WWII fighter pilot Jack Hallett Sr., from Leesburg, dies at 101

Cindy Peterson
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Beloved World War II veteran Jack H. Hallett Sr. of Leesburg died on May 15 at the age of 101.

Hallett spent the last few years of his life becoming a staple in the community by promoting aviation and working with young people at the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) in Leesburg.

At the age of 99 he was given an honorary flight on a P51 Mustang, received the Quilt of Valor by the Daughters of the American Revolution on his 100th birthday and served as the guest of honor in the Georgefest parade in Eustis in 2020.

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He was still flying planes at 100.

Unfortunately, an accident landed him in the Lady Lake Specialty Care rehabilitation facility last year.

Jack Hallett Sr. joined the military the day after the Pearl Harbor attack

Hallett was born on Nov. 17, 1920 and enlisted in the Army Air Corps on Dec. 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor. He served as a flight instructor and a P38 and P47 fighter pilot during WWII. He completed 104 missions including D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge.

WWII veteran Jack Hallett was invited to co-pilot the P-51 Mustang "Toulouse Nuts" fighter plane from the Wings of Freedom Tour at the Leesburg International Airport in 2019.
WWII veteran Jack Hallett was invited to co-pilot the P-51 Mustang "Toulouse Nuts" fighter plane from the Wings of Freedom Tour at the Leesburg International Airport in 2019.

He was shot down by enemy fire twice and lived to tell about it.

He was a flight instructor, designed Disney’s irrigation system, and In March, his great niece conducted a Q&A on Reddit where people from all over the world could ask Hallett anything. Here were a few of his responses.

Q: How has aviation changed since you have been flying? What is better? What is worse?

A: “Phew, I learned to fly in an open cockpit biplane. And the gas gauge was a vial in the top wing with a cork in it. And now of course it’s entirely different. The whole instrument panel is much better than my initial flying days. I can’t think of anything worse!”

Major Jack Hallett is presented with a certificate for his Quilt of Valor by the Ocklawaha Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Major Jack Hallett is presented with a certificate for his Quilt of Valor by the Ocklawaha Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Q: Most scary incident?

A: “God this is lengthy. Alright, over the Moselle and the Rhine. The Moselle had a marshaling yard and there were hills on each side. So to attack the marshaling yard, they were able to shoot from the hills.

"As we went down to attack the marshaling yards, I remember the sky was full of lead. I remember that. We were a flight of four, flying to cover, and I watched the other guys go in to dive bomb the marshaling yard. And it was just solid lead. And even if you could move a quarter mile an hour you’d get hit, because of all the lead in the air.

"But it was our turn to go down, so we went. I figured there was no way we’d be missed, but we did. Instead of pulling up, we stayed in the Moselle River, so we escaped all the fire, and we didn’t lose one guy. And it was so scary. That was the most scared I’d ever been.”

Q: Getting shot down once seems almost certainly fatal, but twice? Is surviving that experience mostly luck or is it not necessarily as bad as it sounds?

A: “The first time I got back to the field and when I dropped my gear my indicators showed I had three down and locked. What they didn’t show was that I didn’t have a wheel on my right strut. So that crash was considered being shot down and destroyed the airplane, but I was able to continue flying.

"The second time I was in a different type of airplane, I was in a P47, I was so low, all I could do when I got hit was put the nose between two trees and let the trees take the beating. And there again, it was an accident.”

B.J. Hauserman, Pam Beightol and Joan Leubbers of the Ocklawaha Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution present the Quilt of Valor to Major Jack Hallett.
B.J. Hauserman, Pam Beightol and Joan Leubbers of the Ocklawaha Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution present the Quilt of Valor to Major Jack Hallett.

Read the entire Q&A here: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/tcqhhq/im_jack_hallett_a_101_year_old_ww2_fighter_pilot/

Just two months later, Hallett died.

“One thing that really struck me in our conversations was that Jack, EVEN JACK, who was, may I remind you, shot down twice by the Nazis, who liberated soldiers, who had the guts to troll his boss, who screamed out the top of his lungs as he dove into enemy battle, even this man believed he had still not done enough,” Hallett’s great niece wrote.

“Which maybe goes to show that we've all got a really twisted sense of what enough is. But I just really wanted to thank you all, on behalf of Jack and myself, for simply listening to his story and his life. Because it was so much more than enough.”

This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: WWII fighter pilot from Leesburg, Florida, dies at 101