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Good articleJack Newkirk has been listed as one of the Warfare good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
October 24, 2014Good article nomineeListed

Assessment

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G'day, great work on this so far. I have assessed it as a Start class article in the Military history project's assessment scale; however, I think it would be very close to achieving a higher rating. If the lead could be expanded a bit, and some of the other details about Newkirk's family (specifically his wife), and awards could be worked into the body of the article, and the "citation needed" tags replaced with refs, I believe it would warrant a B-class rating. When/if you would like a second assessment opinion, please list the article at WP:MHA. Cheers, AustralianRupert (talk) 09:56, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@AustralianRupert: Hi there, am I heading in the right direction with this? --Bye for now (PTT) 20:29, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
G'day, yes I think its getting there. Thanks for your efforts. IMO, if you can cite or remove the awards of the Distinguished Service Order and Order of the Cloud and Banner, and expand the lead by a couple more sentences, I believe it would be B-class. Regards, AustralianRupert (talk) 11:33, 9 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
In for assessment, thanks for the assistance --Bye for now (PTT) 15:33, 10 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
G'day, again, I believe that it meets the B-class criteria now, but as I've now done a bit of work on it I will let someone who is more objective take a look and do the assessment. Great work, by the way. I think you could even consider nominating it for Good Article status, if you are keen. I have a couple of quick suggestions: the Google Book link for the Bergin ref seems to go to a different book (Texas Aggies). Also, some of the websites use a different presentation. For instance some use "surname, first name" while others use "first name surname" for the authors. I suggest making this consistent (last name, first name seems more common with how you present the books etc). Anyway, thanks for your efforts and good luck with taking this article further. If you have any questions about the GAN process, please let me know. Regards, AustralianRupert (talk) 19:39, 10 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Rupert, first of all many thanks for tidying up. I've had a look at the GAN info and it seems to be worth a try. Even if it doesn't make it, the process should bring in some advice for improvement. I actually have quite a bit more material on the subject, should it be called for. Cheers, --Bye for now (PTT) 10:46, 11 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
No worries at all, good luck. Regards, AustralianRupert (talk) 10:51, 11 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Removed from main article until/unless a suitable ref is found

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In the summer of 1938, after initial disqualification due to childhood mastoiditis, Newkirk was granted a medical waiver and joined the U.S. Navy with the intent of becoming a pilot.[citation needed]

In May 1941, Newkirk was approached by a representative of Claire L. Chennault, a retired U.S. Army Air Corps officer who had been working in China as an aviation advisor to Chinese General Chiang Kai-shek since the early days of the Sino-Japanese War.[citation needed]

Chennault offered Newkirk a dramatic increase in pay with no loss of rank should he agree to temporarily resign from the U.S. Navy and join the American Volunteer Group.[citation needed]

| awards =

Further research possibilities

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Move to Jack Newkirk

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G'day, I suggest this article should be moved to Jack Newkirk. There is nothing at that title, and it is the minimum title that covers this chap. "Scarsdale Jack" is obvious a nickname, and should be in the first line of the lead, but it is unnecessary in the title, as we don't need to disambiguate him from any other Jack Newkirk (at this stage at least). Regards, Peacemaker67 (crack... thump) 11:38, 21 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Seems reasonable. To be honest, I never gave any thought to the title as I didn't start it and it already had a title when I rescued it from AfD. When the GAR is done, I will move it. Cheers, --Bye for now (PTT) 13:35, 21 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Article moved to Jack Newkirk --Bye for now (PTT) 09:13, 24 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

GA Review

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Reviewing
This review is transcluded from Talk:John V. "Scarsdale Jack" Newkirk/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Peacemaker67 (talk · contribs) 11:32, 21 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Rate Attribute Review Comment
1. Well-written:
1a. the prose is clear, concise, and understandable to an appropriately broad audience; spelling and grammar are correct.
  • " Kunmimg"?checkY
  • Bert Christman is overlinkedcheckY
  • DFC is a disambiguation link × 2checkY, as is Walt Disney StudioscheckY
  • Not clear what the source is for his nickname, or when he gained it. In any case, he was not born with it, so it should be removed from the Early life and education sectioncheckY
    • Newkirk was known within the extended family as "Scarsdale Jack," to distinguish him from a younger cousin with the same name. (Sometime from the age of 7). Added some info to the section --Bye for now (PTT) 11:55, 22 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Could drop "Polytechnic" from the first sentence of the US Navy service section, you've already dispensed with it abovecheckY
  • Wasn't Rutledge Irvine his real name? The wording makes it appear clandestine, but my understanding is that it wasn't, Chennault used half a dozen friends and colleagues as recruiterscheckY
    • The source from which this sentence was derived says 'At the far end of the room sat a man who'd been listening to every word Scarsdale uttered, and shortly before the Yorktown resumed patrols in the Atlantic, Jack was quietly approached by a man who introduced himself as Commander Rutledge Irvine - retired." As to whether or not Rutledge Irvine was his real name or not: I have no idea. Because of that, I didn't think it appropriate to speculate on who he was or who he was representing (even though it's pretty obvious that Chennault was involved). --Bye for now (PTT) 12:13, 22 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
      • I believe Samson's book on Chennault makes it clear he was working for Chennault. Have a look on Google Books. Peacemaker67 (crack... thump) 12:18, 22 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
        • It's not that I don't believe it was Rutledge on behalf of Chennault that recruited Newkirk, and I also accept that there was nothing clandestine about AVG recruiting. It's just that the source said "a man who introduced himself as . . ." If I ignored those six words, would it not be a distortion? In any case, until the issue of which sources can be considered reliable is resolved it doesn't matter. Maybe the entire paragraph will have to be deleted anyway. --Bye for now (PTT) 13:23, 22 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
        • Have you looked at Carrozza's biography of Pawley? Or Samson? Excerpts of both are available in preview on Google Books, and they make no mention of clandestine activity, they just state that the services weren't too hot on it. You need to look for better sources.
          • Neither of these obviously mention the recruitment of Newkirk specifically. Maybe I should try again to explain my position on this: Using information about the AVG recruiting policy (in general) to decide that the only source I have come across on Newkirk's recruitment must have got it wrong, and so must be corrected, is not something I am happy about. Another way to put it is 'what gives me the right to re-write history?' Admittedly this particular thing is a minor point but if I start off knowingly editing out stuff, or making deductions myself, then where will it lead? I just put put into the article what the source actually said. If someone else wants to change it, fair enough. Actually someone already did - but I reverted it. Perhaps a way round this apparent impasse would be to reinstate an edit I have deleted. --Bye for now (PTT) 10:56, 23 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Per WP:SURNAME, once introduced, just use Newkirk, there are a few examples of Jack Newkirk and John Newkirk.checkY
  • The street Janie lived in is probably excessive detail, Los Angeles would docheckY
  • link Rangoon at first mention in the body, along with British rule in BurmacheckY I fixed the second bit
  • There is a bit of citation bombing, which seems unnecessary. Newkirk being the squadron leader of the Pandas, for example, has six citations. If it is not controversial, choose the best onecheckY
    • The only source I have for a date is a letter that Newkirk wrote to his father (Louis Newkirk). This letter was quoted in the book by John J Newkirk (the grandson of Louis' brother) 67 years later. So the question is: can this be used as a reliable source for "by September 1941"? If not, then I will have to remove the date. --Bye for now (PTT) 13:57, 23 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
      • I think we can consider Newkirk 2008 reliable for this piece of information.
  • Needs to be a bit more in the explanation of his recruitment, explain what CAMCO was, and Chennault's idea, link CAMCO at the first mention, and render it in full with an explanation that it was a front to get around the Neutrality ActcheckY that's enough for GA
    • Will come back to this later. Lack of sources at the moment.
    • have done something towards this. But, if there was anything out there about the recruitment of Newkirk specifically, I think I would have found it by now --Bye for now (PTT) 19:05, 23 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • of Rangoon with twocheckY
  • probably worth mentioning that No. 17 was flying Hurricanes and No. 67 was flying BuffaloescheckY
  • Tex Hill redirects to David Lee "Tex" Hill. Effectively it is an overlink.checkY Also, in the First offensive mission section, Christman and Hill should be just that, per WP:SURNAMEcheckY
  • Ki-27 "Nate" is a redirect to Nakajima Ki-27, so effectively an overlinkcheckY
  • I've added some commas
  • airplane/aircraft consistency in the textcheckY
  • the sequence of events for the 3 January raid is unclear. Did they destroy the aircraft on the ground? If so, who did the strafing (other than Howard)?checkY
  • He was credited, at this point, new section, and Newkirk not having been the subject of the last sentence of the previous section, I would use "Newkirk" here, not HecheckY
  • "Four 2nd Squadron Panda Bears" sounds a bit naff. I suggest Four 2nd Squadron aircraftcheckY
    • Apparently, others at the time thought it a bit naff also, though that's what Newkirk named them and that's what they were often known as. Still, that's all history now so I've deleted it, --Bye for now (PTT) 20:41, 22 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • "took out" is a bit colloquial - perhaps "destroyed" would be bettercheckY
  • was strengthed by - suggest was reinforced with a further eight per MOS:NUMERALcheckY
  • quotes should be per MOS:QUOTEcheckY I've fixed this
  • SVG?checkY
  • 0630 should be 06:30 per MOS:TIMEcheckY
  • there are some double spaces after commas, should be single, double spaces after a full stop isn't an issue, WP always renders this as a single space even if the markup has double spacescheckY looks close, good enough for GA
  • Chiain Mai?checkY
  • Later, the "Scarsdale Jack Unit" was formed at the U.S. Navy pre-training camp in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in his memory. suggest In June 194X, the "Scarsdale Jack Unit" was named in his memory at the U.S. Navy pre-training camp in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.checkY
  • died on 16 July 1982checkY
  • suggest body was disinterredcheckY
  • postumously should be posthumouslycheckY
  • suggest following the 1991 official recognition of the Flying Tigers as veterans of World War II.checkY
1b. it complies with the Manual of Style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list incorporation.
2. Verifiable with no original research:
2a. it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with the layout style guideline.
2b. reliable sources are cited inline. All content that could reasonably be challenged, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose).
  • there is a heavy reliance on Newkirk 2008 for most of the early life section, as well as some later material. My concern is that this source may not really be a third party source. Is John J. Newkirk either Jack Newkirk's son or other close relative?
    • Scarsdale Jack had a cousin (another Jack Newkirk) who had a son John J Newkirk (the author of this book). The book is mostly about his own father but includes a lot of family history. Much of this info appears in other sources also. Would it be better to add them all? --

Bye for now (PTT) 13:05, 21 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

      • It would be better to use the non-family sources where available.
  • I'm a bit concerned about the reliability and quality of some of the sources. findagravecheckY, warbirdforum.comcheckY, Newkirk, Janet (28 April 1942). "The Life of Jack Newkirk – Known as "Scarsdale Jack""checkY, the Bergin ebookcheckY, cv6.orgcheckY, politicalgraveyard.comcheckY, the flyingtigersavg sitecheckY etc. I freely admit I'm no expert on air force websites considered reliable, but can you talk me through what makes these sources WP:RELIABLE?
    • For some reason I cannot post all my comments in here so I have put them at Talk:John_V._"Scarsdale_Jack"_Newkirk#Sources_for_GAR
      • warbirdforum, maintained by Ford, appears to be reliable. I note findagrave and cv6 have been removed.
        • the flyingtigersavg site (Rossi) source has been removed (replaced by Bond 1984, p. 20. and Carrozza 2012, p. 96.) --Bye for now (PTT) 14:50, 23 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
        • I've removed the date of the marriage and the source for it (politicalgraveyard) as this seems to be a sticking point. --Bye for now (PTT) 16:56, 23 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
          • I've had a good look at what has been said about Bergin's work, and he's probably marginal as an academic source, but Ford seems to rate his work, so I think we'll let that through to the keeper.
  • this is not a requirement, but it is a good look for citations to be in numerical order. eg in the Aftermath section, the first five citations are 20, 6, 21, 22, 16.
2c. it contains no original research.
  • just need to confirm the reliability of some of the sourcescheckY see above
3. Broad in its coverage:
3a. it addresses the main aspects of the topic.
3b. it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style).
4. Neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each.
5. Stable: it does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoing edit war or content dispute.
6. Illustrated, if possible, by media such as images, video, or audio:
6a. media are tagged with their copyright statuses, and valid non-free use rationales are provided for non-free content.
6b. media are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions.
7. Overall assessment. Placed on hold for seven days for the above comments to be addressed Listing, this article now meets the GA criteria. Well done!

Comments

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The only real hurdle left to overcome appears to be whether or not "the Bergin ebook" can be used. If not, then the following will need to be checked to see which elements came from Bergin and the content either re-sourced, re-edited or deleted:

Newkirk was born in New York City on 15 October 1913. One year later his family moved to Scarsdale, New York where his father, Louis Hasbrouck Newkirk, worked as an attorney. Newkirk was known within the extended family as "Scarsdale Jack," to distinguish him from a younger cousin with the same name. At age ten, Newkirk was awarded a vocal scholarship to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine where he sang in the boys choir and attended the Cathedral School until age 14. Thereafter, Newkirk attended Scarsdale High School from which he graduated in 1932. During this time he was also active in the Boy Scouts of America and received his Eagle Scout medal from Admiral Richard E. Byrd at a ceremony in White Plains, NY. In the fall of 1932, Newkirk entered Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York to study aeronautical engineering. However, he was unable to afford tuition during the height of the Great Depression and dropped out after only one year. Newkirk subsequently worked odd jobs in New York City and served a brief stint in the New York National Guard until the fall of 1937, when he returned to Rensselaer to continue his studies.
Newkirk learned to fly whilst a student at Rennselaer, eventually accumulating two years of study which gave him the qualifications to become a cadet aviator in the US Navy. He joined the Navy in 1938 and after initial screening at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, he was transferred to Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida where his classmates included David Lee "Tex" Hill and Bert Christman. Newkirk earned his wings in 1939 and was assigned to the USS Yorktown at Naval Station Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, where he remained on active duty until the summer of 1941.
Although naval aviators were, at that time, prohibited from marriage within two years of getting their wings, having left the navy, the marriage could go ahead. John and Jane were married on 5 July 1941 at the First Presbyterian Church of Houston, Texas. After a two day honeymoon in a Houston hotel, they flew to San Francisco to meet up with other AVG recruits and their wives. They parted company on 10 July 1942 at the docks, where Newkirk boarded the M.V. Jagersfontein, with some of the AVG recruits on their way to Singapore, whilst Janie stayed in Los Angeles.
On the morning of 3 January 1942, Newkirk led Christman, Hill, and Jim Howard across Burma's Dawna Mountain Range in an attack against the Japanese-held Tak airfield near Raheng, Thailand. Christman's aircraft developed engine trouble, forcing him to return to base and leave Newkirk without a wingman. Upon arrival at the Raheng Aerodrome, the three pilots observed numerous Japanese aircraft parked by the runway but did not immediately notice the Japanese Ki-27 "Nate" fighters already in the air. Howard began to strafe the airfield, apparently unaware that an enemy aircraft was on his tail. Hill shot down the Nate pursuing Howard, then took on an additional one. Newkirk, who had engaged and destroyed one airborne Nate by then, was also credited with the third that Hill had also been engaging. Howard destroyed four Nates on the ground. With multiple enemy aircraft destroyed and the Raheng airfield in flames, Newkirk, Howard, and Hill all returned safely to base.
Newkirk left Rangoon on 10 February but, to get to the AVG base in Kunming, he had to go via India.
The AVG continued some of its operations from Magwe, which was heavily bombed by the Japanese. Chennault ordered retaliatory raids against Chiang Mai and Lampang on 23 March 1942. Because these bases were out of range of the P-40s, from their main base at Kunming, it was decided to go via Loi Wing (Leiyun), in China, then launch the raid from the RAF airstrip at Nam Sang, Burma.
On 24 March 1942, the aircraft took off in darkness from Nam Sang and by 06:30 all were en route to Chiang Mai. Newkirk's part of the mission was to lead his flight past Chiang Mai to Lampang and, if no targets could be found there, return to help with the main raid on Chiang Mai. Arriving ahead of the main force over Chiain Mai, Newkirk's flight of four aircraft strafed the main railway depot in passing and then continued towards Lampang, approximately 45 miles (72 km) to the southeast.
Newkirk's aircraft crashed in a ball of flame and he was killed instantly close to Lamphun. It was believed at the time that Newkirk's aircraft was hit by ground fire. Later investigations, including discussions with eyewitnesses, raised the possibility that Newkirk may have inadvertently hit a tree. His body was thrown clear of the wreckage and landed in a paddy field. He was buried locally by the Japanese.

Quite a to-do list --Bye for now (PTT) 19:25, 23 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

See my comments on Bergin above. He may not get over the line at Milhist ACR, but he's adequate for our purposes here. Well done on the improvements that have been made to this article. Not only has it been saved from AfD, but it is now GA! Regards, Peacemaker67 (crack... thump) 02:12, 24 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
OK, thanks for your guidance and patience, Have done the Move to Jack Newkirk --Bye for now (PTT) 09:18, 24 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Co-ordinates and map

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Map all coordinates using OpenStreetMap

Download coordinates as:

Personally, I needed a map to get my head round this and the only way I could find to generate one was by putting in coordinates. Unfortunately, this makes it too cluttered to be a Good Article so I've put the info here as it may help someone in the future. Maybe make a map one day --Bye for now (PTT) 13:52, 21 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Sources for GAR

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  • findagrave has no obvious affiliations or axes to grind. In this article it is used simply to verify a claim by Jack Eisner on warbirdforum.com (see below) that Newkirk was buried in Scarsdale, NY. I believe that it is a reliable additional source for where he is buried. EDIT: replace findagrave source with a New York Times one
  • Newkirk, Janet (28 April 1942) "The Life of Jack Newkirk – Known as "Scarsdale Jack"", . This is something I inherited when I rescued the article from AfD. I just assumed good faith from the originator but managed check that such an article, written by his sister shortly after his death, did exist.[4] Copyright 28 April 1942; AA 399590 16360. It would need someone with access to a good US public library to verify this. Maybe some day somebody will. EDIT: this source has been removed from the article - there are other sources for this info anyway. --Bye for now (PTT) 09:41, 23 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • the Bergin ebook: is Bob Bergin[5][6] the problem or the fact that it's an eBook?
  • cv6.org: something else I inherited and only used to establish the date for the Marshall Islands Raid. Never occurred that the date would be questioned. I have replaced it with a source from The Times.
  • politicalgraveyard.com: only used as independent confirmation that Newkirk's widow married Charles Dudley Withers (because the info came from Newkirk's cousin's son and so I felt it needed a second source).
  • flyingtigersavg site is used for "the Walt Disney organization in Hollywood designed our insignia consisting of a winged tiger flying through a large V for victory." and "Their offer was a one-year contract with CAMCO". Both of these statements are attributed to Claire L. Chennault in his book Way of a Fighter ($200ish Out of Print--Limited Availability on Amazon ISBN-13: 978-0685411063). Can we not take their word for these fairly uncontroversial claims?
  • etc: any particular ceteras in mind?

--Bye for now (PTT) 20:46, 22 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

G'day, the issue, first and foremost, is whether a source meets the criteria of reliability. Essentially, whether the work itself, its creator and its publisher are "reliable". Reliability does take into account context, ie using findagrave for the location of a grave is a relatively minor matter in the context of the whole article (unless of course, it is wrong). The sources should be secondary, and if primary sources (such as his sister) are used, they should only be used with extreme caution and no interpretation can be used. Sources dedicated to the memory of an event or organisation (such as fan sites) are usually very questionable, unless the author of a particular entry is reliable themselves. E-books are fine, as long as the author and publishing house are reliable. Peacemaker67 (crack... thump) 07:14, 23 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
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