Of Finnish descent, pilot Erick Kyro of the 41st Squadron flew P-39s, P-400s and P-47Ds, and is seen here at 7-Mile Strip near Port Moresby, New Guinea in 1943. A resume of his combat career is as varied as it is interesting. In Erick's own words,

"I arrived in Port Moresby on October 1, 1942, and was assigned to the 41st Fighter Squadron at 7-Mile airstrip. My first flight was in a P-400 on 15 October 1942. My last flight in a 41st Squadron Airacobra was at Tsili Tsili, near the Finesterre Mountains, on 28 November 1943 in a P-39Q-6.

I was then an instructor at the Fighter Replacement Center in Charters Towers, west of Townsville, Australia, all of December 1943 until the last log entry there on January 13, 1944. At Charters Tower I flew P-40, P-38, P-39, P-47, Wirraway, and O-47 type aircraft. The O-47 was an old US-type reconnaissance, mid-wing monoplane in which I took the mess sergeant to Cairns to buy and transport spaghetti materials for our mess. I was with the 41st squadron until Gusap, in the Markham Valley of New Guinea, having flown 215 combat missions, 480 combat hours. My last flight at Gusap was in a P-47D-3 on February 28, 1944. I left for home at the beginning of March, 1944.

The following incidents/accidents in P-400 or P-39 aircraft occurred to me while we were at 7-Mile.

1. The landing light extended by itself in flight and couln't be retracted. I was quite a star.

2. Taxiing along a narrow road from a revetment toward the airstrip, the right brake failed, I cut the mixture control and nosed slowly into a ditch. Engine change required because of sudden stoppage.

3. On a landing slow-down, the right brake pedal flopped down, some bolt had fallen out. I cut the engine off and was able to roll to a stop on the runway.

The following incident occurred on a mission probably flown out of Tsilli Tsilli. We flew an early morning sweep over Madang. Coming in low from the east, I caught a loaded barge moving in the harbor. I strafed it. It blew up and I flew through the debris. I actually got some water into the cockpit and, after landing, found a small perforation in the fabric covering of one of the elevators, and the yellow filter over the gun camera lens was shattered".

FLYING FINN's squadron number was 75 with a large letter F on the fuselage. His P-400 was named SISU, which had the name painted in white pseudo oriental-type letters on the sheet metal just above the twelve-stack exhaust ports and below the aft glass canopy. The airplane also had the squadron number 75 and the large letter F.

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