| Description | His experiences as a dive-bomber and fighter pilot in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Enlistment in the Navy Aviation Cadet Program, 1941; various phases of training, Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida; dive-bomber training, Daytona Beach, Florida, and Great Lakes Naval Air Station, 1942-43; assignment to VS-55, New Hebrides, 1943; convoy escort duty off New Hebrides; neutralization of Rabaul, 1944; return to the States, 1944; transfer to fighter planes; assignment to Air Group 6 as a F6F Hellcat pilot, Santa Rosa, California, 1944; experiences while flying combat air patrol off the carrier USS Hancock, 1944-45; providing cover for the Marine landings on Okinawa, April, 1945; combat against kamikazes; typhoon of June, 1945, off Okinawa; engagements against enemy fighters and kamikazes on the last day of the war; locating and dropping supplies to prisoner-of-war camps in Japan; return to the States and postwar activities. |
