Ski Bashinski

A native of Dublin, Ga., Ski Bashinski at age 19 left college in 1942, midway through his sophomore year, to volunteer for the U.S. Army Air Corps (predecessor of the Air Force). He was inspired by his older brother Horace who had gone via Naval Reserves. Ski went to radio operator mechanic school in Madison, Wisconsin, then to aerial gunnery school, graduating as a staff sergeant. 

Routed through Greenville, S.C., for overseas crew assignment, he then boarded a train to Battle Creek, Mich., where the new crewmen got a brand-new B-25 bomber. Legs of their month-long designation flight included stops in Florida, Puerto Rico, British Guinea, and Brazil, then to an island in the middle of the Atlantic. From there the arduous trek routed them to the African Gold Coast, across Africa to Khartum, then to Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, to Aden, and finally to India, where the crew spent time in Agra, the site of the Taj Mahal, in order to paint their plane green for general warfare. 

Ski flew his first air missions in India with the 10th Air Force, stationed in Chakulia, India, about 80 miles west of Calcutta, to Burma, Mandalay, and Rangoon. Then the squadron was transferred to the 14th Air Force, which along with the China Air Task Force soon had as supreme commander General C. L. Chennault. already renowned for leadership in the late 1930s. The Flying Tigers Corps was made up of volunteer American pilots who helped China keep the Burma road open during its war with Japan.

 

Ski flew most of his battle missions from a base at Yang Kai, 40 miles north of Kun Mig until April 1944. After 30 missions, he advanced to the rank of tech sergeant in a crew of six and manned the B-25's waist gunner and tail gunner positions, firing 50-caliber machine guns. Totally, Ski went on 55 air missions against the Japanese forces and spent more than 800 hours in a B-25. He and three companions in the crew of six then rotated off the war front. the other two were killed in battle. 

But he felt a need to serve further and volunteered again for overseas duty. He ended up back in that area of the embattled world and led a cadre of men who eventually got back to Karachi, India. But after one more mission over the Hump? in Burma, a serious illness found him heading out of Calcutta on a troop ship for an arduous 30-day circuitous voyage home, via the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Suez Canal, Mediterranean, Gibraltar, and then finally across the Atlantic to Norfolk, Virginia. Still quite ill, he was put on a train to a hospital in Miami, where he received a medical discharge in August 1945, just after the Japanese surrender. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster (twice so honored), and the Chinese Medal of Valor. 

After military service, Ski worked for Bibb Manufacturing in Porterdale, Ga., and for a while attended Georgia Tech. He headed to Florida and worked for Florida Power Corp., then found work as a fruit and vegetable inspector for federal and state inspection services. During winter, he inspected citrus in Florida and in summer watermelons in South Georgia and peaches in South Carolina. In Florida, he met his future wife Tilley who was working in one of the citrus canning plants in Fort Meade and was also a boarder in the same boarding house. They married on Christmas Eve, 1950. 

Ski took a position in Ohio for H. J. Heinz inspecting tomatoes, but wanted to get back South, and eventually was promoted to oversee 30 inspectors for a large group of peach sheds in South Carolina. 

Next, Ski worked with an auto finance company in Orlando for a decade and when it ceased operations his acquired knowledge of auto dealers landed him the executive director position with the Georgia Independent Auto Dealers Association. When he and Tilley determined in 1966 that they were ready to set up a separate firm to manage organizations, he left GIADA to form Trade Association Management, Inc., among the first firms in the U.S. to venture into this multiple-management concept.  Ski joined GSAE in 1969 and rose through various chairmanships and the officer chairs to become the 1982-83 president. 

As a member of the 14th Air Force Association, Hump Pilots Association, 22nd Bomber Squadron Association, Ski and Tilley in May 2000 attended these groups? 54th reunion in Kunming, China at the west base of the Himalayas. He is also a member of the China-Burma-India Association. 

In Asia, Ski had Chinese craftsmen convert two 50-caliber shells into bronze cups, engraved with unit info. In 2000, he donated them to Warner Robins Air Force Museum in a presentation to curator Col. Robert Scott, author of the best-selling WWII book, God is My Co-Pilot.