In Memoriam
Eulogy of Air Force Lt. Col. Henry Cervantes
April 29, 2024
By Judge Frederick P. Aguirre, Ret.
Born into a farmworker family on October 9, 1923, in Fresno, CA, Cervantes was christened at birth by his mother, Maria Rincon Cervantes, with the noble name of Enrique Octavio Cervantes. His older brother was also given a distinguished name: Gustavo Ulysses Cervantes. But their grammar schoolteachers told them their new “American” names would be Henry and Gus.
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Their strict mother, mindful that her sons would have do well in school and to master the English language, purchased two books: Atlas of the World and Collier’s Dictionary. She would dutifully oversee them while they did their homework and would require them to consult the dictionary to insure the proper pronunciation of words. The Atlas and Collier’s dictionary would be one of the few items besides clothes and kitchen ware that they would take when they followed the crops up and down the San Joaquin valley and often slept in tents with dirt floors.
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Hank Cervantes’ mother and his father, Pedro Cervantes, divorced and she married Ignacio Gutierrez. They had five children: Reuben, Steve, Evelyn, Aurora and Jennie. 91-year-old Jennie Gutierrez Gonzales is Hank’s sole surviving sibling.
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When Hank was 11 years old the family moved to Pittsburg, CA, which is northeast of San Francisco, where Ignacio Gutierrez found work in a Cannery. But the job only lasted a few months, and the family went on Relief. Hank’s shoes were too small and had holes. Even the cardboard that he stuffed into them did not keep the rainwater out. Desperate to buy some shoes, he stole a quarter from the Lopez Market, went to the Salvation Army and purchased a pair of black and white wing tip shoes. They were two sizes too big. So he stuffed newspaper in the tips, laced them tight and, as he later wrote, “shuffled into a rainstorm feeling just like a real dandy.”
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77 years later, Hank read an article in the LA Times written by Steve Lopez. Lopez commented that he hailed from Pittsburg, CA and that his family ran a market there in the 30s and 40s. Hank wrote Lopez and asked if he was related to the family that ran the Lopez Market on Black Diamond Street? If so, he had a confession to make - in 1934, he stole 25 cents from the store. Lopez related that Hank wrote: “My conscience would be relieved if you would accept restitution by means of a check, money order, or coin of the realm.” Lopez and Hank soon met for lunch. On April 17, 2011, Lopez wrote an article in the LA Times about the incident and about Hank’s rise from dark-skinned child of Mexican immigrants to pilot of B-17 bombers on 26 missions over Germany during World War II, later jet pilot and attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force. Lopez added “Cervantes offered to pay for our lunch as a way to settle his 25-cent debt to the Lopez family. But I picked up the tab and told him the debt was settled, and the pleasure was mine.”
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In high school, Hank was eager to run in the track team at Liberty High School but he was too poor to purchase track shoes. He found a pair of discarded track spikes in the trash can. The shoes were a size too small. But with those very tight spikes he still ran the 880-yard sprint. That is half a mile. In his senior year, he won the league championship in the 880.
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In early 1942, his older brother Gus joined the U.S. Marine Corps. Hank yearned to be a Navy Air pilot. On October 9, 1942, his 19th birthday, Hank rode his motorcycle to the Oakland Armed Forces Recruiting Center. He walked up to the recruitment office of the V-12 preflight training school, the Naval Air pilot training program. The lieutenant seated at the desk looked at him and stated: “Young man, we don’t take Filipinos, spics or niggers in this program. If you want to join the United States Navy, I suggest that you go down the hall. I think they’re taking you guys as mess boys right now.” Hank shouted back a few choice words and sprinted out of the office. He waited to be drafted and in January 1943 was drafted into the U.S. Army.
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Lt. Col. Henry Cervantes
1923-2024
While in training in Monterey, CA, he saw a sign that read “Take a test and become a pilot, navigator, or bombardier in the United States Army Air Corps.” He took the test and passed it with a score of 96 out of 100. He received training at Santa Ana Army Airfield and at Washington State which included mathematics, Naval and Ground forces, morse code, physics, maps and charts, chemical warfare, water survival, English, geography, modern history, theory of flight and preparatory flying experience. He also received flight training in PT-17, AT-6 at Douglas, AZ, and B-17s at Thunderbird Field, Glendale, AZ and Las Vegas Army Air Field, Nevada.
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On June 27, 1944, age 20, Hank was commissioned a flight officer, capable of piloting a B-17 bomber and other aircraft. The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress had 4 engines, a cruising speed of 200 mph, weighed 50,000 pounds, and could carry six tons of bombs 1,200 miles. It also had thirteen .50-caliber machine guns. He received more flight training in B-17 bombers in night flying, formation flying, bombing procedures and crew coordination at Army airfields in Lincoln, Nebraska and Rapid City, South Dakota. On December 31, 1944, Hank and his fellow flyers boarded a troop-transport ship in Boston. It was crammed with 14,000 soldiers. A few days later they landed in Glasgow, Scotland.
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Hank was assigned to the 100th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, better known as the “Bloody 100th”. He was transported to Thorpe-Abbotts field which was about 90 miles from London.
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At 6:00 am on a cold, stormy February 19, 1945, 20 year-old Hank was on his first bombing mission over Germany. He was the co-pilot of the B-17 bomber, better known as E-Z GOIN’. Several hundred American and British bombers made the treacherous run, down Bomber Alley and over the North Sea. On his fifth mission, a massive force of over 1,100 bombers attacked several targets in the Berlin area. On every occasion, anti-aircraft artillery would fire from below and German fighter planes would attack from above and behind the slow-moving bombers. On March 18, 1945, 1,300 bombers, B-17s, B-24s and British Lancasters, and 700 fighter planes attacked Germany. The Germans deployed over 10,000 cannons against the fleet of bombers. They were also attacked and strafed by strange-looking German fighter planes that had no propellers. They were ME-262 jets that flew at 560 mph, much faster than our propeller-driven P-51 Mustangs at 440 mph.
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On March 8, 1945, Reichmarschall Hermann Goering issued a directive that stated that as the “entire world is determined to annihilate us” he summoned German pilots “to a mission from which your chance of return will be minimal”. Over 200 pilots volunteered for the suicide mission which was to ram bombers while in flight. ME-109s, with their steel propellers, would slice into a B-17 or B-24 thus destroying the plane and its crew. This would dispirit other American crews from flying and bombing Germany. It would also give time for the Germans to produce more ME-262 jets, develop the atomic bomb and perfect the V-2 rocket.
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On April 7, 1945, Hank and his crew took off on his 24th mission, headed for an oil storage facility near Hamburg, Germany. As they approached the target a ME-109 rammed a B-17 bomber nicknamed, Candy’s Dandy. The two planes exploded, and everyone was killed. Over 25 bombers were rammed that day by German fighter planes. At 1323 a ME-109 intentionally crashed into the fuselage and tail of E-Z GOIN’. The right tail was sheared off. The top of the tail was crumpled. There were two big slashes in the fuselage aft of the left gunner’s window. The flight control cables and electric wire bundles were cut too. The left elevator and the top of the rudder were cut off. The number one engine and master radio control box were shot out. The aircraft rocked and reeled. But they were able to deliver the payload of bombs over the target. The crew jettisoned everything possible, except the emergency equipment. They were able to fly the damaged bomber 5 hours back to England and safely land it.
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On April 11, 1945, the German High Command reported that “More than 60 four-engine bombers were destroyed by rammings alone. Some German fighter pilots were able to save their lives by bailing out.”
For the record, the 100th Bomb Group flew 306 combat missions with 351 B-17s. Of them 204 went down due to enemy action. No wonder it was called the Bloody 100th. Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks recently produced a television series entitled Masters of the Air, which depicts the exploits of the Bloody 100th. On January 10, 2024, at the premier of the series, Hank was honored along with 3 other surviving flyers- John “Lucky” Luckadoo, James Rasmussen and Robert Wolff.
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On May 9, 1945, Germany surrendered.
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Hank returned stateside, was assigned to work in several airbases, flew the B-25 Mitchell bomber, C-47 SkyTrain and the C-45 Expediter. In late 1945, Hank’s mother was injured in an automobile accident and he was allowed to fly home. Fortunately, her injuries were not life threatening. He took advantage of the opportunity and invited his sisters and brothers to board a B-25 and he flew them over their neighborhood. His brother Gus, the Marine combat veteran, convinced Hank to stay in the Army Air Corps. In 1947, The Army Air Corps became the U.S. Air Force.
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In 1951, Hank volunteered to test pilot the new Boeing B-47 Stratojet, a swept wing, six-engine jet bomber. He was based at McConnell Air Force Base, near Wichita, Kansas. The B-47 weighed about 220,000 pounds, could attain 50,000 feet and had a top speed of 600 mph. He also test piloted Lockheed’s T-33 jet fighter, which later became the F-80 Shooting Star.
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In 1956, Hank volunteered for the Strategic Air Command and was assigned to March Field near Riverside, CA and also Thule Air Base, which at 700 miles north of the Arctic Circle is the northernmost air base in the world.
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In 1961, Hank became the Project Officer of SAC’s new super-sonic jet bomber, the B-58 Hustler. Maximum speed of 1,325 mph, climbed at 17,000 feet a minute loaded and 46,000 feet a minute unloaded. He was also elevated to Major and awarded a Command Pilot rating. At SAC’s headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base in Kansas, Hank was in charge of insuring that the new planes were combat ready which included dealing with a host of technical difficulties such as bombing-navigation system failures, flight control malfunctions, engine problems and tire failures due to the bomber’s fast landing speed which led to modifying the contract with General Dynamics, the builder of the B-58. It was the world’s first Mach-2 bomber and it set 19 world speed and altitude records during 1961-1969.
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On May 1, 1965, Cervantes retired from the U.S. Force after 22 years of service.
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For several years, Cervantes ran the Officer’s Club at the Space and Missile Systems base here in Los Angeles hosting retired officers, celebrities and nuclear scientists such as Dr. Edward Teller.
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He worked briefly with the Northrop Corporation and wrote the F-5 pilots handbook. He also worked with the Department of Defense as Director of Policy and Plans in the Los Angeles Office of Defense Contract Administration Services. From 1986 to 1993, he served as a staff advisor for Hispanic affairs in the office of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley.
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Hank was rated a USA Track and Field Official and officiated in the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics. He also volunteered his services to the Special Olympics in Los Angeles for several years. He was an avid snow skier. He was a motivational speaker and spoke in numerous schools and colleges in the Los Angeles area.
In 2003, Hank wrote a book about the early part of his life and Air Force career- Piloto-Migrant Worker to Jet Pilot.
When asked by a newspaper reporter what I admired about Hank, I responded: Two attributes: Tenacity and Diction. He displayed that rare ability to master or overcome difficult challenges, whether it be to surmount racist attitudes, pass critical-thinking tests, become a jet pilot. Hank spoke softly, but directly. He chose his words carefully. He reminded me of some of my law school professors who were educated at Harvard or Yale Universities
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United States Air Force Lt. Col. Enrique Octavio Cervantes - Rest in peace, my brother.