#jack ilfrey

[shadows-on-the-sky]

There are also some interviews with Mr. Ilfrey available on Youtube:

Captain Jack "Happy Jack" Ilfrey 1920-2004. Check out the swastikas on the side of his plane. He was shot down twice but evaded capture and returned to his squadron. In the final decade of his life he confirmed to Christopher Case that his life paralleled the story of Jack and Fred in Wingmen, but sadly he had never felt able to be open with his family or peers. His autobiography "Happy Jack's Go Buggy" arrived in the post today. I can't wait to dive into it.

[alovelywaytospendanevening]

Gay Life Stories

These are my posts covering the life stories of some gay and bisexual men. This list will be updated continuously.

Pedro Díaz & Muño Vandilaz (Enfoques.gal article)

Edward Carpenter & George Merrill (book excerpts)

Edward Carpenter & Robert Murray Gilchrist

Francis Millet & Archibald Butt (Washington Post article)

Benson brothers

Beverley Nichols & the Bensons

Robert Murray Gilchrist

J. C. Leyendecker & Charles Beach (glbtq.com article)

J. Warren Kerrigan

Siegfried Sassoon & Wilfred Owen (Lit Hub article)

Siegfried Sassoon & Robert Graves (book excerpt)

Jean Cocteau & Jean Marais (Far Out article)

Norman Notley & David Brynley (BBC article)

Cary Grant & Randolph Scott (Vanity Fair article)

Ramon Novarro

William Haines

Tennessee Williams & Frank Merlo (LOC article)

George Walton & Reg Mickisch

Jack Ilfrey

Chris Wetmore & John Arlee (Mattachine Review article)

Gilbert Bradley & Gordon Bowsher (BBC article)

Kerwin Mathews

Rock Hudson & George Nader

Charles Nolte & Terry Kilburn

Tom Tryon

James Ivory & Ismail Merchant

George Maharis

Anthony Perkins (book excerpt)

Franz von Bayern

Edmund White (NY Times article)

Jack Baker & Michael McConnell

Felice Picano (NY Times article)

Ensan Case

Danny Stewart & Pete Mercurio (BBC article)

Related: General history posts

[usafphantom2]

Doc Winters’ P-51D ‘Happy Jacks Go Buggy’. WWII Ace fighter pilot Jack Ilfrey. Major Ilfrey was part of the 94th FS, 1st FG and eventual commander of the 79th FS, 20th FG.  He is credited with shooting down seven and a half enemy aircraft during WWII and evading capture twice. (peterson)

@kadonkey via X

[shadows-on-the-sky]

Hello, I have only recently discovered the story of Jack Ilfrey, and am eagerly awaiting the delivery of a 1st edition paperback copy of Wingmen that I sourced in a bookshop in London. I am researching the lives of WW2 airmen in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia. I wondered if you know what became of Christopher "Ensan" Case? I can find no bibliographic information on him after 2015 (the GLBTQ archive letter). All the best, Allan

Hello and thank you for the message, Allan.

Unfortunately, there has been no recent news about Ensan Case. In 2015, Case announced on his website (which has since been taken down) that he was finishing writing a Wingmen spin-off novel, which he planned to release the following year. He was active online at the time but has since gone radio silent.

At this point, I think it wouldn't be inappropriate to say he probably passed away shortly after that. I have had no success in trying to find any other information about him; in fact, I don't even know his full actual name.

[shadows-on-the-sky]

Ensan Case’s (author of Wingmen) salute to a World War II gay veteran, Jack M. Ilfrey, whose life paralleled the events of his novel:

One letter came from a very special person. I’ll call him Jack. Jack was an Army Air Force pilot in 1941, when the Pearl Harbor attack thrust the United States into the global conflict. Flying the twinengined P-38 Lockheed Lightning, he became one of the Army’s first aces, fighting the Germans in North Africa in late 1942 and early 1943. Highly decorated and an early military celebrity, he eventually ended up in England prior to D-Day in June 1944. Shortly after D-Day, he was shot down by ground fire, but managed to make his way, with French underground assistance, back through the Normandy battle lines to safety and his squadron, of which he was now the commanding officer. Now flying the P-51 Mustang, he added three more kills to his total before the war ended. When that time came, he returned to civilian life, where he became a successful businessman.

Jack’s letter to me, forwarded from Avon Books, was profound. When he left the military in 1946, he wrote a book about his experiences. Due to a glut of war-time books, his was not published. In 1979, in another extraordinary coincidence, he pulled out his 1946 manuscript and published it himself [as Happy Jack’s Go Buggy: A Fighter’s Pilot Story], in the same year as Wingmen.

His book was straight out of 1946, and related his experiences as a womanizing, heavy drinking, hell-for-leather fighter pilot breaking all the rules in search of a good time and a chance to vanquish the hated enemy. It was all true, of course, except for one detail: there were no women in the real story. He had been involved in ardent sexual relationships with two pilots in his squadron. In our correspondence he never revealed what happened to the two pilots, and I never asked. Jack subsequently maneuvered successfully through the minefields of being a prominent citizen of his community and an unmarried man with a close and lifelong male companion.

In his first hand-written letter, which I received in 1980, Jack gave me the greatest accolade an author can receive: he told me that Jack and Fred’s story had been his story as well, and he regretted being unable to honestly tell it to the world. After several years of correspondence, we fell out of touch. I discovered recently, from Internet sites devoted to him, that he passed away in 2004. His book and letters are among my most prized possessions.

[allanhildon]

Captain Jack "Happy Jack" Ilfrey 1920-2004. Check out the swastikas on the side of his plane. He was shot down twice but evaded capture and returned to his squadron. In the final decade of his life he confirmed to Christopher Case that his life paralleled the story of Jack and Fred in Wingmen, but sadly he had never felt able to be open with his family or peers. His autobiography "Happy Jack's Go Buggy" arrived in the post today. I can't wait to dive into it.

[allanhildon]

Hello and thank you for your reply.

I also assumed this may have been his fate. It is a sad loss, but he has left an amazing legacy. I believe his birth name was Christopher, but I can't confirm the source of this information. As his birth date is known, perhaps someone with access to public records in the US could determine his date and place of death.

I find it unsettling that our flimsy knowledge of the lives of men like Jack Ilfrey and Ian Gleed rely on sheer serendipity - a passing anecdote; an unexpected correspondence. I feel duty bound to bring their stories to life.

Allan

Hello, I have only recently discovered the story of Jack Ilfrey, and am eagerly awaiting the delivery of a 1st edition paperback copy of Wingmen that I sourced in a bookshop in London. I am researching the lives of WW2 airmen in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia. I wondered if you know what became of Christopher "Ensan" Case? I can find no bibliographic information on him after 2015 (the GLBTQ archive letter). All the best, Allan

Hello and thank you for the message, Allan.

Unfortunately, there has been no recent news about Ensan Case. In 2015, Case announced on his website (which has since been taken down) that he was finishing writing a Wingmen spin-off novel, which he planned to release the following year. He was active online at the time but has since gone radio silent.

At this point, I think it wouldn't be inappropriate to say he probably passed away shortly after that. I have had no success in trying to find any other information about him; in fact, I don't even know his full actual name.