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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	Born in Los Angeles on November 9, 1917, Robert Burdette Westbrook, Junior, was tinkering with motors almost by the time he learned to walk. His father's carburetor shop was his first engineering classroom. His knowledge of motors gave him a head start when, like thousands of other youths in the air-minded Twenties, he took up model airplanes as a hobby. He constructed several prize-winning planes, often building the motors as well as the planes themselves. Entering Hollywood High School, he signed up for R.O.T.C. training and rose to the rank of cadet captain. He was graduated in 1935, after which he attended U.C.L.A. for a year. Westy was a member of the California National Guard when President Roosevelt declared a state of national emergency in 1940. In March 1941, he entered federal service with his National Guard unit. He won his commission at Infantry OCS, and then his old love for flying came to the fore. He applied for flight training. He pinned on his wings in July 1942, at Luke Field, Phoenix, Arizona. Coming overseas in October, 1942, he got his first crack at an airborne Nip the following January. Westbrook compiled one of the most impressive records in the history of the AAF. His overseas flying included 367 combat missions, totaling 554 hours. If any pilot was, he was the wheel-horse of the 13th AAF - and this his superior commanders recognized. In less than 20 months, he rose from second lieutenant to lieutenant colonel.

With the exception a stateside rest leave in the spring of 1944, which was followed by a short tour as aide to the 13th's Commanding General , Westbrook was almost constantly up where the shooting was going on. His hotspur-ish flying won him medal after medal: the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with 15 Oak Leaf Clusters. Westy was, despite his accomplishments and the honors they brought, one of the most amiable of fighter pilots. "Good show," was a favorite expression of his. It covered a wide range of meanings: his willingness to help a young pilot seeking advice; his commendation of a mechanic's extra effort; his description of a particularly successful mission.

"Westy" chatting with singer Frances Langford   (The Florida Thrush) at Guadalcanal, Feb. 1944.

One thing, however, was never a "Good show." That was any attempt to glamourize him. Once Fred Hampson, Associated Press war correspondent, wrote: "He is sometimes referred to as the Adonis of the 13th fighters. He is one of the very few pilots who looks like the movie version - tall, handsome, moustached, debonair." The adjectives were quite accurate, but nevertheless Westy's temper was for once ruffled. No pilot was ever more confident of his abilities. Westbrook's confidence, though, was tempered with a realistic and healthy respect for teamwork. "With us," he once said, "no pilot goes up on a pedestal just because he shoots down a bunch of Japs. We aren't supermen. We're a team. When one of us hits the jackpot, it is partly luck in being in the right spot at the right time, but mainly the work your wingmen and the other boys do in protecting your tail.

"In one of the dogfights on Christmas Day, the worst scrap I was ever in, a chap in my outfit knocked off my tail a Jap who would surely have riddled me. Later I was able to follow through and pick one off his tail. "We're well trained. It's instinctive for us to protect each other. That's our big advantage over the Japanese. They lack the team-work spirit American Flyers have." That was what Westy believed, and that was the way he lived and fought. It was all opitomized on November 22 - his last mission.

They flew out 950 miles - a year ago that would have been considered an impossible distance - to strafe a Celebes airfield and shipping in Makassar Strait. It was the first mission on Westy's eighth combat tour. He had returned just two days before from a Sydney rest leave. Westy was leading a flight from the Sunsetters, the 13th's top outfit. He made passes on two freighters in Makassar Town harbor. Then, seeing that ack-ack from a 140-foot Jap gunboat was seriously hampering the P-38s' attacks, he undertook to silence it. The gunboat got him. His right engine caught on fire. The Sunsetters commander, Major John Endress of Berkeley, California, called him on the radio to "feather the damn thing." "I think I'm okay," Westy replied. He was at 700 feet. It looked as if he were going to try to make a water landing. Suddenly, however, his plane nosed over, plummeted into the sea and disintegrated. The men buzzed the spot. All they could see was a small patch of debris - an aileron, a parachute that had popped open. No sign of Westy. Thus death came to Robert Westbrook - a man, a fine soldier, a great fighter pilot. The gunboat? It was no more trouble that day. The close-pressed attack of Westy and his wingman knocked out all but one battery, left the boat listing heavily. To Westy, who liked to get things done, that job would have rated his favorite phrase: "Good show." Click here to read Westbrook's Treatise On Flying Combat. Notice: Robert Westbrook Jr. asks that anyone who knew his father or has information about his father to please email him here. He would like to hear from you. Florida Thrush: Frances Langford was a famous songstress and was known as the Florida Thrush. Lt. Col. Westbrook's P-38 was named "Florida Thrush" as can be seen in the above photograph. For more information about Frances Langford click here. Comment: I could have made this page about Lt. Col. Westbrook's combat accomplishments but I wanted to present the man more-so than the ace and I felt Col. Starke's segment in his book did just that. Too often we are only shown the heroic or glamorous side of the aces and I think it's important to remember that these were regular guys who were put into dangerous circumstances because it was part of their job and as Col. Westbrook himself pointed out: "...no pilot goes up on a pedestal just because he shoots down a bunch of Japs. We aren't supermen. We're a team. When one of us hits the jackpot, it is partly luck in being in the right spot at the right time, but mainly the work your wingmen and the other boys do in protecting your tail. " For another website with information about Lt. Col. Robert B. Westbrook, click here.

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