Second in Series: They served their country

World War II and Korean War combat fighter pilot recalls career

Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Dale R. Deniston, 86, Woodland Drive, Dillsburg, said he would not trade his years as a combat fighter pilot during World War II, Korea and as a member of NATO forces during the Cold War, for any other experience.
Born in Akron, OH, Deniston’s love affair with the wild blue yonder had its beginnings during his childhood and was reinforced by his mother’s job working in a plant that turned out Corsair fighters for the U.S. Navy. After graduating high school, Deniston enrolled at Kent State University, in 1939. In August of 1941, he entered the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program and received his commission in March of 1942.
Deniston was transferred to the Primary Flight Training Base at Oxnard, CA. He received advanced flight training in the North American AT-6 at Luke Field, Phoenix, AZ, and was commissioned as a 2nd Lt. in 1942 and was ordered to active duty. After a brief stint with in Philadelphia with the 1st Air Force, he received his orders and was on his way back to the west coast, where he was assigned to the 57th Fighter Group at Mitchell AFB, where he was given a brand new P40 aircraft, fresh off the assembly line, he said.
“On July 1, 1942, we got all of our aircraft on board of the aircraft carrier, the Ranger, bound for Egypt, Africa,” Deniston said. “We launched off the coast of Africa and hippity-hopped to little pea patch landing strips where some body had planted grass and placed gas drums. We had to pump the gas into the wings, which gave us about a 300 mile range to our next stop, where did the same. We finally landed in Cairo.”
From Cairo, his squadron flew to Palestine, to an RAF, (Royal Air Force) at Haifa. They were paired with seasoned fighter pilots to get a taste of actual combat.
“I remember being told: ‘Beware of the Hun and the sun.’ The German Messerschmitt pilots would come down out of the sunk like a rocket. They were very fast.”
A “sprog,” the term for pilots new to combat, Deniston said the idea was to fly a few test missions. A belly gasoline tank was attached to his fighter to extend its flying range and his six “guns were fully loaded.”
“The South African commander, a major, said, ‘you get on my wing and stick like glue,’” Deniston said. “Soon after take-off, we went right down to the deck to avoid the German radar. We came up on an airfield, filled with German bombers and fighters on the line, fuel trucks and personnel. We came in and they didn’t know what to do. We shot up everything, did a 180-dgree turn and flew back to the 2nd South African Squadron.”
The attack had devastated a key fighter base that was part of German Field Marshall Rommel’s air support and supply group. During his time in Africa, he flew 100 combat missions, in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Malta and, later, from Sicily, into Italy.
“I was shot down on March 26, 1943, in the desert,” Deniston said. “The top RAF commander said that it was a tough, tough situation they were about fly. He said we might even have 50-percent casualties. We went in and shot all of their guns we could see on the ground and someone on the ground could see me and was shooting. I had 30-some bullet holes in the plane and I went down.”
Deniston said he was not sure at first, if he had crashed in enemy or allied territory After a bit of wandering, he saw a vehicle. Fortunately, he said, it was operated by a war correspondent. He was given a ride and safely made it back to base.
“When we got back to our air base, the Priest had said a mass for me and another pilot, T.T. Williams, who had been shot down,” Deniston said.
Deniston’s home, which he shares with his wife, Patricia, who holds a PhD, and is a retired college librarian, is filled with medals and awards, he received during his service to his country. In 1995, with the help of his daughter, Deniston completed a memoir: Memories Of a Combat Fighter Pilot: World War II and Korea. When he took the book with him to a reunion of his squadron, the majority of the copies he had made were quickly taken by fellow pilots.
Deniston also served in Europe, with NATO, and later in Guatemala. He retired from the Air Force in 1984.