PAPPY GUNN: THE MAN WITH A MISSION

It was 1941. The Philippines, a Commonwealth territory under the United States (US), was on the brink of becoming a free nation under the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934. Its capital, Manila, was one of the most progressive cities in Asia, often referred to as “The Pearl of the Orient.”

The country’s aviation scene was booming, with regular Clipper flights operating between the Philippines and the US via the Central Pacific route. In the 1930s, local airlines rose, including the Philippine Aerial Taxi Company (PATCO). When PATCO folded, it paved the way for Philippine Airlines (PAL) to start flying on March 15, 1941.

One key figure in building the airline was Paul Irvin Gunn, an Arkansan native with experience as a Navy pilot and aircraft mechanic. He arrived in Manila in 1939 as Andres Soriano’s personal pilot and later became the fledgling airline’s Chief Pilot and Operations Manager. Gunn was an all-around guy, overseeing the airline’s day-today operations, flying passengers, and scouting potential routes. In the following months, he flew PAL’s Beechcrafts, transporting 125 pounds of gold or passengers from Paracale to Baguio, a hill station where he could escape the sweltering heat in Manila.

Peace was short-lived. The dreaded news came on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. A few hours later, they appeared in the skies of the Philippines, including Davao, but only bombed Clark Field in Pampanga and Camp John Hay in Baguio.

Time was of the essence. Gunn quickly evacuated PAL’s Beechcraft to the decommissioned Grace Park Airfield in Caloocan, where he hid the plane in the nearby La Loma Cemetery.

The country was at war. A hodgepodge of civilian aircraft and brave individuals were pressed to military service to ferry supplies and personnel to and from Bataan and Corregidor.

Gunn became a Captain, while PAL superintendent of maintenance Dan Stickle became the First Lieutenant. Other PAL pilots, Harold Slingsby and Louis Connelly, joined them. Their mission immediately began upon order to take the Beech 18s to Clark Field and transport personnel to Del Monte Bukidnon Airfield, where the surviving US B-17s had taken cover.

The mission was perilous. The red Beech 18s, easily identifiable due to a distinctive color, became prime targets. The planes had to fly at low levels to avoid detection. On several occasions, the red Beechcrafts encountered Japanese Zeroes. Gunn would often dive just above the treetops, trying to outmaneuver the nimble Japanese planes. His experience as a Navy pilot frequently saved them.

Amid the chaos of war, the PAL planes even faced friendly fire while transporting equipment and personnel. At one point, NP-C54 required repairs. PAL’s team patched its leading edge with a tin roof and fixed the bullet holes on its skin. Meanwhile, another Beechcraft, NP-C56, remained unscathed. The planes often made it through Luzon to Del Monte, then flew to Borneo before heading to Darwin, Australia.

Gunn’s exploits and skills earned the admiration of many younger pilots, and they began calling him “Pappy.” As the Allied forces began dispatching crates of P-40 Kittyhawks to Australia, Gunn led the assembly of these aircraft with American and Australian personnel.

He gathered the pilots from the Philippines to help, and after completing the assembly, he led them to Java, Indonesia, in preparation for combat.

Gunn continued flying solo missions to the Philippines, rescuing more fighter pilots from Del Monte, Bukidnon. However, Pappy’s luck eventually ran out. While flying NP-C56, he encountered a Japanese patrol seaplane over Moro Gulf. The Japanese strafed the Beech 18, which crashed into a coconut plantation. The plantation owner, one of their repeat passengers during peacetime, saved Gunn and his copilot. By sheer luck, they went back to Darwin.

Despite losing the PAL Beechcrafts, Gunn remained active in the war by moving to flying the US B-17 Flying Fortress. He also started experimenting with the aircraft using skills learned in the Navy. He modified A-20 Havocs and installed several fifty caliber machine guns on their noses, thus making them lethal. His experiments led Major General George Kenney, commander of the Fifth Air Force in the Pacific, to assign Gunn to his staff as a “special projects officer” and ordered him to modify 16 more A-20s, including installing bomb racks to drop parachute fragmentation bombs. These modified aircraft played a crucial role in the successful raid against a Japanese airfield in 1942.

Pleased with the success of the initial modifications, Kenney ordered Gunn to continue working on other “projects,” which led to victories in the Pacific theater. Gunn, promoted to major, later returned to the Pacific, where a Japanese bombing attack on Leyte in late 1944 left him wounded and removed him from active duty. Despite his family’s captivity at the UST internment camp, Gunn continued working tirelessly to help end the war. He eventually reunited with his family after the Philippines’ liberation.

Gunn retired from the Army as a full colonel on June 30, 1948, due to physical disability. Post-war, he resumed his work with Philippine Airlines until he eventually left to start his own charter airline company.

SOURCES: VARIOUS INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL MATERIALS, INCLUDING AUTHOR JOHN R. BRUNING’S “INDESTRUCTIBLE” AND PETER DUNN’S “AUSTRALIA @ WAR”

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