Lowell Williams, February 25, 1922

Lowell Williams
February 25, 1922 - September 18, 2006

Lowell Williams, P-51 Mustang fighter pilot, 357th Fighter Group, World War II

Capt. Calvert ("Lowell") Williams, scored the first victory
for the 357th FG, in his Mustang "Wee Willie"

Excellent Video of Lowell's
72nd Birthday Surprise P-51 Ride
(with special thanks to Nelson Carrick)

(click the play arrow to start the video)

Lowell Williams, photo by Anne LeBris

on his birthday, 1994

with Emmy

with Pattie Gallant

with Anne LeBris

with Sheri Collins

with Michael McCafferty

with Citabria #N??????

with Freeway Annie

If you have other photos
and you would like to contribute to this collection,
please attach them to an email to me.

The obituary of Calvert Lowell Williams

Here's a Lowell story sent in by Robert J. Currie:

Lowell’s First Mission

About 20 years ago, somewhere on the way to Oshkosh in Citabria 975 and Decathlon 2CA and after about two margaritas, Lowell regaled Emmy, Karyn Dawes, and I with this story of his first mission, probably 1942.

While drinking coffee in the briefing room before his first mission, one of the veterans leaned over to him and said “Easy on the coffee, chap”! Lowell asked why, and the guy just smiled and said “You’ll see”. Lowell went on to explain that pilots were given three pieces of information only for navigation – distance to target, magnetic course to target, and average wind. That was it, and most pilots wrote them on their hand, since that’s all the information they were given. There were no electronic navaids, just basic dead-reckoning and pilotage. The missions averaged about five flight hours.

After takeoff in his P-51 Mustang and at a bitterly cold cruising altitude of 20 to 30 thousand feet, Lowell had to pee, so he set up his relief tube and went. Later in the mission, he did so again, but it didn’t work – the relief tube was frozen shut. He said for the rest of the mission, all he could think about was taking a piss (apparently, it was an easy mission). I guess many of the other pilots had the same problem, because when they returned to base, pilots were landing in all directions at once on the grassy field. They jumped out, dropped their insulated leather drawers, and peed long and hard on their tires. Lowell was doing the same when he looked up and saw dozens of high school girls along the fence line about 100 feet away, giggling with glee at all the American fighter pilots peeing on their tires.

Lowell said that was the last time he drank coffee before a mission.

Lowell Williams, June 5, 1994

Above photo taken June 5, 1994, in Easton, Maryland,
on a flying tour with Michael McCafferty (MM), after picking up the (second) Waco from the factory in Michigan,
then flying east before coming back to San Diego.

Waco #1, Lowell's favorite

This is MM's Waco number 1 (of 2), delivered in 1993. Lowell really enjoyed that biplane!