Update November 28, 2023. Sorry for the delay in getting this page updated.
“Hi ! Mazie , was my grandmother , and E.B Travis is my grandfather. In the photo with the plane that is E.B. Travis. You have it captioned saying it was ” Dick in the photo.” No, no it was not. Sorry to say.”
A Debra Wilson posted this a long time ago and I just saw it:
Hi my dad, Albert Wilson was a plane mechanic. He had a picture of Maze me and monk. My father said he was the “me”. I’ve been trying to of nd out more information.
Dick lived in my hometown in Kansas, so this is not Nebraska aviation related, but a nice story. Dick was one of those World War Two veterans who rarely talked about their experience in the war. As a high school student, I worked in a gas station when they were full service, and Dick would stop by once a week for me to fill up his little green MG. I talked with Dick many times and he never mentioned that he was a P-51 pilot in the war. My dad told me later that Dick was a pilot. I questioned him next time I saw him and he gave me a couple photos of him during the war. Luckily I kept them and after going through a box of photos, I found the one here. It shows Dick and his F-6 (a photo recon verions of the P-51) named “Mazie, Me and Monk.” I regret I never asked him what that meant. I’ve been told that the photo isn’t of Dick, but someone else.
Dick would have been in his mid to late 50’s when I knew him and he worked at the local rock quarry.
“Mazie, Me and Monk” was also the mount of Capt. E. B. “Blacky” Travis (9th Air Force, probably the 9th Recon Group), who earned a Silver Star (General Order No. 44, 1945) when he flew this mustang over the Battle of the Bulge to take photos for General Patton.
- Major Richard Dean Weast, USAAF
- Born November 20, 1920
- Died February 25, 1998
Dick’s gravestone and marker:
Aviation in Nebraska 