Research turns up WWII photos of Lt. McMahon with Mike

In July of 2008 the Gazette ran a story about Lt. Donald McMahon and his World War II mascot dog, Mike.

Lt. McMahon, an Endicott native, was shot down over Italy on Valentine’s Day of 1944 and was eventually buried in the Endicott Cemetery.

His dog, Mike, was returned to Endicott where he lived with Lt. McMahon’s parents, Harry R. (Mac) and Elizabeth Schmick McMahon.

The story was based on research done by Larry Morasch of Chehalis, a Boeing retiree and a member of the 1955 class of Endicott High School.

Morasch, as a boy, had the honor of accompanying Mike in an Endicott Fourth of July parade, and that experience led to a curiosity about where Mike had been during the war and the fate of his wartime owner, Lt. McMahon.

Morash this week reported additional research in the McMahon saga, having found an actual photo of Lt. McMahon and Mike when they were serving in Corsica during the war.

Morash has also located two living World War II veterans who actually flew with Lt. McMahon. They are Lt. Col. Robert McCampbell, 88, now of Ventura, Calif., and Col. Frederick (Ted) Bullock, 90, Olympia.

Campbell met up with Lt. McMahon, and Mike, in July of 1943 when Campbell was assigned to a base in Sicily from Casablanca. At that time Mike was just a pup.

Morasch discovered Bullock while looking at the web site of the Olympia Air Museum.

Bullock at first could not remember serving with McMahon but later recognized him when Morasch e-mailed pictures of McMahon to him.

Bullock came up with the picture, which he took of McMahon, Mike, and other pilots.

“This is the picture I have been looking for, simply incredible again,” Morasch wrote in an e-mail to the Gazette Monday.

McMahon, who attended school in Endicott during during his junior high years, graduated from Wilson High School in Long Beach, Calif., with the class of 1937.

He actually began his wartime service with Britain’s Royal Air Force which was then training pilots in California. The RAF service put him ahead of most U.S. pilots who began their service after the United States followed Britain into the war.

McCampbell reported to Morasch that McMahon and other RAF pilots taught the U.S. newcomers a lot when they arrived in Sicily and later Corsica.

He also noted McMahon was known as a great story teller at the squadron bar, and McMahon’s dog, Mike, was one of the features of the base.

McCampbell never knew what had happened to McMahon, and to Mike, until he was contacted by Morasch.

McMahon flew with the 4th Fighter Squadron, 52nd Air Group from May to December of 1943. Only four pilots of the 4th Fighter Squadron are believed to be alive today.

Lt. McMahon, who flew 91 sorties to support ground troops and ships in the Mediterranean with the 4th Fighter Group, volunteered for another tour of duty with the 37th Fighter Squadron, which flew P-38 fighters out of San Severo, Italy.

He was downed while flying escort for B-24 bombers on a raid over Verona, Italy, Feb. 14, 1944. At that time, allied troops were pushing the Nazis out of Italy.

The first account from Morasch in the Gazette reported on the flight log of another pilot on the mission. One of McMahon’s last radio messages asked fellow pilots to take care of Mike when they got back to the base.

McMahon was the only child of Harry (Mac) and Elizabeth McMahon. They decided to return to her hometown after the war. It was during that time that a young Morasch had the honor of walking Mike through Endicott’s Fourth of July parade.

The McMahons later moved to Spokane where they operated a restaurant for several years. Both are also buried in Endicott where their son was buried with military honors after he was returned to the United States from a temporary grave in Italy.

(The Gazette will provide an e-mail version of the July 31, 2008, account of Lt. McMahon and Mike. Send request to [email protected].)