Thawee Junlasap
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Thawee Junlasap (August 8, 1914 - May 18, 1996) was a Royal Thai Air Force officer, and a member of the Seri Thai.
He became a cadet at the Army Academy upon finishing secondary school, and graduated with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in 1935. Thawee soon joined the Air Force, and by 1938 had been promoted to Flying Officer. The young officer was soon enrolled in bombing and training courses with the RAF and USAAF, and returned two years later to become Commanding Officer of the 3rd Fighter Squadron, whose base was at Don Muang.
The conflict with French Indochina saw Thawee leading the 60th Fighter Squadron, which was composed of nine Hawk 75Ns. On January 24, 1941, it was Thawee's fighters that escorted the Ki-30 Nagoyas on the raid on the French airfield at Angkor Wat.
Flight Lieutenant Thawee was a member of the last Thai military mission to Malaya in October 1941, and returned just days before the commencement of the Pacific War.
At 08:00 on December 8, 1941, Flight Lieutenant Thawee Junlasap and Pilot Officer Sangwaan Worasap rushed off in their Hawk 75Ns to pursue a lone Japanese reconnaissance plane cruising in the skies above Don Muang. The chase was frantic, but ultimately the Japanese pilot was saved from being shot down when the two Thai pilots were ordered to stand down and return to base.
Thawee was sent later to serve as an attaché to General Yamashita's headquarters at Alor Star. He accompanied the Japanese 25th Army to as far as Johore before being forced to return to Bangkok as a result of malarial infections.
In March 1945, Wing Commander Thawee was ordered to report to the Army Deputy Commander-in-Chief, who quickly presented the Wing Commander to the Regent at his riverside residence. The regent proceeded to explain that Thawee had been chosen to carry out liaison duties with the Allies in India on behalf of the Seri Thai. He was to leave on the night of April 21 by seaplane.
Thawee was to make the journey with three Americans—two OSS officers, Majors John Wester and Howard Palmer; and the Flying Tigers' "Black Mac" McGarry, who ever since being shot down in the Chiang Mai area in January 1942 had been spending the war in a POW camp. Also in tow were 2nd Lieutenant Wimon Wiriyawit, a Seri Thai officer, and Fon Saengsinkaew.
The party arrived in Madras some hours later, and Thawee continued on to Colombo, where he met Sanguan Tularak, a fellow Seri Thai agent. The sojourn in Ceylonese capital did not last long, however, as the Wing Commander was taken by Colonel John Coughlin of the OSS to meet Lord Mountbatten at Kandy. There Thawee received his OSS codename, "Dicky Stone".
Wing Commander Thawee spent his time at Kandy studying aerial photographs of Thailand and assisting the bombing planners at South East Asia Command in selecting accurate Japanese military targets as opposed to Thai civilian ones. Thawee also received lessons in espionage and sabotage, and was forced to attend an intensive week-long OSS training course in Maryland.
A posting to Calcutta saw Thawee acting as a liaison officer at Mountbatten's American deputy, General Raymond B. Wheeler's headquarters. The Thai again acted as a consultant to various USAAF bombing-run plans. He returned to Thailand a while later via seaplane. Thawee was to collect intelligence regarding Japanese troop dispositions, and to aid in the establishment of secret airfields for which the Allies could fly in agents and supplies to reinforce the Seri Thai.
The Wing Commander immediately reported back to Pridi's new residence at the Bang Pa-In Summer Palace, approximately 70 km north of Bangkok.
The next week was spent surveying the Northeast for prospective airfield sites. The sites they chose was in Chaiyaphum Province and at Nonhan in Loei Province. The Royal Thai Air Force duly began construction, assisted in no little part by the Governor of Chayaphum, a man fully committed to the resistance, and by Khon Kaen's chief Seri Thai officers, Tiang Sirikhanth and Chamlong Daoruang.
Thawee once more returned to Calcutta, and from there on he oversaw equipment drops by B-24s on Sakhon Nakhorn, and accompanied a C-46 to Kunming and Chungking.
The airfields were ready by June, and Thawee was tasked to return to Thailand on board the first RAF C-47 to fly into the country. Prince Yuthisathien Sawasdiwat, a Seri Thai officer who had been parachuted in to evaluate the airfields, were waiting for him. On June 14 the plane landed, but the wheels sank into the ground. Once the supplies were unloaded, however, the airfield personnel were able to push the plane out of the mud and repair minor damage.
Thawee returned to Calcutta to pick up OSS Major Nicol Smith and Lloyd George, a civilian reports officer, and to bring them to Bangkok for direct talks with Pridi.
Thawee supervised the creation of a massive arms cache in the many classrooms of Thammasat University, and returned to Calcutta on August 10, where he would celebrate the end of the war with the staff of SEAC.
Thawee accompanied Seni Pramoj back to Bangkok on September 16, and returned permanently on December 5, 1945, escorting the young King Ananda Mahidol.
Air Chief Marshal Thawee was widely considered a pillar of Thailand's sporting world. After a successful career in the military which saw him rise to Supreme Command chief of staff in 1961, he turned to politics and was appointed deputy defense minister in 1963. He later served as agriculture minister and deputy premier. Head of Thailand's National Olympic Committee for 22 years until his death, he was a member of the International Olympic Committee and a force behind the Southeast Asian Games.
