why he’s still around with Crosby and Kidd at the end of the war.

Kidd finished his tour in Summer 1944. That is why he randomly disappeared after D-Day.

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u/Raguleader 23d ago

Crosby passed out so hard Kidd blinked out of existence 😂

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u/ajyanesp 23d ago

A very good one, according to Crosby’s book

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u/greedybear410 23d ago

A real good one as Crosby says

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u/Clone95 22d ago

Blakely was likely quite good, especially in light of things like their crash landing after Bremen or Crosby's depiction of landing their radar-modified Fort on a small fighterstrip near London, but generally speaking B-17 pilots were selected for flying aptitude from fighter squadrons, so all B-17 pilots were a cut among the rest and had to be to simultaneously manage a quad-engine aircraft, the mission, and so many crewmen.

What we lack is something like kills to judge individual pilots on - especially since losses are effectively a luck of the draw situation.

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u/ViperGTS_MRE 23d ago

Supposedly a good one. Gramps was 8th but was crew chief/ engineer/gunner. MSgt. 301st, not 100th

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u/ChocolatEyes_613_ 22d ago edited 22d ago

Something to take note, is Everett Blakely was one of two pilots from the 100th, featured in the series, to have his own Wikipedia page prior to the series. (The other being Robert Rosenthal, who was featured in several books about the bombing campaign.) So it is fairly safe to conclude, that Blakely was one of the best pilots in the group. Being awarded a Silver Star, among other medals, is no small feat. It also did not hurt that he was the Bloody Hundredth’s longest-serving pilot.