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  1. #1
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    Seeking stories or pics of Lee Richter/Team Adair

    Hello,

    Lee Richter, the original "MrBadwrench" of Port Lavaca, TX was my great uncle. (His sister Gertrude was my paternal grandmother.)

    I know Lee was a driver for Red Adair & god knows who else, and some of his WWII history but that's about it. (I can confirm the Bay of Pigs story but that's about it.) I am building genealogy database for my family and I would like to hear from any of you guys who knew Lee or raced with him. Pictures of Lee or his boats are particularly appreciated.

    I gotta admit, I'm not looking forward to filtering these stories for their typical "Richter Factor"! Uncle Lee could rip a good yarn from what I remember...

    - Ray Lankford
    Last edited by MrBadwrench; 11-17-2014 at 12:45 PM.

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    Ray, maybe lead in with a few of your own stories about Lee to share.

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    I really only got to know Lee later on in his life. I know he was a high octane, hell-raiser sort of guy back in the day. My original interest was generated when I heard of his war service. I was always into military history & that has sort of morphed into family history now... Lee had 79 bombing missions in Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, and Italy with the 34th bombardment squadron of the 17th (later 12th) Bomb Group. My understanding was the required number of missions was 30 (later reduced to 25 for mortality reasons) and Lee (eventually, as squadron commander) kept fudging the mission board so he could keep flying. I directly asked him about the high number of missions & he replied "I just liked killin' Kraut's" with a little twinkle in his eye. That was about the extent of his political-correctness. With Lee such strait talk was endearing cuz you knew he had walked the walk so he had a right to talk the talk. I also asked if he ever came close to cashing in his chips. He said only once (which was a stretch cuz I know he'd crash landed at least one B-26 which was all kinds of FUBAR) but he, with a troubled tone related the story of switching missions at the last minute with a fellow commander who as it turned out received a direct flak burst. The post-war Bay of Pigs story is fairly well known. Lee was approached to tow a mysterious shot-to-hell boat to Miami shortly after Bay of Pigs. I hear Lee undertook the tow, but declined further employment with "the company". I think he was done with "authority types" by that time.

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    There are some stories in here, but very little about his boat racing. Above all, I'd like to get hold of some photographs...

    The Victoria Advocate 26 May 2002
    - Vince Reedy - Time and Space

    The storybook life and times of Lee C. Richter

    Thursday, May 23rd, 2002

    He only chews tobacco now, after years of too many cigars, and emphysema sometimes sends him to an oxygen bottle. Still, nearing age 86, Lee Richter can take you where big trout and redfish lurk off the Matagorda jetties and tell you more great stories - of aerial combat, John Wayne, Red Adair, and spacemen, just for starters - than any man I've met.

    Off and on, he warns that he always has been a heck of a b.s.'er, only he doesn't abbreviate the description. But then, old Leroy C. Richter, a self-proclaimed renegade, doesn't abbreviate much of anything.

    He and Marie, his wife of 60 years (come June 19), have lived in Port O'Connor for three decades. Before then he was a decorated World War II bomber pilot, rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, flew private executive aircraft, and raced 100-mph speedboats.

    Yes, his tales are tall, but he has stacks of photographs, documents and war medals to back them up. His colorful memories of piloting B-26 Marauders through 76 bombing missions, and of a lifetime of adventure, are storybook stuff.

    Marie, mother of his daughter and two sons, is there to verify most of Lee's stories and to remind him of some of the best ones. There's a good one about her, too. In their home near the waterfront hangs a snapshot of Lee with Wayne, the movie icon. There are similar photos of Adair, the legendary oilfield firefighter; Gus Grissom, the ill-fated astronaut; and some Soviet cosmonauts he took fishing. Others picture crippled bombers that Lee and his crews managed to return to base after blasting Germany, ironically the birthplace of grandparents who raised him in Houston.

    One of the German Luftwaffe's most notorious flying aces, Adolph Galland, who commanded the dreaded Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighter squadron, was shot down near the war's end. Lee will tell you a gunner in a plane he piloted was responsible.

    The Richters dig out a worn display case in which rattle around Lee's Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with five clusters, and two French Croix De Guerres, among others.

    Marie deserves some medals of her own, Lee agrees. For instance, there was the time when as a young military flight instructor he got permission to take his wife up in a T-6 trainer. No daredevil antics with her aboard, Marie demanded, unaware that Lee and a pilot buddy had a $10 bet riding on a mock aerial dogfight.

    Lee's maneuvers won the bet but no appreciation from his wife. Upside down and in dizzying spins, she screamed choice words at him through what she took to be an intercom mike but was actually the funnel to a "pilot's relief tube."

    When Lee enlisted in the Army Air Corps four days after Pearl Harbor, he was a junior engineering student at the University of Texas and had 50 hours of private flight instruction that eased him into bomber piloting.

    A few years later, after shipping home from success in Europe, he was assigned to the coveted P-51 fighter plane and headed for the Pacific when the war drew to a close.

    He was a civilian pilot for a Houston company, flying executives and guests on a variety of storied junkets, before becoming an outboard motor dealer in Pasadena, Texas. It was then that he took up speedboats, sometimes piloting racing craft owned by Adair.

    He also hired on with one of Adair's crews for an oil fire in Israel. It was through Adair that Lee met Wayne when the 1968 "Hellfighters" was filming in Baytown.

    Lee tells about the king-sized movie hero jumping off Adair's pleasure boat onto a dock with rotten boards and crashing through up to his crotch. "I never expected to hear John Wayne scream like that," Lee chuckles.

    He worked with some of the early astronauts, pulling them with his boat in NASA parasail escape training exercises that, he says, wisely were scuttled.

    Visiting Russian cosmonauts were another breed. Four, plus a KGB agent, came to Port O'Connor one winter for a combination hunting-fishing excursion.

    "They shot seagulls, terns, mudhens and ducks and caught some fish," Lee recalls. "A few days later we get a phone call inviting us to a dinner at their NASA apartment. Marie and I go. There's lots of vodka and then they serve us fish soup. In the middle of my bowl floats a fish head, but I showed 'em. I ate it."

    Lee says the head cosmonaut, code-named "Cheese," was perplexed that the Richters had two cars plus a truck and a van and that Lee owned 10 guns while he, a Soviet big cheese, had no such possessions in Russia.

    Prior to the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, Lee met intrigue with the CIA. An agent hired him to secretly haul a shot-up Power-Cat speedboat from Galveston back to Florida. The damage had come in a run-in with a Cuban gunboat while returning undercover freedom fighters to Cuba. Lee says he passed on an offer, at $500 a night, to join the clandestine project as a boat pilot.

    Lee recently appeared on the History Channel in a segment about B-26s in WWII. The TV interview took place during a reunion of his 34th Bomb Squadron at Myrtle Beach, S.C.

    Since then he has heard from several old comrades and from a radio show representative of host Oliver North, whom he calls "a 'Nam hero who later did what he was told to do - the 'fall guy' " in the Iran-Contra arms controversy.

    Right now, Lee's attention is on business as a certified boat captain and fishing guide. He says he knows the trout are coming his way this month because he has years of meticulous logs compiled by his longtime neighbor, Chester Evans of Edna.

    Lee's specialty is anchoring off the jetties for night fishing with green lights and live shrimp. He says navigation can get tricky in the dark, but that doesn't faze an old war pilot.

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    Lee Richter pics.

    Quote Originally Posted by MrBadwrench View Post
    There are some stories in here, but very little about his boat racing. Above all, I'd like to get hold of some photographs...

    The Victoria Advocate 26 May 2002
    - Vince Reedy - Time and Space

    The storybook life and times of Lee C. Richter

    Thursday, May 23rd, 2002

    He only chews tobacco now, after years of too many cigars, and emphysema sometimes sends him to an oxygen bottle. Still, nearing age 86, Lee Richter can take you where big trout and redfish lurk off the Matagorda jetties and tell you more great stories - of aerial combat, John Wayne, Red Adair, and spacemen, just for starters - than any man I've met.

    Off and on, he warns that he always has been a heck of a b.s.'er, only he doesn't abbreviate the description. But then, old Leroy C. Richter, a self-proclaimed renegade, doesn't abbreviate much of anything.

    He and Marie, his wife of 60 years (come June 19), have lived in Port O'Connor for three decades. Before then he was a decorated World War II bomber pilot, rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, flew private executive aircraft, and raced 100-mph speedboats.

    Yes, his tales are tall, but he has stacks of photographs, documents and war medals to back them up. His colorful memories of piloting B-26 Marauders through 76 bombing missions, and of a lifetime of adventure, are storybook stuff.

    Marie, mother of his daughter and two sons, is there to verify most of Lee's stories and to remind him of some of the best ones. There's a good one about her, too. In their home near the waterfront hangs a snapshot of Lee with Wayne, the movie icon. There are similar photos of Adair, the legendary oilfield firefighter; Gus Grissom, the ill-fated astronaut; and some Soviet cosmonauts he took fishing. Others picture crippled bombers that Lee and his crews managed to return to base after blasting Germany, ironically the birthplace of grandparents who raised him in Houston.

    One of the German Luftwaffe's most notorious flying aces, Adolph Galland, who commanded the dreaded Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighter squadron, was shot down near the war's end. Lee will tell you a gunner in a plane he piloted was responsible.

    The Richters dig out a worn display case in which rattle around Lee's Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with five clusters, and two French Croix De Guerres, among others.

    Marie deserves some medals of her own, Lee agrees. For instance, there was the time when as a young military flight instructor he got permission to take his wife up in a T-6 trainer. No daredevil antics with her aboard, Marie demanded, unaware that Lee and a pilot buddy had a $10 bet riding on a mock aerial dogfight.

    Lee's maneuvers won the bet but no appreciation from his wife. Upside down and in dizzying spins, she screamed choice words at him through what she took to be an intercom mike but was actually the funnel to a "pilot's relief tube."

    When Lee enlisted in the Army Air Corps four days after Pearl Harbor, he was a junior engineering student at the University of Texas and had 50 hours of private flight instruction that eased him into bomber piloting.

    A few years later, after shipping home from success in Europe, he was assigned to the coveted P-51 fighter plane and headed for the Pacific when the war drew to a close.

    He was a civilian pilot for a Houston company, flying executives and guests on a variety of storied junkets, before becoming an outboard motor dealer in Pasadena, Texas. It was then that he took up speedboats, sometimes piloting racing craft owned by Adair.

    He also hired on with one of Adair's crews for an oil fire in Israel. It was through Adair that Lee met Wayne when the 1968 "Hellfighters" was filming in Baytown.

    Lee tells about the king-sized movie hero jumping off Adair's pleasure boat onto a dock with rotten boards and crashing through up to his crotch. "I never expected to hear John Wayne scream like that," Lee chuckles.

    He worked with some of the early astronauts, pulling them with his boat in NASA parasail escape training exercises that, he says, wisely were scuttled.

    Visiting Russian cosmonauts were another breed. Four, plus a KGB agent, came to Port O'Connor one winter for a combination hunting-fishing excursion.

    "They shot seagulls, terns, mudhens and ducks and caught some fish," Lee recalls. "A few days later we get a phone call inviting us to a dinner at their NASA apartment. Marie and I go. There's lots of vodka and then they serve us fish soup. In the middle of my bowl floats a fish head, but I showed 'em. I ate it."

    Lee says the head cosmonaut, code-named "Cheese," was perplexed that the Richters had two cars plus a truck and a van and that Lee owned 10 guns while he, a Soviet big cheese, had no such possessions in Russia.

    Prior to the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, Lee met intrigue with the CIA. An agent hired him to secretly haul a shot-up Power-Cat speedboat from Galveston back to Florida. The damage had come in a run-in with a Cuban gunboat while returning undercover freedom fighters to Cuba. Lee says he passed on an offer, at $500 a night, to join the clandestine project as a boat pilot.

    Lee recently appeared on the History Channel in a segment about B-26s in WWII. The TV interview took place during a reunion of his 34th Bomb Squadron at Myrtle Beach, S.C.

    Since then he has heard from several old comrades and from a radio show representative of host Oliver North, whom he calls "a 'Nam hero who later did what he was told to do - the 'fall guy' " in the Iran-Contra arms controversy.

    Right now, Lee's attention is on business as a certified boat captain and fishing guide. He says he knows the trout are coming his way this month because he has years of meticulous logs compiled by his longtime neighbor, Chester Evans of Edna.

    Lee's specialty is anchoring off the jetties for night fishing with green lights and live shrimp. He says navigation can get tricky in the dark, but that doesn't faze an old war pilot.
    This is Robert his son. I found a few pics.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Boat Racing 004.jpg   Boat Racing 008.jpg   001.jpg   003.jpg   Tunnel Boats 005.jpg  


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    Quote Originally Posted by capt_richter View Post
    This is Robert his son. I found a few pics.
    Here are a couple more. One is My Dad, Ed White, and Gus Grissom. We were pulling them on a parasail for water landing training with a twin Powercat in Galveston bay. this was in the 60s. They were both killed in a launch pad fire not long after this pic.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Tunnel Boats 018.jpg   Tunnel Boats 031.jpg   Boat Racing 015.jpg  

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    Hey Robert! Super stoked to see the powerboat pics you posted of your dad! I'm a big fan of Lee's -- he was the genuine article. Come to think of it, I'm NAMED after your old man -- Raymond Lee Lankford Jr... I would LOVE to sit down some time and pick your brain about his war years, especially if you recall the names of any of the planes he flew regularly. (It's a long shot, put some of those airframes may still exist. I could look into that.) Also, I would love to see your father's military decorations (and maybe take a few photos for my own records). I'm a sh!t historian, but I'm trying to gather everything I can on our extended family (and will share)! Sorry for the delay getting back to you. I literally JUST saw your post!

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    A belated Welcome to Scream & Fly Ray... Thank-you for sharing the great history.

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    Lee Richter

    Hey Ray, Mark Richter here, I have all of dads pictures, war records and Medals. You can contact me at Merk58@aol.com.



    Quote Originally Posted by MrBadwrench View Post
    Hey Robert! Super stoked to see the powerboat pics you posted of your dad! I'm a big fan of Lee's -- he was the genuine article. Come to think of it, I'm NAMED after your old man -- Raymond Lee Lankford Jr... I would LOVE to sit down some time and pick your brain about his war years, especially if you recall the names of any of the planes he flew regularly. (It's a long shot, put some of those airframes may still exist. I could look into that.) Also, I would love to see your father's military decorations (and maybe take a few photos for my own records). I'm a sh!t historian, but I'm trying to gather everything I can on our extended family (and will share)! Sorry for the delay getting back to you. I literally JUST saw your post!

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    I'm sure he knew John Mecom. My friends dad worked for Mecom and was very involved with his race boats
    limited skills

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