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FOX, Jerome “Jake” D. (b. 1925)

Military ServiceU.S. Navy WWII Veteran

Oral Histories

OH 1512

His experiences as an OS2U Kingfisher gunner aboard the cruiser USS Detroit in the Pacific Theater during World War II. His youth on a ranch in West Texas; his decision to enlist in the Navy, June, 1943; boot camp at San Diego, California, 1943; aerial gunner school at Naval Air Station, Modesto, California, 1943; assignment to the OS2U crew aboard the Detroit, February, 1944; patrol duty in the Aleutian Islands, 1944; bombardment of the Kurile Islands, June, 1944, as part of Task Force 94; South American patrol, July-December, 1944; shipboard routine; assignment to the Central Pacific Theater as an escort for the Tanker Division in refueling carrier battle groups, 1945; kamikaze attacks; operations off Iwo Jima and Okinawa, 1945; the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay, September 2, 1945; his postwar activities.