The following is from "Vampire Squadron!" by Lt. Col. William H. Starke. He has graciously granted me permission to use this excerpt from his very fine book and I am forever in his debt. Please take the time to click on the link above and check out his special offer for those interested in reading more about the 44th Vampire Squadron. Click here for additional reading and photos from his book.	Capt. Starke and his P-38 at Guadalcanal-Feb '44 (Starke)
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	22 November (1944) - Every member of the 44th Squadron was shocked today by the news that their very popular former Squadron Commander, Lt. Col. Robert "Westy" Westbrook, had been shot down while on a strafing mission with the 339th Squadron to Makassar in the southwestern area of the Celebes. HEADQUARTERS, 13 AAF, SOUTHWEST PACIFIC - Such news always spreads fast, but this time it traveled with the speed of a .50 caliber bullet. "They got Westy." Most of the men at this Dutch New Guinea base were stunned by this report at the supper table. The Makassar Strait and back is a good 1900 miles, and it was pretty late when the P-38s returned. By next morning the news had swept north to Morotai and Leyte, southeast to Biak and Hollandia. Flyers in the Australian rest camps knew of it only a short time later. The effect was everywhere the same. For to as great a degree as is possible on the sprawling Pacific battle front the death of Lieutenant Colonel Robert B. Westbrook of Hollywood California, filled thousands of Allied fighting men - both pilots and paddlefeet, Yanks and Aussies - with a feeling of personal loss.

Veterans of the Pacific air campaigns - men who have known them all, from Foss to Bong-ranked Westy Westbrook as one of the greatest fighter pilots of the war. In air battles from Guadalcanal to Borneo, the 27-year-old Californian shot down 20 Japanese planes (all fighters) to become the 13th AAF's leading ace. He was not only a brilliant flyer; he was also "eager" - an airman's word connoting courage, a thirst for action, and a strong desire to get the job done.

Pilot's of the 13th's jungle air force will long remember Westy's hard-hitting leadership of the famed Vampires squadron during the aerial assault on Rabaul - a rampant attack which inspired the war correspondents to label the 13th "the suicide boys." They will also remember Westy's victory spree during Christmas week of 1943, when he shot down six Nips in three days over Rabaul; his busman's holiday flight with the 5th AAF on it's first fighter escort mission to the Philippines; his direction, by radio, of a wingman's victory over a Jap ("I would never have got him if it hadn't been for Westy," the wingman reported. "He did everything for me but pull the trigger."). They will remember his outstanding efficiency at everything he undertook - from shooting down Zeros to taking Frances Langford for a piggy-back ride in a P-38. But it was not just his moxie and his ability to make a P-38 Lightning caper like a homesick angel that made Westbrook one of the best-known, best-liked pilots in the Pacific war zone. It was his pervasive cheerfulness, his sincere friendliness, his habit of always finding time to shoot the breeze with other officers and enlisted men. "Westy knew everybody," said his group commander and close friend, Lieutenant Colonel Leo F. Dusard of Kirkwood, Missouri. "Not just the officers but also the G.I.'s, and not just in the Air Corps but also in the Infantry and in every other branch that we've worked with." A pilot's pilot, Westbrook was none the less a crew chief's pilot. His six-foot-two figure was a familiar sight on the line of a dozen airstrips throughout the Solomons and New Guinea. Stripped down for tropic comfort, he logged many an hour working on his aircraft. It was this intense interest in maintenance which enabled him, as Commander of the Vampires (162 planes downed), to set a 13th AAF record for number of fighters in commission. When not flying, he and his pilots spent most of their time down on the line working with their mechanics.

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