Greenville's school-bond glider and the D-Day Fighting Falcon

In spring 1943, Greenville’s public-school students ran a war-bond drive with a one-glider goal. They passed $72,000 in sales, far beyond that goal. The campaign meant something special here because the Gibson Refrigerator plant had switched from appliances to building Waco CG-4A military gliders.

Gibson was one of 15 companies that made the CG-4A. The unpowered aircraft carried two pilots and as many as 13 troops, and the local museum says each one required about 70,000 parts. The students were rallying behind the same machines their parents and neighbors were building.

On May 19, 1943, the students christened Gibson-built glider 42-46574 The Fighting Falcon at Black Field. That is where the story needs one careful distinction: the glider Greenville christened was not the glider that flew at the front of the D-Day formation.

Before the mission, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Murphy switched to a newer Gibson glider equipped with updated navigation gear. The replacement, serial 43-41430, received a copy of the Fighting Falcon insignia and chalk number 1. Murphy led the 52-glider Mission Chicago column into Normandy in it early on June 6, 1944. The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force confirms that Murphy directed glider planning and led the gliders into Normandy.

The replacement lead glider crashed during the landing. Greenville’s original Fighting Falcon had moved to chalk number 45 and landed safely. Today, a full-size replica at the Fighting Falcon Military Museum on Cass Street helps tell both halves of the story: the school campaign at home and the namesake glider that led the mission overseas.