Thanks for the kind words, gentlemen. I’ll try to answer your questions with a few broad, brush strokes.
1) First off, I hope I didn’t mislead anyone. This is
not my gun. I don’t want anyone thinking that I ‘stole’ it from some un-knowing owner then rubbed it in his face by exposing its glowing provenance in the DGJ. While I love to crack a few Filberts every now and then, I do have a few shreds of character left in my rapidly decaying soul. Yes, had I pushed a bit harder I’m sure I could have owned it, but the more info. I unearthed about Averill, the more we both realized this most special Parker needed to be passed down to his two, amazing grandsons. (Now….that doesn’t mean I won’t be watching the pawn shop listings in another 8--10 years, as we all know the allure that iPhone 17 will hold…..
)
2) The first words I heard regarding #236533 were that, “it was owned by some Major who died in the Battle of Midway…” Nurse….hand me the paddles! After two sleepless nights, we talked again, and after collecting the historical material given to him at the time of sale, that’s when I first heard about Averill and quickly determined from his rank of Lt. Cmdr., that he was not an Army Major but rather a Naval Aviator.
3) Without the gun I had no story—nada, zippo, bubkus. The owner asked me point-blank, “What do you want to do, pal?” I replied, “I want to tell his story…” He then said, “Well, take the Parker and go write your story…” I kept the gun for over six months! Pretty kind of him to say the least. For his unselfish act, I presented him with Averill’s hat and made him promise, when the story was published, to sit down with his grandsons and tell them as Paul Harvey would say, “the rest of the story.”
4) My research was 90% internet generated and most was in the public domain. Upon Averill’s transfer from Lambert in ’42 the base dedicated the entire October newsletter to their former commander. Thankfully, it contained a wealth of information about his past naval service. The only sites requiring a fee were for obtaining his Naval Academy yearbook photo and the official navy accident report on his fatal crash off of the Lexington.
5) This was one story where the gun was firmly in the ‘backseat’ to the man who owned it. I could have written 10 more pages on Averill. He was a real father figure to the new recruits. There were many stories of him bailing his men out of jail and standing up for them during inquiries. Also one tender tale of him lending one of his base mechanics (down on his luck) $50 bucks and driving him to his folks for Thanksgiving. Apparently his replacement at Lambert was the polar opposite, and was quickly termed by the men as, “one real live, SOB!!” That picture of Averill in 1944 (a few weeks before his death) really speaks to me. He just has that “nice guy” look about him.