ixty-five years ago Friday — exactly one year after the attack on Pearl Harbor — Philip Leathead of Jackson was sworn into the U.S. Army Air Corps. Like so many others going away to fight the Germans and Japanese, Leathead was barely more than a boy. He was 19. Before he knew it, Leathead was pilot of a B-24 bomber, responsible for carrying a crew of 10 on bombing missions in the Pacific. Leathead was assigned to the 494th Bombardment Group, nicknamed “Kelley’s Kobras,” the last bomb group formed by U.S. forces during World War II. He flew through flak and a typhoon and watched helplessly as friends were captured or killed. His toughest mission was a 48-plane bombing run into intense anti-aircraft fire over southern Japan. Some planes were lost and all but two were hit by enemy fire. Leathead piloted one of the two planes that returned without holes. “I was always pretty lucky on all this stuff,” Leathead said. After the war, he returned to Jackson, where he owned Beach & Heuman Sport and Ski Shop for 35 years.

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