Gene Roddenberry (brown suit in center) served as a B17 pilot during World War 2 and survived several deadly plane crashes before producing Star Trek.
Public domain photo.
Born in 1921, he was the oldest son of a police officer and a homemaker. Raised in Los Angeles, the kid had a fascination with aviation from a young age. He earned his pilot’s license in the early 1940’s via the Civilian Pilot Training Program sponsored by the US Army Air Corps.
In 1941, being a young fit pilot was a marketable skill in wartime America. The kid enlisted eleven days after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. By August of the following year, he was married and commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. He was posted to the 394th Bomb Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group, 13th Air Force flying the B17 Flying Fortress. He ultimately flew 89 combat missions.
In August of 1943 the B17E he was flying overshot the runway and slammed into trees on the island of Espiritu Santo. The nose of the plane was crushed. The bombardier and navigator were both killed in the crash, but the pilot was absolved of responsibility.
Gene Roddenberry was aboard a Lockheed Super Constellation like this one when it went down hard in the Syrian desert. Photo by RuthAS
All Wars End Eventually
With the terminus of World War II, the young man was an experienced pilot with plenty of flight time in four-engined heavy bombers. Such experience translated well to the airlines. At 25 years of age he was flying Lockheed Constellations for Pan American World Airways.
On the evening of June 18, 1947, the man was deadheading on board Pan Am Flight 121 flying from Karachi to Istanbul. The plane was christened the Clipper Eclipse. As he had no flying duties, he was considered third officer and was fairly superfluous.
The Eclipse had been flown hard over the previous week and had suffered engine problems along the way. An engine cylinder as well as an oil pump had been replaced to keep the big plane in service, but the machine needed some proper maintenance.
Now five hours into its ten and a half-hour flight and with a total of 36 souls onboard, the young B17 pilot moved up front to take the controls and give the Captain a breather. Soon thereafter the number one engine had an exhaust rocker arm failure so the young man shut it down.
The Constellation would fly fine on three engines, but they were in the middle of no place. The handy airfields lacked the facilities to make an engine change, so the Captain opted to drive on to Istanbul. However, pushing the heavy plane on three engines caused the remaining powerplants to overheat. Three hours later the number two engine caught fire.
The fire suppression system failed to extinguish the blaze, and the fire got so hot the magnesium engine mount caught fire as well. The young veteran then made his way to the cabin to help calm the passengers.
He buckled himself in three rows from the back of the plane. Shortly thereafter the number two engine separated from the aircraft. Now plummeting to the ground, one woman began screaming. The young pilot unbuckled and made his way to her side to offer comfort. He didn’t have time to secure his seatbelt. He later admitted he knew he was going to die.
The Crash
The plane hit hard and the cockpit crew was killed. The young pilot was thrown around violently and broke two ribs but was still able to get 20 survivors clear of the wreckage before it became fully involved. He organized those living and sent out two parties in search of help.
Two groups of Syrian tribesmen approached the crash site with the intent of robbing the crash and killing the survivors. The military veteran kept a cool head throughout and convinced the belligerent nomads to take the stuff but leave the passengers alone. Eventually Syrian Army planes and ground forces reached the crash site and medevac’d the injured. The young pilot was commended by Pan Am for his heroism and cool head in a crisis.
The Rest Of The Story
The young B17 pilot who organized the crash survivors and got them to safety was Gene Roddenberry. Roddenberry resigned from Pan American soon after the crash and became a motorcycle cop in Los Angeles. While working as a police officer he began dabbling in screenwriting. From there he eventually became a TV producer.
Roddenberry envisioned his most successful undertaking as a classic western set in space. He described it in pitch meetings as “Wagon Train to the Stars.” Perhaps you’ve seen it. The title upon which he finally settled was Star Trek.
Speer’s 220-grain jacketed soft-point was a classic, and while it is no longer produced,
it was a favorite among sixgunners with its half-jacket and semi-wadcutter front end.
It works well in Dave’s Smith & Wesson and Ruger revolvers.
As revolver bullets go, the old half-jacket Speer 200-grain hollowpoints and 220-grain softpoints may have looked like lead semi-wadcutters with really long gas checks, but out of my .41 Magnum revolvers, they worked like champs.
Indeed, back when I started handloading, these were among the most highly-recommended bullets I could use, according to older guys from whom I sought advice.
Alas, they went out of production some years ago, and I was lucky enough to have stocked up. But time passed, I went through a lot of bullets, discovering along the way how my sixguns also performed very well with the 210-grain JHPs from Nosler and Sierra, and the 210-grain XTP from Hornady, all loaded over stout charges of either H110 or then-Hercules (now Alliant) 2400.
Propelled by propellants such as H110, the 220-grain bullet was, as described
in a Speer reloading manual, a very effective deer bullet.
As my supply of the classic Speers dwindled, I had sort of resigned myself to living without what I considered one of the best bullet designs for magnum revolvers to ever come along.
Sure, the bullet design didn’t have the best ballistic coefficient, either for the .410-caliber pills for my .41 Magnums or the .429-caliber projectiles for the .44 Magnum, but they worked for me. The .44s were offered in two weights and styles, a 225-grain hollowpoint and a 240-grain softpoint.
Checking back in time via an old Speer reloading manual, I found the company also made a half-jacket 146-grain hollowpoint and 160-grain soft point in .357-caliber, though I never used them, since in those days, I pretty much stuck with 125-grainers. My bad.
Fired from Dave’s Ruger Blackhawk, the half-jacket Speer is capable of decent accuracy, even though he had one flyer.
Anyway, a couple of months ago, the gods smiled on me because a fellow reloader on Facebook, whom I’ve never met but he says he’s been a longtime reader of my stories relating to the .41 Magnum, reported that he had acquired a box each of the 200- and 220-grainers.
This got my immediate attention because my stores of the 220-grain bullets had dwindled to less than 40. Charles Hill, who shares my affinity for the .41 Magnum, shipped the soft points to me and I was all-too-happy to reimburse him for the shipping cost. He said he’d probably never use them, and they were part of a shipment he’d gotten from another guy, and so …
During a recent range session, the 220-grainer delivered the goods in terms of muzzle velocity. This load on the receiving end packs a punch.
Don’t Download!
A couple of things apparently lead to the demise of this bullet design. One was the downloading of the half-jacket projectiles, despite advice in the Speer loading manuals to not use them in “light, low velocity loads.” Indeed, Speer Reloading Manual #11 specifically cautions readers, “Bullets of this jacketed semi-wadcutter style should not be used in light, low velocity loads.”
Jacket separation apparently was a problem at low velocity; something I’ve never done with my magnum handloads. After all, what’s the point of having a magnum-caliber handgun if all you do is shoot light loads? That has never made sense to me.
But Allan Jones, who worked for Speer until his retirement, offered more detail about why this bullet design took a bow. While he did say jacket separation was a problem with “overly light loads,” he also recalled that Speer’s expansion of its plated bullets, which, in his words, “were far better bullets.”
I’ve shot a lot of plated Speer bullets, especially in my .45 ACP pistols, and they did perform remarkably well. Still, that half-jacket softpoint remains a favorite, maybe just because it was different.
When it was more readily available, I ran this pill over 15.5 grains of 2400 over a CCI 300 large pistol primer. This load would clock right around 1,200 fps out of my Blackhawk. Now, here’s an interesting historical tidbit: In the Speer Reloading Manual #11, the data listed for the 220-grain soft point called for a beginning load of 16.0 grains of 2400 with the maximum set at 17.5 grains, with a magnum primer.
But jump ahead to Speer Reloading Manual #14 and the starting charge recommendation is 14.2 grains of 2400 with the max being 15.8 grains, and a standard primer. All bullets were firmly roll crimped.
When Dave took delivery of a full box from a fellow .41 Magnum afficionado, he immediately loaded up a bunch of empty brass. The Speer soft point has a distinctive profile.
Every now and then, a little treasure surfaces. Dave’s Facebook friend Charles Hill send these along. Bullets such as these sometimes show up at garage or estate sales, or even gun shows.Keep your eyes peeled!
Despite the fact they’ve been discontinued, published data on these bullets—and especially the 220-grain version—for H110, 2400 and other popular propellants, still shows up.
Evidently there are still supplies of these Speer bullets still out there, and people keep using them, or find them at garage sales after some handloader has either passed—and the family is selling off his/her supplies—or just grown too old to continue.
Several years ago, I shot a mule deer buck with my Blackhawk, using a 200-grain Speer hollowpoint, along with a 210-grain JHP, and the buck didn’t get up to complain.
And, out of my Blackhawk many years ago, I managed hit a distant rock at about 150 yards with a couple of the 220-grain specimens at the bottom of a coulee in eastern Washington, shooting off a backpack for a rest.
Recently, I’ve also been shooting 220-grain Rainier Ballistics plated bullets over Accurate #9 with very good results out of both my Ruger and a Model 57 Smith & Wesson with a 6-inch barrel, but to suddenly come into possession of 102 (total) of the discontinued Speer bullets was like stumbling onto a small treasure.
I’ll credit fellow writer Brian Pearce for turning me onto Accurate #9 as a substitute for 2400, and so far this propellant has not let me down. I also use it to launch 215-grain cast lead semi-wadcutters with a beveled base from Rim Rock Bullets over in Polson, Montana, and that powder-bullet combination rocks, when launched by Winchester large pistol primers. I have used them to hit game-sized steel targets at better than a hundred yards.
Naturally, Workman weighed each bullet. Speer’s jacketed soft point was, in Dave’s recollection, remarkable for hitting the scale as advertised.
My Current Recipe
As for the 220-grain Speers, over 19.5 grains of H110, ignited by a CCI 350 large pistol magnum primer, I get decent accuracy with both my 6-inch Model 57 S&W and my 6 ½-inch Ruger Blackhawk, which turned in the slightly better muzzle velocity of 1,330 fps.
A 220-grain .41-caliber bullet traveling at that velocity is going to hit like a hammer and penetrate well into the vitals. I’ll acknowledge right up front that this load in either handgun delivers a snappy recoil, but it is nicely manageable for those used to shooting magnum sixguns.
So, what’s all of this about? In addition to gleefully enjoying this bullet bonanza, my motives also lean heavily toward self-preservation in the wilds.
I happen to live in the Pacific Northwest, and in just my immediate vicinity since May 2018, there have been two unprovoked mountain lion attacks—one was fatal—and more recently, a black bear sow attacked a teenage hiker when he apparently came between her and a cub, on one of the state’s most popular (translation: busy) hiking trails.
In the Pacific Northwest during hunting season, author keeps a .41 Magnum sixgun close at hand. He’s missed opportunities when legal bucks just wandered into range.
Normally, bears tend to stay away from such high traffic areas, and since the game cops couldn’t find this critter, she’s still out there, and she obviously has no reluctance to tangle with a human.
It’s not that I’m eager or even slightly interested in having to shoot a bear in self-defense, but I’m also not keen on the idea of being mauled in the unlikely chance a bear and I cross paths. I’ve come very (make that
uncomfortably) close to black bears before, and I figure if I can’t break that habit, the odds may be piling up against me.
During the fall deer season, I invariably carry a .41 Magnum even in camp. Should a buck wander past (which has happened to me a couple of times over the years) while my rifle is in its case, I might still manage to notch my tag with a carefully administered handgun shot.
Dave lives in bear and cougar country, where a wheelgun stoked with handloads
topped by a 220-grain Speer just might come in handy!
Henceforth, I plan to keep an eye peeled for garage sales where it just might be possible to come across another little jackpot of the 220-grainers.
Meanwhile, I’ll be using the ones I now have sparingly, hoping beyond hope that I score again. The fact that loading data is still showing up in the Hodgdon Annual Manual is a pretty good hint that somewhere, someone must have a supply that maybe, just maybe, they’ll be willing to share.
Fresno mulls letting prosecutors carry concealed firearms after stabbing rocks California
Fresno County officials are pushing to let prosecutors carry concealed firearms after a shocking daylight stabbing of a senior deputy district attorney last week.
Supervisor Garry Bredefeld is working with Sheriff John Zanoni and DA Lisa Smittcamp on an ordinance allowing them to be armed on county property, according to Your Central Valley.
The proposal is expected to go before the Fresno County Board of Supervisors in the coming weeks.
“All of our law enforcement — whether they’re prosecutors, the sheriffs or the police officers — get up and work to make this community safe,” Bredefeld said. “The least we can do is make sure they have the means to protect themselves.”
The push comes after a senior deputy district attorney was stabbed three times in the back Thursday while outside Courthouse Park in Downtown Fresno.
Smittcamp questioned the county’s current restrictions Friday, noting that she is prohibited from carrying a firearm on county property despite her position.
“I am the chief law enforcement official in the county of Fresno … if I want to carry a weapon on county property I can’t under a current ordinance,” Smittcamp said. “Kind of ridiculous … people like Mr. Crawford are empowered by the weakness of the criminal justice system.”
Supervisors Nathan Magsig and Luis Chavez also backed the proposed change, according to the outlet, with Chavez calling it “long overdue.”
“I know for a fact that prosecutors have received death threats,” Chavez said. “We need to start recognizing our prosecutors as part of our public safety family.”
Magsig said the change would require the county to work with state officials. Bredefeld said he was not optimistic the attack would change lawmakers’ attitudes in Sacramento.
Dustin Crawford, 42, allegedly approached the prosecutor and others while they were outside Courthouse Park shooting a campaign commercial.
Crawford allegedly recognized the group before singling out the prosecutor and stabbing him three times in the back.