Bunker Hill (CV 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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The Night Fighters flew aboard late in jan um-y, 1944-five young flyers sporting Hell- Cats specially designed for night aerial com- bat. Leading the detachment was youthful, ambitious Lieutenant Commander Evan Pete Aurand, USN, skipper not only of the Bunker Hill's detachment but also of two similar units on sister carriers. With him landed Lieutenant Cjgj Norman Doc Davis- son, his Exec, and Ensigns Robert Bice, john Bertie and jack Connor. Within a month, they had seen their first action. They had been scheduled to fly an intruder mission to open the first raid on Saipan and Tinian and their takeoff had been delayed by the all-night air attack on the ship, thus finding them over the target after sunrise-and heavily outnumbered by inter- cepting enemy fighters. In a brief but hot flurry of scrapping, they knocked out five Jap fighters. Bertie totted up three confirmeds, two of them after receiving serious wounds to himself and heavy damage to his plane, and for which he was awarded the Navy Cross. Skipper Aurand added a Distinguished Fly- ing Cross to a Navy Cross previously won while a divebomber pilot, for his part in the action, and Davisson the Air Medal. Bitsy Bice, however, failed to return. Combat missions at Kwajalein, Eniwetok, New Guinea, Guam, Iwo and HaHa Jima were logged by the night fighters in addition to the monotonous night watches which they stood while the ship operated in combat areas. Those watches led to an odd type of carrier duty for the Black Chickens of which no small part were the conversational free-for- alls that developed. Their Ready Room Log records one thusly: The pin-up of Lena Horne opened a discussion of her singing. We then kicked around the following topics, in this order: jazz music and orchestras, -the art of the performer in music and acting, the theatrical profession, radio broadcasting, misrepresentation of the news, journalism, the realities of war, patriotism, political per- secution, death and the fear of same, pro- hibition. I was going to remark that the conversation has been noteworthy for not even touching on Women-but just now. . . Additions to the squadron during its time aboard were Lieutenants Cjgj Paul Kepple, and julian K. jollife. Bertie and Connor, it might be noted, had achieved the rank of lieutenant, junior grade-thus dropping claims to being the Navy's oldest ensigns- and the new rank did not sway established seniority privileges, such as who did the engine tune-ups or who calls for coffee. One thing the night fighters did have was squadron administration. They were admin- istered by a full-dress set of A-VCSD officers. In fact, for each pilot, there was one admin- istrative oflicer! Clixplanations that they also handled the detail work of the units on the other carriers never did carry much weightj Lieutenant VV. VVild Bill Cunningham led off the desk jockeys, followed closely by Lieutenant V. S. Mitchell, Lieutenant Cjgj C. M. Martenson of flying destroyer fame was listed as the Fighter Director Officer, and Ensign R. D. Slobodin the ACI officer. The extracurricular flying that the squad- ron did majored in lifesaving procedure par- ticularly effective for pilots downed in target areas, and many were the missions carried out by Aurand Sz Co. giving an assist to dunked pilots. Many of the missions, too, were conducted in the face of gunfire from Nips seeking to isolate the pilot for their own purposes. Squadron casualties, besides Bice, were Doc Davisson, missing in action off Guam on june 19, 1944, and Joliffe, missing at sea May 2, 1944. I 201

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had to put the planes back in commission can attest to the ferocity of many of those scraps. The young career of VT Seventeen was a triumph in many ways and stands as a tribute to the courage, devotion to duty, and the cameraderie of the men who comprised its roster, and to the man who inculcated those qualities in them, Lieutenant Commander Whitaker. '- Eid bw- KQT ,y f, THE FIRST HELLDIVERS Bombing Seventeen made history. Its pilots didn't look like history-making figures, any more than any other bunch of American kids who had gone through the Navy's flight training program. Several of the kids shaved but once a week, and that was required just for its effect on their private pride. The squadron looked like the usual mixture of types, with perhaps a heavier mix- ture of experienced men than theaverage. But it made history, nevertheless. It was the first squadron to take the be- deviled Curtiss Helldiver to sea and prove it a carrier dive bomber. It was the first squadron to take that dive bomber into combat and prove its battle worthiness. And, with but a few others, it was the first to draw a bombing bead on such beefy Jap bastions as Kavieng, Truk and the Marianas. Perhaps it was that mixture of combat veterans in its ranks that made Bombing Seventeen stand out just a little bit over other squadrons. Lieutenant Commander James E. Vosie, USN, a case-hardened dive bomber of earlier Pacific days, was its skipper until his transfer in January, 1944, when Lieutenant Commander Geoffrey Norman, USN, his sec- ond in command, took the post. His Exec- utive Officer was Lieutenant R. P. Rip Kline, veteran of the Enterprise and Guadal- canal duty, where Lieutenant Al Frank and Lieutenant Cjgj Bill Foley also had served, after stretches aboard the Saratoga. The Hornet had contributed such beribboned pilots as Lieutenants Bob Friesz, Frank Chris- toferson, Gus DeVoe, Nig White, Phil Rusk and Nels Maguire. Lieutenant Bill Adami was a Wasp survivor. They coached the yearlings and gave them the wisdom of their experience. Willie Palmer, W. L. Flip Gerner, B. J. Red Dog Shearon, R. L. Temme, the Thompson broth- ers, stubby H. W. Worley and the rest of the squadron novitiates took that Wisdom and added it to their natural youthful zeal to become masters at the Martian art of bomb- lugging and ship-sinking. They had trained Well, first as members of the individual Bombing Seventeen and Scout- ing Seventeen squadrons, and upon their mer- ger, as a single unit. They mastered the in- tricate SB2C, which they swore required the help of a licensed plumber, and passed on to other squadrons the benefits of the lessons they llearned when they took it into battle. Their targets felt jarring thump of tons of bombs dropped from the yawning bomb- bays and if they had been disappointed in the amount of shipping to drop on at Rabaul, the Japs obliged with a layout in Truk's sprawling lagoon that caused Gerner to yell: It looks like a checkerboard down there! Typical of the cold efficiency of the entire squadron, Gerner and F riesz looked over the field and found a dive bomber's top target- a carrier. They put their bombs through its deck and retired. Bombing Seventeen, like the other squad- rons of their Air Group, left the Bunker Hill tired, wise in combat, and deep in the esteem of all who knew them. .gm THE BLACK CHI CKENS Sparked by an eagerness for action that was entirely too rare to their liking, the men of VF CND Seventy-six worked the night shift regularly, but their extracurricular HY- ing proved to be their greatest asset to the Air Group and to the ship. NAL

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AIR GROUP EIGHT .K Z HQ JA, ,mL.t..e...,. .. . 2-it-sw.. ..-W ...MJ - X J N--g...e,,..- ,.... M- x , ,. Li A -1.,.,.e, A. .,,,,-f 1 5 g ft 9 g ,' i 5 l ., if a ,ig I 1 1,53 J' X'-if 2 X ,fl 1 I- 1 ' ,f I K S, f! Masterl performances etch: their combat career The missions Q' Air Group Eight earriea' squadrons swy'tly across the Paeihe, age .the Yap Fleet ana' into the Philippines. can-nnaumunmmn.-x-vasanwm,-g2.u.mv-Q., mumuwvwaumxmmuuvffmavmhunyf-aw-ae.7ive-.f.rw-,,-,-f.q-.1g1..s.- ommander Andrew lVlcB. Jackson J USN, aeronautical engineer and vet- eran of duty in Scouting and Fight- ing squadrons, moved from the Fighter desk of BuAer to become Commander, Air Group Eight upon its commissioning in June, 1943. With his squadron skippers, he paced the Group through its intensive train- ing and fiew it aboard as a highly polished team. He led it personally on ten combat missions before being promoted to ship's Navigator, when he turned over the command to the erstwhile Bombing Eight skipper, Com- mander Ralph L. Shirley, USN. A precision flyer whose wingman vowed he kn Commander Shifley leld the Group through most of its long tour f d o uty, always was found where the going was tou hest and g the anti-aircraft fire the hottest. ew no fear, 202 1 4