Bob Clyde was another pilot in Tom Cartmell’s training group.  He and his wife, Jean, shared an apartment with Tom and Zoe when they were in Fresno, California.

On the day Tom first soloed in his P-61 Black Widow, he engaged Bob Clyde, flying another P-61, in a practice dogfight. Tom writes:

“Today was the day: I soloed out in the P61and it is really just about everything I had hoped it would be. After only 30 min. flying Bob Clyde and I were up having a rat race doing all kinds of acrobatics that we hadn’t done sine we left Luke Field.”

After completing their training, Tom was assigned to the 417th Night Fighter Squadron in France, and Bob was assigned to the 548th NFS in the Pacific.

Bob and his Radio Operator, Bruce Leford, scored the last downing of an enemy fighter during WWII. On the night of August 14-15, 1945, they found and forced down a Japanese Nakajima Ki-43 “Oscar” into the sea near Ie Shima. They were flying a P-61B, “Lady in the Dark”.