In his obit, it's pointed out that he declared he'd win the Indy 500 after seeing the immense joy that his mother had when she saw her brother win, and he wanted to be the cause of that much joy. He did, and he was
He then worked for Firestone as a highway safe driving instructor
In 1934, while racing in the German Gran Prix at Avus, a con rod launched out of his engine, and smashed into a wood pillar next to Hitler's face. Narrowly missing changing the direction of WW2 in the European theater, and the fate of a 100 million people
During WW2, he was installed as a Lt. Col., and chief inspector of bombers and fighter planes that made emergency landings in Switzerland in November 1944 to inspect the condition of the bombers at the direction of General "Hap" Arnold, who thought that some of them might have made emergency landings without sufficient damage to escape the war.
Between 1943 and 1945, 166 American bombers sought refuge in Switzerland, of which 41 were destroyed in crashes or forced landings. 39 bombers sustained severe damage, and another 86 suffered minor damage.
In November 1944, a five-member delegation from the United States arrived in Switzerland to advise our mechanics and specialists on aircraft maintenance. The head of the delegation, Lieutenant Colonel Peter DePaolo, described the condition of the parked aircraft as very good and determined that virtually all could be flown back after appropriate overhauls.
The army quickly parted ways with DePaolo, as the result of his protest against the conditions under which servicemen had to return home in. When he arrived at Camp Beale with a train-load of weary GIs and publicly voiced his criticism of the conditions they traveled in and he was called to Washington DC and gave details of the cramped conditions.
A week later he is a civilian. Good for him, integrity and leadership are only valuable to the military when they are not at odds with upper management - but that is not the core of integrity and leadership. He stood for what was right, and was canned. Proving that the military doesn't have the enlisted in it's priorities
DePaolo was instrumental in bringing a Ford factory team to NASCAR, which then led to the formation of the legendary Wood Brothers and Holman-Moody teams.
In 1956, as a team owner, he hired Fireball Roberts and Ralph Moody as drivers, and
DePaolo’s Long Beach operation focused on USAC’s stock car division and featured drivers Troy Ruttman and Jerry Unser.One of those happened to be Glen Wood, of the eventual Wood Brothers fame. After a convertible race win in April 1957 at Fayetteville, North Carolina, DePaolo reached out to congratulate Wood on the victory and asked him if he needed anything. Wood responded that he needed a set of tires for the upcoming race at Richmond. DePaolo sent six tires, and Wood won that race, too.
Eventually, DePaolo would help connect Wood to Ford and land Wood Brothers Racing as one of Ford’s premier teams. Without DePaolo helping him them get Ford support, Jensen said, Wood Brothers Racing may not have become the historic team that it did.
“That began a steady supply of parts to Glen, which would eventually include money,” Jensen said. “But, initially starting out, it was the support he needed, the parts and pieces he needed, to keep racing. That was really what kept the Wood Brothers in the game, and now, 75 years later, they're NASCAR's oldest continually operating team.”
DePaolo Engineering sold it's equipment and machinery to Holman Moody.
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