After his Air Force career, Gabreski headed the Long Island Rail Road, a commuter railroad owned by the State of New York, and struggled in his attempts to improve its service and financial condition.He did so in 1938, but, unprepared for real academic work, almost failed during his freshman year.During his first year at Notre Dame, Gabreski developed an interest in flying.[1] At the start of his second year at Notre Dame, Gabreski enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, volunteering as an aviation cadet.After his induction into the U.S. Army at Pittsburgh, he undertook primary flight training at Parks Air College, near East St. Louis, Illinois, flying the Stearman PT-17.Gabreski earned his wings and his commission as a second lieutenant in the Air Corps in March 1941, then sailed for Hawaii aboard the SS Washington to his first assignment.During the spring and summer of 1942, Gabreski remained with the 45th (renamed as 45th Fighter Squadron in May 1942), training in newer model P-40s and in Bell P-39 Airacobras that the unit began to receive.In October, Gabreski reported to the Eighth Air Force's VIII Fighter Command in England, at that time a rudimentary new headquarters.[6] This ill-will was soon exacerbated when both of these men were lost in combat on June 26 and did not subside until he recorded his first credited kill: an Fw 190 near Dreux, France, on August 24, 1943.Gabreski recorded his fourth and fifth kills to become an ace, but had a close brush with death on December 11,[9] when a 20 mm (.79 in) cannon shell lodged in his engine without exploding, destroying its turbocharger.[11] In February 1944, Gabreski brought two Polish pilots into the 56th, who had flown with him in 1943 while serving with the RAF, including future USAAF ace Squadron Leader Boleslaw "Mike" Gladych.[15] On July 20, 1944, Gabreski had reached the 300-hour combat time limit for Eighth Air Force fighter pilots and was awaiting an aircraft to return him to the United States on leave and reassignment.In June 1951, he and a group of selected pilots of the 56th FIW accompanied the delivery of F-86Es of the 62nd Fighter-Interceptor Squadron to South Korea aboard the escort carrier USS Cape Esperance.[21] He was an aggressive commander and fostered a fierce rivalry between the two F-86 wings,[24] fueled in part by the fact that the 4th had also been the keenest rival of the 56th FG during World War II.Gabreski and a fellow former 56th pilot, Colonel Walker M. Mahurin, planned and executed a mission in early 1952 in which the F-86s turned off their IFF equipment and overflew two Chinese bases.One historian, citing five interviews with pilots and an unpublished manuscript by a sixth, observed that Gabreski flew the fastest aircraft available and failed to notice when his slower wingmen could not keep up.One thing I know for sure, Gabby proved himself the greatest at our skills and talents, when he added 6 ½ MIG kills to his 28 victories in WW II and become the all-time American Fighter Ace, and I MIGht [sic] add, he did it in the P-47, not the better air-to-air P-51.Gabreski was subsequently replaced by Colonel John W. Mitchell, who had led the mission to shoot down Admiral Yamamoto in World War II.[32] On his return to the United States, Gabreski received the key to the city from San Francisco Mayor Elmer E. Robinson and was given a ticker-tape parade up Market Street on June 17.Gabreski's military decorations and awards include:[34] The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Lieutenant Colonel (Air Corps), [then Major] Francis Stanley Gabreski, United States Army Air Forces, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving as Pilot of a P-47 Fighter Airplane in the 61st Fighter Squadron, 56th Fighter Group, Eighth Air force, in aerial combat against enemy forces on November 26, 1943, in the European Theater of Operations.He was asked by New York Governor Hugh Carey to serve as president of the financially stressed and state-owned Long Island Rail Road in an attempt to improve the commuter line.However, a severe heat wave in the summer of 1980 that overwhelmed the commuter line's air conditioning systems was apparently the final straw that forced his resignation.Gabreski died of an apparent heart attack in Huntington Hospital, Long Island, New York on January 31, 2002, and is buried in Calverton National Cemetery.[40][41] Gabreski's funeral on February 6 was with full military honors and included a missing man formation flyover by F-15E Strike Eagles from the 4th Fighter Wing, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina.
Gabreski and
S/Sgt.
Ralph Safford, his crew chief. The assistant crew chief Felix Schacki is in the background.
Gabreski in the cockpit of his P-47 after his 28th victory
Gabreski stepping out of his Sabre, April 1950
Gabreski (left) congratulating Whisner
Gabreski in the cockpit of his Sabre after returning from a mission, 1952