Having profiled our nation’s top Ace of Aces, World War II Pacific Theater Army pilot MAJ Richard Bong, it is time to meet the top American fighter ace in Europe, who would then become a jet fighter ace in the Korean War.

Francis “Gabby” Gabreski’s official Air Force biography notes: “Gabreski’s parents had emigrated from Frampol, Poland to Oil City, Pennsylvania, in the early 1900s. His father, Stanisław ‘Stanley’ Gabryszewski, owned and operated a market, putting in 12-hour days. As in many other immigrant-owned businesses in those days, the whole family worked at the market. But Gabreski’s parents had dreams for him, including attending the University of Notre Dame. He did so in 1938, but, unprepared for real academic work, almost failed during his freshman year.”

It was in his freshman year that Gabby developed an interest in flying, taking a few lessons and accumulating only six hours. His instructor noted he “did not have the touch to be a pilot.”

After his first year at Notre Dame, he and other friends enlisted as aviation cadets in the Army Air Corps and trained in the venerable Stearman PT-17, many of which are still flying today. Despite still being considered mediocre, then-LT Gabreski moved up to advanced training in the North American AT-6 Texan at Maxwell Field, Alabama. In March of 1941, he received his wings and left for his first duty assignment in Hawaii with the 45th Pursuit Squadron of the 15th Pursuit Group, Wheeler Army Airfield. He trained primarily in the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, made famous by the First American Volunteer Group “Flying Tigers.”

While in Hawaii, he met Kay Cochran, and they were engaged shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. During that attack, Gabby got airborne but was not able to locate and intercept Japanese attack squadrons, the enemy planes having quickly withdrawn from the area.

As he recalled in his 1998 autobiography, Gabby: A Fighter Pilot’s Life: “This was it. War was on, and I was going up to do my part. I took it for granted that we probably would be getting into combat. Maybe I would shoot down an enemy plane. Maybe I would get shot down myself. I didn’t expect to be killed, but I’ll have to admit the thought crossed my mind. It didn’t matter. The main thing was to attack the enemy.”

After the beginning of the Pacific war, he closely followed the success of the No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron in Europe. Being of Polish descent and fluent in the language, he proposed becoming the liaison officer to the Polish squadrons. He recalled, “I was a fighter pilot, and I could speak Polish. Why not see if I could get myself assigned to Europe so I could learn from the Poles and pass the information along to my own people.”

In October of 1942, then-CAPT Gabreski left for the Eighth Air Force’s VIII Fighter Command in England. He was assigned to the 56th Fighter Group, 61st Fighter Squadron, flying the rugged Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, taking command of the 61st shortly thereafter.

One of his early wingmen, LT Les Smith, recalled that Gabby was not immediately embraced by the other pilots. According to Smith: “That was unfortunate, but I think not unexpected, since he had not trained with us in the States, had not shipped with us, and had no personal relationships within the group. There was another unfortunate factor over which he had no control — his rank as captain. This put him in direct competition with the old captains already assigned and in indirect competition with our older first lieutenants who hoped to become captains. We new second lieutenants were not really involved in this rivalry, but we held the older pilots in great esteem, and if they didn’t like the new stranger, we weren’t going to be too friendly either.”

He concluded, “We eventually recognized Gabby’s superior ability as a pilot and his very aggressive fighting spirit, and we respected him for them.”

On August 24, 1943, he recorded his first kill, an Fw 190 over France. He recalled of his early engagement with the Germans: “One moment I had looked back into an empty sky above me, and the next moment it had been full of [Focke Wulf] 190s that seemed to come out of nowhere. I was lucky to have survived the lesson; a lot of inexperienced pilots didn’t.”

He said in reflection: “That evening before I went to sleep I thought about the implications of what I had done that day. I had killed a man, I was sure of it. Yet I felt no remorse. It wasn’t that I particularly wanted to kill people, Germans or otherwise. But this was war, and for three years I had been preparing myself mentally and physically for the day when I would begin shooting down enemy aircraft. Yes, there was a man inside of the Fw-190 I’d destroyed today, but I never saw him, never heard him, never knew his name or what he looked like.”

On November 26, he scored his fourth and fifth kills while flying cover for B-17s, becoming an ace. In the four months that followed, he accumulated 18 victory credits. On May 22, 1944, Gabreski shot down three Fw 190s, bringing his total even with the current leading European ace, MAJ Robert Johnson. Two months later, he had a total of 28 confirmed kills, at the time tying the Pacific ace record of Richard Bong.

In July of ‘44, having reached the combat flight hour limit of 300 hours for Eighth Air Force fighter pilots, he was awaiting order to return home where his marriage to Kay was planned. However, he managed to get in one more combat mission as a bomber escort, but this time, while attempting to strafe some Heinkel He 111s at a German airfield near Niedermendig, he flew so low that he damaged his prop, crash-landing his P-47.

He evaded capture by running into the woods but after five days was taken prisoner and sent to Stalag Luft I. The German officer who interrogated him, Hanns Scharff, spoke English well and greeted him by saying, “Hello, Gabby. We have been waiting for you for a long time.” He was released nine months later at the end of the war.

In all, during WWII, Gabreski flew 166 combat sorties and retained his total of 28 aircraft destroyed in air combat and three on the ground. He returned home and finally married Kay in June of 1945.

In 1947, he continued his service in what would become the Air Force and completed his undergraduate degree. Then-LTC Gabreski was assigned to command the 55th Fighter Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C. Of that he said: “It was great to get back in the cockpit again, and it was great to be a squadron commander in peacetime conditions. The P-51 was a beautiful airplane with a lot of range. It was a joy to fly.”

But peacetime would not last long.

He transitioned to jets, flying the early F-80 Shooting Stars and then the North American F-86 Sabres. In June of 1951, he went to South Korea with the 56th FIW to deliver F-86Es for the 62nd Fighter-Interceptor Squadron. Once there, he was assigned to the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Group and recalls on his first mission, “I searched the deep blue sky for signs of enemy fighters and began to wonder if I still had what it took to fly combat.” On July 8, in his fifth combat mission, he shot down his first MiG-15 and scored 5.5 more MiG kills in the following months. He became a Jet Ace, chalking up another 123 combat missions in Korea in his F-86 nicknamed “Gabby.”

After returning home, he transitioned to the new supersonic F-100s, which he described as “a dramatic experience” because the Super Sabre was a very difficult plane to fly. He said, “I would rather attack a squadron of Fw-190s alone in a P-47 than face one of those drogues again in an F-100. That was nightmare fodder.”

The Polish pilot whose early instructor indicated he “did not have the touch to be a pilot” became one of only seven combat pilots in history to become an ace in two wars.

Gabreski retired from the Air Force in 1967 as a full Colonel with more than 5,000 flying hours, 4,000 in jets. He was credited with 34.5 kills in 289 career combat missions. He is the recipient of the second-highest award for valor below the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross. He is also the recipient of the Army Distinguished Service Medal, two Silver Stars, the Legion of Merit, 13 Distinguished Flying Crosses, a Bronze Star, and seven Air Medals. His service is memorialized in the National Aviation Hall of Fame “for outstanding contributions to aviation by his displaying unusual valor and new combat tactics in becoming a leading ace in two wars, and by devotion to duty in peace.”

Gabby and Kay are survived by three sons and six daughters.

COL Gabby Gabreski: Your example of valor — a humble American Patriot defending Liberty for all above and beyond the call of duty, and in disregard for the peril to your own life — is eternal.

“Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

Live your life worthy of his sacrifice.

(Read more Profiles of Valor here.)

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776

Follow Mark Alexander on X/Twitter.

---

Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of American Liberty, honoring their oath “to support and defend” our Constitution. Pray for our Veterans, First Responders, and their families.

Thank you for supporting our nation’s premier online journal of Liberty.