Feeding the
Y
ou won’t hear about it from Beth. She’s not the bragging type. Besides, she’s busy flight instructing—to the
tune of about 90 hours a month—and
running a flight school. But Beth Jen-
kins is the only female type-rated B- 25
pilot in the CAF (Commemorative Air
Force). We met her at AirVenture.
You may have met Beth, too. You
would have met her standing in front of
(you can’t have too many
T-shirts), and one each for
the young sons of Burt Ja-
cobs, United Airlines pi-
lot and longtime friend
of ours, who brought his
boys to AirVenture. The T-
shirts are cool but it’s not
just about the T-shirts, it’s
about “The Cause:” keep-
ing history flying. Buying
the shirts is our tiny way of donating to
“The Cause.”
The term “devil dog” came about dur-
ing WW I (yes, ONE). The 5th and 6th
U.S. Marine Regiments were in hand-to-
hand combat with the Germans at Ba-
leau Wood in 1918. The Germans called
the Marines
“Teufelshunde,”
which
translates to “devil dog.” It was a grudg-
ing tribute to the courage and tenaci-
ty of the Marines in combat. The name
stuck. Every Marine, to this day, knows
and honors the story.
How the Marines obtained B- 25’s is
yet another story. In 1943, North Amer-
ican Aircraft had produced more B- 25’s
than the Army Air Corps could use.
Eight-hundred of them were offered to
the U.S. Navy. The Navy had little use for
a medium bomber so the Marines took
them. They designated the B- 25’s “PBJ”
(Patrol Bomber and the “J” designated
the manufacturer). Marines are quite ac-
customed to taking cast-off equipment
from the other services and ‘making do.’
by Lauran Paine Jr.
They used the PBJ for ‘night heckling,’
anti-shipping missions and close air sup-
port of beachheads and landings. Nine
PBJ squadrons served overseas before
the war in the Pacific ended. Twenty-
six airplanes were lost in combat. Nine-
teen were lost in operational accidents.
The CAF PBJ, more commonly called the
B- 25 these days (probably to get away
from the whole peanut, butter and jel-
ly thing) represents VMB (“V” for Fixed
Wing, the rest for Medium Bomber) 612.
ray albright
The patch of VMB 612 is on
the left sleeve of the
Devil
Dog
T-shirt. And if you look
into the bomb bay of
Devil
Dog,
you will see the signa-
tures of men who served in
VMB squadrons.
The blue B- 25
Devil Dog
you see at AirVenture be-
longs to the Devil Dog
Squadron of the CAF, lo-
cated in Georgetown, Tex-
as. Georgetown happens
to be where Beth Jenkins
owns and operates a busy
flight school, Pilot’s Choice
phOtO by max hayneS
Cover
IFC
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BC
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