I haven't seen Brigadier General O. T. Ridley, Jr. USAf, ret. in a few years and am glad to hear he is still alive. I last saw him at a luncheon and we were both looking at Tom Patten's P-51. He lives outside of Nashville and I worked with him on Saturday's for about two years back in the 1980's. He was the glider instructor, and I the tow pilot at Eagleville Sailplanes in Eagleville, Tenn.
He wrote several chapters in a pretty good book called "Missions Remembered Recollections of the World War II Air War." published by McGraw Hill. It was put together by some fighter pilots in the Nashville area.
He was not a P.O.W. as posted but a M.I.A. as he hit the ground running when he bailed out of his Mustang named "Sad Sack". He eventually hooked up with the underground until the end of the war. He told me he was chasing an Me-262 that was low on fuel and it dragged him through the German A.A. fire.
He flew as Leonard K. Carsons wingman including the day that Carson shot down 5 FW-190's.
I worked with him for two years and he never mentioned his background except when Maj. Gen Follis came down and they shared C-130 A recollections. Finally one day someone came in and "outed him" that the reason he was such a darn smooth glider instructor in the Schleicher ASK-21 was that he was a retired General with significant fighter combat experience in WW II and also flew in Korea and Vietnam.
Yeager's book was out about that time and the movie "the Right Stuff" and he would always correct folks by saying no I wasn't in his squadron only his Group." He would also say no I never met Yeager and Anderson , only John England and Leonard Carson. Imagine my surprise when I found out the details years later.
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