MUSTANGS OVER IWO

Inside the 506th Fighter Group's long-range missions

- BRIAN WALTER

"Life" photographer Loomis Dean captures Bill unfastening his parachute harness after a flight from Iwo Jima, July, 1945. (Photo courtesy National Archives)

STRAPPING INTO THE YELLOW-TAILED P-51D MUSTANG on December 4, 1945, 1st Lt. William G. Ebersole was about to permanently leave Iwo Jima. One of the few missions left was ferrying aircraft to various locations, and Ebersole was leading a flight of four P-51Ds from Iwo Jima to Isley Field on Saipan. World War II had been over for several months, but the island—and the Pacific Theater—was still abuzz with U.S. armed forces. Aircraft continued to roam the skies, but instead of searching for and destroying the enemy, pilots were mainly accumulating monthly flight hours or ferrying aircraft as Ebersole was doing. But this flight was different for Ebersole. After he landed, he would board a ship and head back to the United States, his war finally over.

Joining the 506th FG

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Bill Ebersole was only 17 years old and a senior in high school. Born on September 30, 1924, in Arcadia, Florida, he was set to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville in the fall of 1942. With the war raging, he began to worry about being drafted into the Army, so he decided to take matters into his own hands and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps as a reservist. After many months of training, his orders finally came, and at 20 years of age Ebersole was headed to Drane Field in Lakeland, Florida, to fill vacancies in the newly formed 506th Fighter Group.

LEFT: A studio color period photo of Ebersole in his dress uniform after receiving his wings.