Father: William Allison Rawlings, a Manager of a Goodyear Branch Station; Mother: Laura [King] Ed. Sunset High School, Dallas; N Texas Agricultural College, Arlington, TX. Aeronautical Engineering prev. Cadet, US Army Air Corps, Jan to Oct 1939; Instructor 'in charge of propeller dept", Love Field, Dallas prev. exp. 314 hrs Address in 1941: 2542 W 12th St, Dallas, TX "Scar on right side"
Postings: 1FPP, 14FPP Class 5 (4-engine) pilot
3 accidents, 2 his fault: - 18 Nov 1941, he struck a post during the landing run of his Battle K9928 - 15 Feb 1942, a forced landing near Gatehouse-of-Fleet in Master W8862 after persisting too far in bad weather - 10 Mar 1943, the tailwheel strut collapsed after a normal landing in Walrus I W3100
"A reliable and hardworking pilot who has proved his worth on Class 5 work" Transferred to RAF Ferry Command "His Ferry Command card shows that he signed on with Ferry Command on July 19, 1943. He captained at least 18 aircraft from North America to Europe but also to India and the Middle East on two occasions. " Sailed to the US on SS Queen Elizabeth, 17 Nov 1943 with fellow ATA pilots Clark Trumbull, Edmund Jarrett and Gilbert Tobin
On 10 Feb 1945, he was the pilot of Liberator KK295 which ditched on Portsalon beach in County Donegal, Eire:
"To this day one can find metal structural parts sticking out of the sand on Portsalon beach at low tides"
m. 20 Dec 1947 in Dallas, June Edna Ann [Cameau] (b. 1920 in Montreal, Canada), 3 children (2 of whom sadly did not survive their first day) They settled in Tulia, Swisher, TX and "Lee was employed by the High Plains Hail Prevention Association as a pilot in their Cloud seeding operations. Indeed, he almost met with a mishap on the early operations when the landing gear of the Curtiss P-40 he was flying got stuck up and he had to abandon the seeding effort to concentrate on lowering his gear manually. This was reported widely in Texas newspapers in June 1951." - https://ww2irishaviation.com/kk295.htm
d. 15 Dec 1980 - Plainview, TX, while working on a crop-spraying aircraft which became engulfed in flames at Hale County Airport.
Commemorated at Plainview Memorial Park, Plainview, Hale County, Texas Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file): |
1936
Draft Card, dated 16 Oct 1940
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