It was a milestone for Lockheed when P-38J-20, serial # 44-23296, was rolled out of the factory in May 1944. This Lightning was the 5,000th example produced, and was a far cry from expectations of mere hundreds when the prototype was built in 1938-39. The latest P-38 was painted a vermillion red, and the sobriquet YIPPEE was applied under the wings and along the nose.

Few people realize that after publicity photos were taken the precious fighter was stripped of its manufacturer markings, and sent out to the Pacific where it was desperately needed. At this point in the war, the P-38 was still in high demand by USAAF commanders around the world (except the 8th Fighter Command, which was on the verge of converting to the P-51 as its fighter of choice) so there was no room for a permanent mascot decorating the skies over Burbank.

Appropriately, YIPPEE was re-adorned in military markings and sent out to the only all?P?38 group operating at the time in the Southwest Pacific. The 475th Fighter Group acquired 44-23296 probably sometime in June or July 1944, and assigned it to the 431st Fighter Squadron. There is apparently no record of the fighter being assigned a regular pilot or squadron number; the next piece of documentary evidence being a note that Lieutenant Floyd Fulkerson developed some mechanical problem during a mission over the Philippines on December 20, 1944, and returned early.

I was able to contact Fulkerson through the diligence of another P-38 researcher, but found that the old P-38 veteran remembered very little about the incident. At that time of the war, the newer pilots of the 431st were not ordinarily assigned permanent aircraft, so he took anything he could get. That was probably the case on that day, and the luck of the draw had him returning early with some routine malfunction.

The gallant P-38 served on for a few weeks more when it was reported damaged in a taxi accident sometime in January 1945. The operational life a P-38 out in the Pacific was generally around six months, so YIPPEE was almost certainly turned over to a service squadron, probably ending its days in a fighter pool before it joined other surplus aircraft in the scrap yard or was simply cut up and buried. It would have been an ignominious end for a P-38 with such a name.




Regards Duggy