War Can Be Fun If You Don't Get Killed
or
Nil Carborundum Illegitimi
The Steamer Bay returned to Ulithi remaining there until July 3, 1945. We then escorted a large group of Oilers to within 250 miles of Tokyo. From July 6 to July 20 I made 9 anti-submarine patrols which were considered combat flights, some lasting up to 5 hours. Typically I would fly out from the ship 250 miles, make a 50 mile cross leg, then return 250 miles to the ship without seeing anything but water except a few times I saw Japan on the horizon. During this period I flew 35 hours and had 9 carrier landings.
USS Steamer Bay - CVE-87
As a cadet I had a brief introduction to celestial navigation but never used it. Dead reckoning was the system we used. If you reckoned wrong, you could be dead. For navigation out over the Pacific I had a plastic plotting board about 10" by 18" that could be written on with a pencil. It had a grid under it that could be rotated. This fit under the TBM’s instrument panel. You can see them on the laps of the three pilots (Dad Dunzweiler, Bob Reid and Bill O’Heren) in the front row of the Ready Room picture.
I would plot the location, course and speed of the ship along with my course which was adjusted for wind. You could estimate surface wind by looking at the frequency and drift of white caps. Over open water the wind up to 1000 feet is much the same as on the surface. Much higher--who knows?
The aircraft had a magnetic and gyro compass. This gave me my heading which would be adjusted for wind drift. The craft had an auto pilot which held heading well but did nothing for altitude. You had to dicker with the elevator trim control frequently. Air speed held firm once RPM and manifold pressure were set.
Finding the ship when returning was easy because you could see 30 miles or more if the weather was clear. I guess the radar would reach 5 or 10 miles, but I never needed to use it. Also, I always ran a plot in my head.
While at sea, other than flying and eating (the food was not bad) there was the nightly poker game in the Ward room which rewarded me with a wad of bills. I don’t think anyone knew. I remember one hand where Monk had 5 queens with 3 showing and I had 5 kings with 2 showing. He kept raising me. I always liked Monk, but even better after that.
Each ship had a library that was stocked with the Modern Library Series, along with many other books. The Modern Library Series were new books which had never been cracked. So I read the Classics. Taking the book to the next ship if I had not finished it.
Then there were the movies shown in the Ready room. Some good. Some not so good. Sometimes we did not have a new movie so the old one was run again. I think a turkey called "Broadway Rhythm" was run 10 consecutive days.
Cruising the Pacific - click here for larger image - 89k
When VC-93 went into combat there were 58 officers, 51 were pilots, 7 were non-flying. Three pilots were killed in combat, two were wounded, 5 were shot down and retrieved from the ocean by sea plane or submarine. There were also three operational dunkings where the pilot was rescued by a destroyer. There had been two operational deaths and three dunkings earlier. Earlier seven officers had been detached for one reason or another. One because he could not bring himself to land on an aircraft carrier.
There were 53 enlisted men. 36 were Aircrew, 17 were non flying. One was killed by anti aircraft fire (AA). Another was killed in an operational dunking. The squadron flew 2360 combat sorties and 8500 combat hours. The names of all the squadron personal are in the squadron history which is on the Internet and can by found there through a search for VC-93 or Petrof Bay. The enlisted man, Price Seferian, was in the turret of a TBM when he was killed. They were dropping propaganda leaflets prior to the landing. The Japs didn’t like what they were reading.
On July 24, 1945 the Steamer arrived at Guam and departed July 25 for Pearl Harbor departing Pearl Harbor on August 4 and arriving San Diego a few days later, where the squadron was decommissioned. I was detached from VC-93 on August 12, 1945 and I went home.
Some time shortly before the Steamer docked at San Diego, I was told that all the pilot’s side arms had been declared lost at sea. I guess they were to the Navy. I still have mine along with considerable ammunition which includes tracer rounds. When you fire these your hand turns white as mine did the last time I fired them which was over the fantail of the Steamer Bay.
The plane from San Diego on August 15, 1945, was a DC-3 complete with stewardess in a white nurse uniform with cap. She was a registered nurse. That’s the way it was in those days. We stopped a number of times for fuel. It took about 24 hours. I climbed on with my poker winnings and my service revolver (try that today!!) and took a seat on the left, just ahead of the door. Dinner was a cold chicken box lunch. About an hour out of San Diego the stewardess came through with a note (the plane was too noisy to talk) saying the Japs had given up.
I was given ration coupons for 72 pounds of meat and 4 pounds of sugar at San Diego. No gas.
In Chicago, I took a taxi from Midway airport into the Loop and caught the North Shore electric line out to the Greenbay rd. stop in Glencoe and walked the block and a half to my home at 205 Franklin Rd.
While on leave I dispersed of the ‘38 Ford and bought a 1940 Buick and put new tires on it at the Firestone store in Evanston. The car cost $687.48 plus the 38 Ford. I spent $58.49 to have the cam and crank shaft bearings tightened. The tires cost $85.07. With this car I drove with my sister, Arminda, disposing of her in Dallas, and proceeding after spending a night in Dallas to NAAS Kingsville, Texas on September 18, 1945. Arminda and I stopped at Popular Bluff, Missouri over night in an old rambly hotel. They put us at opposite ends of the place. I guess we looked suspicious.
1940 Buick
I had been sent to Kingsville to join a night-fighter squadron so we could sneak up on the Japs in the dark. But they had quit the game. They did not know what to do with us in Kingsville. I learned that 2 TBM’s were to be transferred to Miami. So I asked to ferry one of them. You had to have flight time to get flight pay. So along with another chap we left Kingsville Oct 5, 1945 for Mobile, Alabama, with a stop at Lake Charles on the way.
Mobile was an Army air base. We spent the night of Oct. 5 in their BOQ and had a fine dinner in the BOQ. The waiters were German war prisoners. On the morning of Oct 6, we proceeded to Miami with stops in Vero Beach and Ft. Lauderdale. Don’t know why all the stops? We hung around Miami until we got a ride to Jacksonville on Oct 10 in a RSO-5 (whatever the heck that is?) Stayed over night in Jacksonville and went back to Kingsville on Oct. 11 in a R4D which is the same as a commercial DC-3 except this R4D had bucket seats running along both sides. Total air-time for this safari was 16 hours for which I got flight pay.
Things were still slow so I drove down to Mexico in the 1940 Buick with the same Ensign. Don’t remember his name. The trip was started at 9:10 a.m. Oct 20 and concluded at 9:20 p.m. Oct 21, according to the official permission to travel beyond the 50-mile limit that I have. Mexico was dirty.
Ens. Charles Thomas from VC-93 was at Kingsville with a new bride. I did not see him again until a squadron reunion in Memphis during 1986. He had changed brides. He had changed again by 1998. He may be ahead of me.
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