The Warhawk Beside You: Captain Richard C. “Dick” Daggett and Peep and Weep
Updated: Sep 9
If you reached this page by scanning the QR code beside the aircraft at the University of Louisiana Monroe, the Warhawk in front of you is more than a model.
It is a wooden tribute to Captain Richard C. “Dick” Daggett’s wartime Curtiss P-40N Warhawk, Peep and Weep. According to the Chennault Aviation & Military Museum’s collection history, Daggett built the approximately 80-percent-scale replica years after World War II. It later became part of the museum’s collection.[1]
The replica connects two extraordinary chapters of Daggett’s life: his survival behind enemy lines in China and his later determination to recreate the airplane that represented his days in the sky.
From Massachusetts to Louisiana
Richard Daggett was born in Medford, Massachusetts, and was attending Colgate University when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Like thousands of young Americans, he soon entered military service. After flight training, Daggett received his wings and was assigned to Harding Field in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
While stationed there, he met Eula Routh Wurster. The couple married on August 22, 1943, shortly before Daggett departed for overseas service.[2]
In February 1944, his journey took him through India and across the Himalayas—the dangerous air route known as “the Hump”—to Kunming, China.
Flying with the Chinese-American Composite Wing
Daggett was assigned to the 28th Fighter Squadron of the 3rd Fighter Group, part of the Chinese-American Composite Wing.
Created under General Claire Lee Chennault’s Fourteenth Air Force, the wing brought Chinese and American personnel together in shared combat units. The 3rd Fighter Group included the 7th, 8th, 28th and 32nd Fighter Squadrons and operated the Curtiss P-40N Warhawk.[3]
This distinction is important: Daggett was not a member of Chennault’s original American Volunteer Group—the famous Flying Tigers, which had been disbanded in 1942. He belonged to the later Chinese-American force that carried the Flying Tigers’ combat tradition forward under Chennault’s command.
Daggett’s P-40N carried the number 638 and the name Peep and Weep. Like many combat pilots, he gave his aircraft a distinctive identity—one that remained important enough for him to recreate decades later.[4]
His assignments included escorting bombers, strafing enemy positions and engaging Japanese aircraft. Every mission placed Daggett and his fellow pilots over vast, often mountainous territory where mechanical failure, enemy fire or a forced landing could leave an airman far behind Japanese lines.
The 31st Mission
On August 29, 1944, Daggett took off on his 31st combat mission.
During the flight, his P-40 was hit and began to shudder and smoke. Daggett tried to keep the aircraft under control while turning toward friendly territory, but the Warhawk continued losing altitude.
In his later account, Daggett recalled the final seconds simply:
“The airplane stalled, rolled over on its wing and I fell out.”
He escaped the aircraft at dangerously low altitude and reached the ground alive, but with an injured leg. He was now alone in enemy-held territory with Japanese troops operating nearby.[2]
Fourteenth Air Force records confirm the loss of a 28th Fighter Squadron P-40N on August 29, 1944. However, the surviving public loss listing does not, by itself, conclusively identify that aircraft by the name Peep and Weep or its radio number 638.[3]
Twenty-Eight Days to Safety
Daggett’s survival depended on the courage of Chinese civilians.
Local people found the injured American pilot and moved him away from the crash area. At first, one rescuer carried him piggyback. Later, the group constructed an improvised stretcher and carried him through mountains and rice paddies.
Because Japanese forces were searching the area, much of the journey had to be made at night. Villagers concealed Daggett, fed him and continued passing him from one group of helpers to another.
After 28 days, the rescuers reached a location Daggett identified as Hoko. From there, he was flown to a hospital and eventually recovered from his injuries.[2]
Daggett later returned to flying duties and helped train replacement pilots in Karachi. His decorations included the Air Medal and the Purple Heart.[2]
His story is not only one of a pilot surviving the loss of his aircraft. It is also a story of the Chinese men and women who risked their own lives to save an injured American they had never met.
Building Peep and Weep Again
For many veterans, the airplanes they flew remained powerful reminders of the people, places and experiences that shaped their lives.
Daggett took that connection a remarkable step further.
According to the Chennault Aviation & Military Museum’s collection history, he constructed a wooden P-40 replica at approximately 80-percent scale and finished it in the identity of Peep and Weep. The replica later became part of the museum’s collection, preserving a personal connection to his wartime service.[1]
The aircraft displayed today is therefore not Daggett’s original World War II P-40. It is his personal recreation of that Warhawk—a tribute built by the same man who had once depended on a P-40 for his survival in combat.
Its wooden construction and compact dimensions make it distinctive. Its connection to Daggett makes it irreplaceable.
A Shared Legacy at ULM
Today, Daggett’s wooden Warhawk is displayed at the University of Louisiana Monroe, extending the museum’s educational mission beyond its own walls.
ULM and the Chennault Aviation & Military Museum formalized their partnership through a memorandum of understanding signed on December 9, 2022. The agreement established opportunities involving student internships, service learning, oral histories, museum curation, joint events and other forms of cooperation.[5]
The presence of Peep and Weep at ULM makes that partnership tangible. Students and visitors encounter not simply an airplane, but an entry point into the history of the China-Burma-India Theater, the Chinese-American Composite Wing, General Chennault and the Louisiana veterans whose lives became connected to Monroe.
The QR code that brought you here continues that mission—carrying Daggett’s story from the aircraft to a new generation.
Remembering Richard Daggett
Captain Richard C. Daggett’s story stretches across continents and decades.
It begins with a college student responding to Pearl Harbor. It continues in the cockpit of a P-40 over China, on the ground with Chinese civilians carrying an injured pilot toward safety, and in Louisiana with a veteran carefully building his Warhawk again from wood.
The aircraft beside you is the physical link between those chapters.
It reminds us that history is more than a list of dates and military units. History is carried through individual lives, acts of courage and objects whose meaning survives long after the events they commemorate.
Visit the Chennault Aviation & Military Museum
Continue exploring the people, aircraft and events connected to General Claire Lee Chennault at the Chennault Aviation & Military Museum.
Admission: Free
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Address: 701 Kansas Lane, Monroe, Louisiana 71203
Telephone: 318-362-5540
Visit ChennaultMuseum.org for current visitor information, upcoming events and ways to support the museum.[6]
Sources
Chennault Aviation & Military Museum collection history and aircraft display records. Museum-held source concerning the construction, flight, donation and present display of Daggett’s wooden P-40 replica.
Concordia Parish Library, “WWII – Daggett, Richard C.”. First-person biographical account covering Daggett’s training, combat service, August 29, 1944 loss, rescue and recovery.
Army Air Corps Library and Museum, “3rd Fighter Group – Fourteenth Air Force”. Unit organization, aircraft type and August 29, 1944 P-40N loss listing. See also Pacific Wrecks’ August 29, 1944 chronology for the distinction between Fourteenth Air Force operations in China and Tenth Air Force operations in Burma.
Rex Kuang, Chinese-American Composite Wing P-40 aircraft markings. Secondary aircraft-markings reference identifying Richard Daggett with P-40N number 638, Peep and Weep.
University of Louisiana Monroe, “ULM and Chennault Aviation and Military Museum Sign Memorandum of Understanding”, December 2022.
Chennault Aviation & Military Museum official website. Current public visitor information.
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