J. Byrton D. Winder of Middletown, Del, racked up 23,000 pilot hours—all accident-free. This remarkable feat included 96 transport missions over "The Hump" between India and China in World War II.
It all began in his late teens in Lock Haven, Pa., where John Byrton DeWitt Winder learned to fly, then deliver yellow Piper Cubs from factory to customers around the nation.
Come Pearl Harbor, commercial-rated "Bert" Winder enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He was commissioned a second lieutenant and assigned to New Castle County Air Base. Here, as a "transitional" instructor, he trained pilots, including WASPs, moving up to multi-engine equipment.
Overseas, he flew for the Air Transport Command in North Africa and then in Asia. Piloting C-46 transports, he lifted troops, medical supplies and road-building equipment over The Hump (Himalayan Mountains) from India, supplying the Flying Tigers and other forces fighting Japanese in China.
First Lieutenant Winder was awarded, among other citations, the Asiatic-Pacific Theater Ribbon with four battle stars, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal.
After the war, he rose to the rank of major in the reserve, flying C-46s and C-119s out of New Castle and Willow Grove, Pa. In 1957 he joined Atlantic Aviation in New Castle, piloting executive aircraft for 29 years. Retired in Middletown, Bert looks back, remembering "How great it was to get paid for doing something I loved."
His wife of 58 years, Marie Shetzler of Taylors Bndge, died in 2002. Their daughter and son-in-law, Nancy and Peter Cheney, live in Bear; son Thomas Winder lives in Middletown.
Two years ago, Bert reconnected with his high school girlfriend, Marjorie Barton Myers of Williamsport, Pa. They were married last November.
