WWII ace pilot made a home in Lynchburg
Submitted photo
By
Dave Thompson
Published: May 8, 2008
Two Navy Crosses, three Silver Stars, a Distinguished Flying Cross and ace fighter pilot status in World War II defined the military life of retired Navy Capt. Theodore Hugh Winters Jr.
Winters, who died April 25 at age 95, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1935, and went on to serve 26 years in the Navy, earning multiple additional awards, including two Purple Heart awards.
He moved to Lynchburg’s Westminster-Canterbury retirement community a few years back with his wife of 72 years, Hellen Purkrabek Winters, to be near his daughter and son-in-law.
“He loved flying,” said his daughter, Holly Winters Perrow, of Lynchburg.
But she said he had less of a flare for the academic aspects of his training.
“He hated every minute of the Naval Academy,” she said. “He hated all of it. He loved to hunt and fish, and he didn’t really like to study.”
But the nuisance of academia was not enough to keep him away from his dream.
“His father said, ‘You do not want to go into planes,’” Perrow said, “They are never going to be anything in the Navy.”
But Winters wouldn’t be dissuaded, and the work eventually paid off.
“He said the first time he stepped in an airplane … it was like heaven,” she said.
Winters served as the commander of fighting squadron VF-19 during World War II, notably in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, in October of 1944.
In 1985, Winters published “Skipper: Confessions of a Fighter Squadron Commander 1943-1944,” detailing his experiences in that post.
Perrow said her father didn’t talk much about wartime, so most who knew him outside of his profession remember the hunting and fishing stories.
Judge Mosby Perrow III, who married Holly Winters in 1965, said he asked for her hand in marriage on a hunting trip.
The Thanksgiving bird-hunting excursion afforded him the perfect opportunity, he said, except for one small detail.
“I could never get him alone,” Mosby Perrow said. “He had an admiral down there with him.”
He finally caught Winters alone in the kitchen, an intimidating sight in his rubber kitchen gloves.
But he said his piece, and waited for the worst.
“I thought he was going to pitch me out,” Perrow said.
“He listened and then peeled off the gloves, stuck out his hand, said, ‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.’”
On the few occasions Winters did reminisce about his wartime days, one of his favorite stories was the time he crash-landed his plane on a naval carrier, according to his daughter.
His plane had received several enemy shots, and he lost control of his steering mechanism.
Grabbing the plane’s guidewires, he maneuvered the plane back onto the carrier. She said the plane had 48 bullet holes in it.
On the homefront, Holly Perrow said her father was strict, but always fair.
And she said his military decorum didn’t vanish, even after a long life with four children and 10 grandchildren.
“He was a perfect gentleman until the day he died,” Holly Winters said.
“He wore a tie to every meal at Westminster-Canterbury,” which, she said, forced his nurse to learn the art of tying one.
“She said, ‘I’ve never put on a tie, but I learned how to do it for Capt. Winters.’”
WWII ace pilot made a home in Lynchburg | Lynchburg News Advance
WWII ace pilot made a home in Lynchburg
For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman
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