The Ghost Pilot

By Bart Anderson

It was April 1942 when, after a week of bad weather, pilots of the American famed Flying Tigers of the China Air Force could get off the ground. The operation telephones at an airfield at Kienow began to ring off the hook. Chinese jungle aircraft spotters reported a single plane flying low toward the Kienow airfield. The Americans were puzzled. The Japanese never sent out a single plane for a raid, but the plane was flying from enemy territory.
Taking no chances, the American flight leader ordered six Warhawk P-40s into the air. The unknown plane was now only thirty miles east. About ten miles from the Kienow airfield, two Americans spotted the mystery plane zipping along only two hundred feet above the ground. When the Americans got close enough they were shocked, as one of the P-40 pilot radioed:
“That’s an American insignia, it’s a P-40.” The plane had been literally shot to pieces. They could make out the pilot behind the shattered glass of the windshield. His face was a mask of blood. But the P-40 was holding a steady course.
Only later would the American pilots at Kienow learn that the mysterious pilot was “Corn” Sherill. After the fall of the Philippines, “Corn” Sherill and eleven mechanics cannibalized a few aircraft to make one plane fly. “Corn” would fly one last mission and hit the enemy where it would do the most good.
“Corn” would fly 250 miles, with the extra fuel tanks and hit the Japanese at Formosa. There was no real defense there, for it was too far into enemy ground. The lone American zoomed in and fired burst after burst against the juicy targets. Soon, enemy plane after plane were burning and exploding.
Within minutes, Japanese Zero, buzzing around him like angry bees poured scores of rounds into “Corn’s” already battered plane.
Then the P-40 zipped up into the clouds and set a course for Kienow. Badly wounded, “Corn” was flying by the seat of his pants. When the American Flying Tigers found him, “Corn” was dead. He had died somewhere between Formosa and Kienow. The plane was flying, perhaps, by bracing the stick between his knees, the P-40 continued on course, but flown by a dead man, a phantom pilot.
As the rest of the scrambled Flying Tigers were at the side of the dead pilot and crippled P-40, the plane plunged to the ground and exploded.