Days Gone By....

Ernie Fiebelkorn

2012-06-25T23:10:00.001-04:00

6 feet 4 inches tall and 230 lbs. is awfully big for a fighter pilot, especially when you realize that those cockpits were designed for men no bigger than 5' 10" and 160 lbs, but Ernie Fieblekorn, (Feeb or Red to his friends) always wanted to be a fighter pilot. Accepted for the Aviation Cadet Program in 1942 he repeatedly turned down offers that would have put him in a bomber. He had skill though and raw talent that got him known as a "hot pilot". He graduated at the top of his class and was assigned in 1944 to the 20th Fighter Group in England. He did not have an auspicious start. Assigned first to the 79th Fighter Squandron, he was grounded several times and almost court marshaled for his antics. Supposedly one involved flying through a hanger.

The 79th, did not want him anymore and his flying career would have been over except that the Commanding Officer of the 77th Squadron was looking for a hot pilot and felt that he could control Feeb's enthusiasm. It turned out to be the perfect match. Fiebelkorn took advantage of this final chance and settled down. He started racking up victories. On 8 Nov 1944 he and another pilot ganged up on Col. Walter Nowotny, a top Luftwaffe Ace with 258 victories. their P-51 Mustangs were outmatched by Nowotny's Me-262 jet, Feeb hit him high and Lt. Hayden hit him low. At the last minute, before landing Nowotny spun into the ground and was killed on impact. 20 days later, on a sweep over Germany, Feeb downed four German fighters on one mission, three Me-109's and one FW-190. Having completed 100 missions, destroying 11 enemy aircraft, receipt of two Silver Stars and two Distinguished Service Crosses before his 22nd birthday, Feeb went home to Pontiac Michigan with his new wife for Christmas 1944. While home on leave, he learned of the death of his 19 year old brother during the Battle of the Bulge. His brother Roger, a Private in the 100th Infantry Division had been awarded the Silver Star for his gallantry.

Feeb with ground crew, Sgts Tucker, Yanchitis, Trynosky 28 Nov 1944

He did not return to Europe but stayed in the US as an instructor pilot. After the war, Feeb stayed in the Air Force until 1947. Bored with routine duties he left in January. By the middle of the year he was miserable. A hot pilot on the ground is a sad sight to behold. In mid summer, he looked up one of his old ground crew, a bartender in NY's Astor hotel. Over a beer, he poured out his heart. Former Sgt. Trynosky listened and told him that few in this life have the chance to do what they want and the skills to keep doing it. By Sept. he was back in uniform at Mitchell Field L.I.

The outbreak of the Korean war, June 25th 1950 found Feeb in Japan flying F-82 twin Mustangs in the 4th fighter Squadron. The North Korean invasion, backed by the Soviet Union and their superlative T-34 tank was rolling over the US and South Korean forces. All available US assets went to Korea. On 6 July, 1950 Capt. Fiebelkorn led a four plane element on a hunt for North Korean tanks who were threatening an American unit. Unable to see through the overcast, he let his aircraft down to see if he could get below it. Nothing was heard from him again. Two years later the bodies of Capt. Fiebelkorn and his RIO were found in the wreckage of their F-82 on a mountainside about 40 miles north of Seoul. Captain Fiebelkorn, 27 years old, father of a three year old son, the hot pilot, became the first American pilot to die in the Korean War. He received another DFC for his actions that day and was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

This post was originally prepared as part of the 2012 Memorial Day Presentation for BSA Troop 27 sponsored by St. Catharine's Church in Glen Rock, of the former Ridgewood-Glen Rock Council.

SS Normandie

2012-02-10T08:23:00.000-05:00

70 years ago today the SS Normandie, pride of the French Line, burned and capsized in NY harbor. Originally feared to be German sabotage it turned out to be poor safety habits among welders.

On the same day, Nick and Paula Trynosky were married. For the rest of his life, when asked how long he had been married my Dad, demonstrating the greenhorn (my Mothers words) that he was would answer something to the effect, “February 9^th, 1942,, the day the Normandie burned, I had a choice of marrying Paula or going to see the ship burn.” Paula was never particularly happy with this.

Something to be remembered.

Test Post

2011-11-28T15:32:00.001-05:00

This is a test post from the new computer at Trynosky HQ... stand by for future updates.

USMMA Acceptance Day - 1998

2011-07-29T12:04:00.001-04:00

Some video from Acceptance Day at the Merchant Marine Academy. As I think I mentioned before, this is the day when the Plebe Candidates are formally accepted into the regiment, and take their Oath of Office United States Maritime Service, and United States Naval Reserve. It's one of the bigger milestones of Plebe year, there are some additional perks granted, and the class is let out of school on liberty for the first time. The next big milestone is Recognition, where the 4th Class is recognized by the rest of the regiment, and they are no longer plebes.

Amazingly, the first minute or so of the video is the most fascinating part for me. The reason being it's a few moments of footage of the plebe class photo being taken. This large panoramic photo has been on my wall at my parents house, my apartment after graduation, and my house for almost 12 years. For some reason it was like stepping into a time machine to see video of the photo being taken.

Beat Retreat 2000

2011-07-20T23:48:00.001-04:00

We had a copy of the USMMA Beat Retreat from 2000. This performance took place on Sept 15th, this was the Beat Retreat scheduled for parents weekend and Acceptance Day, when the Plebe Class is accepted into the Regiment of Midshipmen.

I performed in eight of these events while I was at the academy, the best ones were always the parents weekend performances, as they also featured the Nassau County Police Pipe and Drum Corps, with the third act being a great performance of both the Regimental Band from the academy, and the Pipe band together.

Posted is the first segment, I'll come back and edit this post later when I get the second segment up tomorrow night. The transfer cut out during the fundraising speech by the Academies Public Affairs Officer at the time, Capt. Safarik.

and now the second part...

This is really just the last act with a few speeches thrown in. It features the Academy Band playing together with the Pipers, and what was always my favorite part of the show, and great arrangement of Highland Cathedral.

I transferred a few home videos of the 99 and 2001 Beat Retreats last night as well, and I'll post them at some point. Its mostly just bits and pieces though, not the nice professional recording I am able to share here.

Dad

2011-07-19T10:00:00.002-04:00

Here is my father's baby picture.

Stephen K. Trynosky as a wee lad... every thing I know about playing the trumpet I learned from him.

Christmas Card from the Trynosky Family age 1

Dad a little older posing with the other Nick

Mom

2011-07-18T11:08:00.000-04:00

Here's my mother's baby picture.

Denise Trynosky as a cute little baby

Inexplicably, Gregory Peck was also in the frame that this photo came from. I suppose they sold frames with pictures of famous actor's back in the day. That's probably a lot better than random people, my guess is that licensing fees and the SAG are the reasons this is no longer done.

Gregory Peck doing what he does best... sell frames

Gun-Decking

2011-07-17T17:59:00.000-04:00

Ahh... an accountability chit from college. I remember these well, though I wasn't often the class leader taking accountability. In fact I can't remember ever being the official "section leader" for any one of the many classes I took. I filled in a bunch of times, when the class leader was absent.

This form was the response to an incredibly lackadaisical academic policy that existing prior to and during my plebe year. For example, a close friend attended maybe three physics classes, not including tests and labs, which he showed up for an entire semester. He ended up with a B+, I attended every class and would up with D... In a way, it speaks to his ability to learn physics, and my inability to grasp some of the material at the time. It also speaks to the fact that a number of students, being given a free ride by the tax payers, never showed up to class. It also speaks to the fact that a lot of instructors didn't particularly care if their students showed up, didn't show up, or were napping in the engineering lounge (a story for another day perhaps?)

So, sometime during my plebe year it was decided to have attendance taken not only, by the instructors for their grading purposes, but for regimental purposes. Being absent from class with no valid excuse, subjected you to an automatic 26/2 Class II violation, 26 demerits and two weeks of restriction. I can't remember the policy, but I'm guessing that gun-decking, or falsifying accountability reports, was also frowned upon. My brain tells me it probably would be an honor code violation, but I believe it just carried another mandatory Class II sentence, in this case for some reason it fell into one of those gray areas like having information pre-programmed into the memory of a graphing calculator. If you did it for watch, restriction, or some other regimental type function you'd be in big trouble, but for classes... a slap on the wrists.

The system was never taken seriously, and I'm pretty sure it was more or less abandoned by the time I graduated, though attendance in class at least to my knowledge improved (or perhaps, folks who did well in High School physics needed to pay attention in advanced navigation, or engineering classes) so they were induced to attend.

The question I guess I have for myself is that if I was never an official "Section Leader"... (perhaps I was, it was such a nothing assignment I may just not remember)... and I was filling in for someone who was absent... why is the form filled out "ALL PRESENT"

Very curious!

An Honorable Discharge

2011-07-17T14:37:00.001-04:00

Grandpa Joe

2011-07-17T14:18:00.001-04:00

Here is a baby picture of My grandfather Joseph O'Donnell

Grandma Julia

2011-07-17T14:13:00.000-04:00

Here is a photo of Grandma Julia as a baby.

A mystery photo?

2011-07-17T14:05:00.000-04:00

We are trying to figure out when this photo was taken, but here is a picture of Grandpa Nick during WWII. I suppose we'll come back and edit this post when the mystery is solved.

Grandma Paula and Grandpa Nick

2011-07-17T13:52:00.000-04:00

Here is a picture of my Father's parents together.

and here is a picture of my Grandma Paula by herself.

Grandma Julia and Grandpa Joe

2011-07-17T13:49:00.000-04:00

We're sitting here testing out the scanner, and trying to get this thing started. Here is an old photo of my Mom's parents.

And below is a picture of them at a wedding... not their wedding mind you, but somebody's. I think it's the closest we have to a wedding picture of the two of them.

First Post

2011-07-06T11:56:00.000-04:00

My intentions for this second blog that I am starting are to periodically post interesting pictures, stories, video clips, from the past. Sort of a web based history of the Trynosky family through the generations. I have nothing to add right now, but we have tons of content that needs to be converted and shared. Old family newsletters, home videos, tons of pictures from my childhood.... my hope is to extend this to the get histories, stories, pictures, anecdotes of the extended families as well.

Time to experiment!