Grayson County TXGenWeb

James L. Pattillo
Samuel S. Pattillo

The Denison Press
Monday, October 28, 1940

James Patillo
Goes Into Army
Pilot Training

James L. Patillo, Denison youth, and former Texas university student, has been appointed an army air corps flying cadet and assigned to primary training at Glendale, Calif., it was announced today by Capt. C. K. McNaughten, western district supervisor of army air corps primary training.
Under the army's program, he will complete his training in nine months and then receives his "wings" of military pilots and a commission as a lieutenant.

The Denison Press
Monday, May 26, 1941
pg. 4

JAMES PATTILLO TO RECEIVE WINGS, LIEUT. COMMISSION
As a fitting climax to his 7 and one-half months adventure as a flying cadet in the Army Air Corps, James L. Pattillo, of Denison, will be presented with the coveted silver wings and gold bars of a lieutenant at his graduations from the air corps advanced flying school, Frooks Field, Texas, May 29th.
Pattillo, son of Mr. and Mrs. G.P. Patillo, 716 West Main street, has completed what has been termed a "$25,000 scholarship in the world's finest flying school."
The final phase of the air corps training program, accomplished at Brooks field under the direction of Major Stanton T. Smith, gives the flyer a thorough training in the art of formation flying, instrument flying, interception problems and day and night cross country besides an intensive ground school program.

"Under the Colors" Edition
Denison Herald
Labor Day Edition
September 5, 1943

Lt. Samuel S. Patillo was killed in a bomber crash in the Southwest Pacific on January 16, 1942. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Silver Star posthumously. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. G.P. Patillo and graduated from Denison High School and the University of Texas before joining the Air Force in 1940. The Denison American Legion Post bears his name.

The Denison Herald
Sunday, November 4, 1990

Former resident surfaces in magazine
by Donna Hunt

Former Denisonians show up in the most unusual places when you're least expecting them. The most recent former resident to surface has done it in a big way - in the November 1990 issue of Life Magazine.
An article by Paul Hendrickson on "The Best Thanksgiving," Nov. 22, 1945, the first thanksgiving after the close of World War II when the soldiers were returning to their homes, featured a segment on page 78 on James L. "Pat" Pattillo, whose "Best Thanksgiving" was right here in Denison, Texas.
Jim Pattillo is a retired Municipal Judge in the Santa Barbara, Calif. area who was best known to his service buddies as "Pat".
According to the story, James Pattillo, now 70, flew the B-29 Superfortress with a crew of 11 when he was a young 24 year old major. He left for India from Salinas, Kan., on April 12, 1944, leaving behind his pregnant wife and her two parents crying at the edge of the ramp.
His first son was born several months later when he was flying his first mission with the 792nd Bomber Squadron in the 20th Air Force. He later figured that the baby arrived at the time he was over the target of Japan. The baby was named James after him because his family wasn't sure if Pat would make it back, according to the magazine article.
But 18 months later Pat was headed back to the West, his plane had engine trouble as he was coming into Hawaii, but he said he "just kept hammering that sucker home."
He and his wife were reunited in October in Alameda, Calif., then packed up a 1939 canary yellow Packard coupe and toured the West before heading to Denison for the Nov. 22 Thanksgiving day with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. G. P. Pattillo, 716 West Main and his sister.
Pat told the writer there must have been 12 people in a space big enough for six for dinner that day, but he thought they ate all afternoon.
Pat has a brother, Samuel S. Pattillo, who on Feb. 8, 1942, became Denison's second casualty of the war in the Far East. The Fred W. Wilson-Sam Pattillo American Legion in Denison bears the name of Pat's brother. Sam was the first Denison-born fatality of World War II>
First casualty was Jesse Lee Roy Adams, 21, who was killed in the action in the Pacific war zone following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Adams, however, was not a native Denisonian.
Sam Pattillo had received his wings from Kelly Field in San Antonio on April 25, 1941, and after Pearl Harbor, was one of the first men sent to the Pacific. He received the Silver Star and the Distinguished Service Cross for gallantry in action in the South Pacific.
He was acting as navigator on the leading ship of a flight of B-17s on Feb. 8, 1942, when the Yanks were intercepped by Japanese fighters and his plane was shot down.
Early on Jan. 16, after a bombing raid at Mandoa, Clebes, where the plane destroyed one large transport and damaged another, then in a 55-minute battle, shot down sever of 15 attacking enemy fighters. Sam gained his two awards in that run, one of his engines was shot out and the plane finally had to put down at Kendari, where enemy planes constantly strafed the field.
James "Pat" Pattillo's parents, according to Herald files, were informed in 1943 that First Lt. James L. Pattillo had been promoted to captain at Smyrna, Tenn., where he was a flight instructor on the four engine Liberator planes for the army's pilot transition school.
Mrs. Pattillo, mother of the two Pattillo servicemen, had a third son, Pat Yoakum, was with the Navy Seabees in the Southwest Pacific.
Theirs is a story that was repeated thousands of times across the United States during that World War II. Multiple sons or sons-in-law in one family went off to fight the enemy. Some Never came home. Others, like Pat Pattillo, were the lucky ones.