Joe McGee

"I know you've got a pilot in you, son. I just don't know where you're hiding it!"

Few remember or know anything about Joe McGee. An unknown legend, Joe was one of aviation's unsung heroes not so much for his exploits in the air, but for those he did on solid ground. Grounded by a leg injury, Joe McGee founded a ramshackle flight school which produced some of the best pilots of his era. His friendliness and down-to-earth personality — as well as a tremendous love for the sky — made Joe an inspiration to those pilots fortunate enough to know him.

Joe McGee had enlisted in the Usland armed services several years before the outbreak of the Great War. A respected officer, McGee had previous experience as a pilot from flying crop dusters and tour planes. Interested in the military's new Air Corps division, Joe felt that he could make the transition fairly easily.

Starting out as a flight instructor and navigator, Joe McGee rose quickly through the ranks. His exemplary training skills, his patience with inexperienced young cadets, and his respect for his men earned Joe a promotion to head flight instructor and co-pilot of the squadron's lead bomber — an old plane by today's standards, but then one of the most advanced planes of its time.

Above are mementos and medals collected by aviator Joe McGee, including the Legion of Valor.

McGee's good-natured personality and natural leadership made him popular with his squadron mates, and eventually McGee was made captain of the lead bomber's flight crew. Under his confident command, the team ran several successful sorties. For his accomplishments, Joe McGee won numerous decorations, including the coveted Legion of Valor.

However, one fateful evening while returning home from a night mission, one of the bomber's left engines inexplicably caught fire. His plane out of control and rapidly losing altitude, Joe quickly helped all his men to escape the burning plane before the flames reached the fuel lines.

Joe himself bailed out just before the bomber exploded and he parachuted to safety. Everyone escaped alive, but Joe suffered a bad leg injury that left his right leg useless. This handicap meant that he was grounded, unable to fly any more missions.

But just because Joe couldn't fly did not mean that he could no longer contribute to aviation. Armed with his knowledge of aircraft and flight training, McGee traveled to a remote wasteland locale where he established a school that would become one of the best academies for pilots — "Joe's Flying School." Situated in a open pocket of land surrounded by cliffs, Joe's flight school attracted the best and brightest of the air force's cadets.

Joe McGee's training program was anything but conventional. Using mock aircraft props and elaborate home-made simulators, Joe taught his crew of young fledglings to master the art of piloting. Despite the barren landscape and crude equipment, Joe McGee's training was made special by his passionate love of flight, a love which he passed on to his pupils. Joe's love for life and the sky was so inspiring that it touched the lives of his students as well, who excelled in their classes and became some of the best pilots of their generation.

Above: One of the unusual flight training devices at Joe's Flying School.

Left: Joe McGee, in his later years.

The end of the War meant the end of a tremendous pilgrimage of aspiring young flyers to Joe's academy. Joe's school had become something of a legend and still attracted students, but in dwindling numbers. Sadly, Joe McGee passed away a few years later. A landslide shortly thereafter blocked the entrance to the airfield, separating the legendary flight school from the rest of the world.

Over the years, the remains of Joe's Flying School rusted away and fell into disrepair, but the legend of Joe McGee has been kept alive by his students and old squadron mates, many of whom became notable aviators themselves. To this day, Joe's spirit lives on in the hearts of his friends and colleagues. He trained the best — some say, he was the best.

"Look around you, Baloo — up here you're free as a bird.
The skies are yours . . ."

JOE MCGEE
Height: 4'9" Sex: Male Age: 60+ (at time of decease) DEXTERITY 2D+2 Brawling parry 5D+1, dodge 4D, firearms 4D, melee combat 4D, melee parry 4D+1 KNOWLEDGE 3D Aircraft 7D, bureaucracy 4D+1, locations 6D, scholar: flight instruction 8D, streetwise 4D, survival: desert 6D+1 MECHANICAL 3D+1 Aircraft gunnery 5D, aircraft piloting 7D+2, navigation 6D PERCEPTION 3D+2 Bargain 5D, command 6D, con 6D+1, hide 4D, search 4D+2 STRENGTH 3D Brawling 5D, lifting 4D, stamina 5D+1 TECHNICAL 2D+1 Aircraft repair 6D+1, first aid 3D+1, mechanical build/repair 5D