War Can Be Fun If You Don't Get Killed
or
Nil Carborundum Illegitimi
In April 1946 I made application to transfer from reserves to regular Navy and was accepted and slated to a dive bomber group, but I never consummated the change. I decided it would be better to finish college and was separated from active duty with the Navy June 5, 1946. I drove back to Glencoe non-stop
The Debris of War .
During 1946 a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and Air Medal with 3 or perhaps 4 stars arrived. Some records show 3 stars, others 4 stars. January of 1948 a Presidential Unit Citation with battle star for service aboard the Petrof Bay arrived in Glencoe. World War II Victory Medal, American Campaign Medal and Asiatic Pacific Campaign medal were obtained in 1994 through Congressman Phillip Crane.
Me, still at work
The aircraft the Navy furnished me were on the whole reliable. There were those loose spark-plugs on the Stearman. I had a flat tire on a TBF at Ft. Lauderdale. The hydraulics gave out on a TBM over the Pacific and I had a hard time disconnecting the auto pilot on an anti-sub run. That would have been a lot of fun making an auto-pilot carrier landing. The clock never worked in any aircraft, but then that is why we used a wrist watch.
One time my wing guns would not operate. They had been improperly charged. I was being escorted into Okinawa by an FM driven by one Red Horse Myers, the Squadron executive officer. We spotted a Jap snooper heading home . He had probably been checking on our carriers. Horse went after him but the Jap sequestered himself in a cloud.
In July 1946 I flew several times in a SNJ at NAS Glenview for about 2 hours. There did not seem to be any point in it. That was the last time I flew for the Navy or for anyone.
On June 18, 1956 I was discharged from the reserve ending my association with the Navy which started on Sept 14, 1942 for a total of 165 months with 42 of them on active duty.
Total flight time was 880 hours with 211 hours combat, 65 combat missions and 101 carrier landings. Only 34 hours at night and 25 instrument.
In about 1980, David Davenport who was squadron VC-93 personnel officer started locating squadron members using a 1945 list of addresses. He located over half of the 120 who were living and had been in the squadron at one time or another. One was still at his original address. He is the one that threw all of his uniforms overboard as we returned on the Steamer Bay to San Diego and had to phone home for money to get clothes to go home in. Another whose address was a hotel was of course not found. Davenport did it through the mail and by phone. No Internet for David. He organized a reunion in 1984 where 40 squadron members attended. Since then through his efforts reunions have occurred every two years, but attendance had dwindled down to low 20’s. At present 47 are known dead, 26 cannot be found, leaving 47 locatable members.
The first reunion I went to was in Memphis in May of 1986. I had not seen any of them since 1945 except Joe Oliver who I saw last in 1946. Some like Bill Skinner and Joe Oliver I recognized immediately. Others like Paul Baumgartner, who had grown an extensive beard, were more difficult. There were two things I noticed. First they still moved the same way and second they talked in the same manner and about the same thing that they did 41 years before.
For many years after the War, I traveled to Europe and Japan on business. In Germany I frequently talked with them about the War. One time a chap I was traveling with who had been a U.S. artillery officer and a German who had been a tank commander figured out that they had been shooting at each other. To the Germans it was just one soldier talking to another. In Japan the subject was never mentioned.
May 6,1999
Check out the following:
1. The Composition of Task Group 77.4
2. The Role of the Jeep Carrier in World War II
4. A detailed History of the Petrof Bay
5. A History of Composite Squadron 93 (my Dad's squadron)
6. A man who flew from the Petrof Bay (my Dad)
7. People searching for information about Crew members
9. Read the Book - click here!
10. "War can be fun if you don't get killed" - A pilots story
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