Bunker Hill (CV 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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I e 4 is i I il l l l 5 career as a Wildcat pilot and Jap-killer par excellence. It wasn't long before Fighting Eight looked like the beginning of a squadron of aces. Lieutenant Ron Hoel Know Lieutenant Com- manderj, also hand-picked by Commander Collins because of his varied experience as a pilot and his obvious qualities of leadership, became Executive Ofllcer of the outfit. Fol- lowing Hoel came other veterans, including Lieutenant Howard J. Boydstun, Lieutenant Edward L. F eightner, Lieutenant Donald F. Cronin, Lieutenant Lloyd P. Heinzen, and Lieutenant Robert A. Hobbs, all veterans of Fighting Ten, the famous Sundowners squadron on Guadalcanal. There were also instructors who joined the ranks of Fighting Eight and the remainder of the squadron complement was filled out with new ensigns from graduating classes at Pensacola, Corpus Christi and Jacksonville. Veterans and recruits, Fighting Eight be- came a bona fide unit on June 1, 1943, at Norfolk, Virginia. From there out it was Pungo Point, a training field located near Virginia Beach. Daily schedules called for eight-and up-hours of flying per day, and simulated attack sweeps covered Eastern Vir- ginia, stretched into North Carolina, and occasionally gave Bermuda a damn good scare. Perhaps most lasting of the nostalgic attach- ments held by Fighting Eight was the social side of their highly business-like life. Week- end parties covered Virginia Beach like an American pup tent would cover a Jap soldier, social expeditionary forces ranged as far afield as Washington, D. C., where at least one- third of the Capitol's three million office sec- retaries were influenced in one way or another by Fighting Eight's ambassadors of good nature. Not one of the Hghter pilots will forget the parties conjured up by the Skipper: the eats and drinks, the company and the music were unforgettable. It was during the off-hours that the squadron took on a per- sonality, evolved its characters, and accum- ulated a wealth of material for reminiscing during the long days and short nights of a Pacific war. , . . And then they went to sea. October, the skies were blue, and the trees at Pungd formed myriad patterns of Au tumn color. They took their cruise boxes, the charts and squad- ron supplies, their personal baggage aboard a sister ship of the Bunker Hill. Fighting Eight had gone to sea, and for the next month they went through that period of carrier training known as Shakedown, Simulated attacks on the ship, friendly dogfights overhead, and precision-made interceptions of attacking forces. They flew until the sight of a landing signals officer made them dizzy, they exer- cised until the sound of Pratt-Witney en- gines became as hum-drum as trafllc noises on Times Square. It was all part of a Navy fighter pilot's training , . . ,-fr' If vibe- ff -ffjii.g...f-g,igi---' 553- 3 if -wv'i--iZfif'i,f-fa-riff ,-fl' Fighting Eight reached the Pacific in late Autumn of 1943. Unavoidable delays helfi them at bay until Spring, when at an Ameri- can Naval Base they joined U.S.S. Bunker Hill. Within a matter of a few days after they came to this ship, their Hellcats Were roaring over enemy territory, carrying the fight for control of the Pacific skies to the very backyard of Tojo's airmen. TIICY wrecked land installations in the Palau gr011P,

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can-,C in Autumn of 1943, but the Bunker Hill had to wait until March, 1944, to meet Fighting Eight, a union that was to become terrifying news to Japanese airmen, Sailor soldiers, sampan coxswains, beach gunnel-S and several umbrella salesmen who were mis- taken for paratroopers. The formal meeting of the air group and the ship was short and without ceremony, Red Imel said, When do we eat and where do we sleep? and the pains of introduction were over. Fighting Eight and the Bunker Hill were inseparable friends, and each was to complement the other as the days and weeks and months of operations were woven into a pattern of destruction and conquest. Fighting Eight was a collection of vigorous individuals moulded into a powerful, con- fident team. Its history covers eighteen months of colorful behavior, and its trail- counting training grounds and combat forays -stretches half way 'round the world. What began as a nucleus of several veterans and two-score youngsters back on the tidewater sourlands of Virginia shaped into a galaxy of aerial stars in action: men who took the bombers and torpedo planes in to the target and brought them back, men who sent hell- driven attackers hurtling into blue space and blue water, men who rode the routine com- bat circuit during the days of monotony, Warriors who gave everything they had when the chips were down, some of them never regaining any part of what they offered. . . . In the beginning there was one man, Commander William M. Collins, skipper of Fighting Eight. A Virginian, taciturn, re- sourceful, energetic, the man who was to show them how to be ace gunners and the pilot who was to fly them through those Hrst months of painful shaping, the captain was to lead them on attack missions into enemy skies. He was to see his boys Hy unbeliev- ably long hours, take chances that for the time would not seem worth the risk involved, suffer from monotony Cas all warriors some- times dojg he was also to see them S119-FC generously in a glory that had nO 1'CC0fded Sa equal: wiping out an entire Japanese Naval 311' fleet in a single day's work. Commander Collins envisaged these hardships . . . and glories . . . and so he sought to build Fight- mg Elght with hand-picked veterans and in- defatigable newcomers, starting back in June of 1943 . . . It was spring, all right, and the day in Jacksonville, Florida, was hot. The new skip- per of a new Fighting Eight, Commander Collins, had just finished a squadron com- mander course at the gigantic Naval Air Base out from Jacksonville. He had spent several weeks considering his rising responsibilities, knowing full well that the Navy counted on him-and counted heavily-for 1942 and -'ffgfi '1,gfQxifffe iFf? X, -,D-i.,-K 4 , ' is 5,e.pi.:,5:'fg y,',r7'33,,M3V M. 'V fri.: pg' 1 i i 3551 K ' ii 'el sl X ,. il , il 221235 711.3 f.,,fgt tf 1 n J if if 5 at ,Q , A. .K 3 l eng ll' diff --'-. E wil-fpf i.-f e-Al V3 N V H5 V ,gQw1,giigia5:,? f ag, 3 4 ' f. 1 J 'g,,,'l p ff 'i f i i i it 1 f . .. 1 4 Q5 ' : I .Q ' ' ' 2 ,a , 5, ,7 , iii, 1 H 9- 1 X , fx-5 I J :Qlf 1 ' .4 'M'-- ' ' i - . 4 . ua , ' lf 1 'fi ' , .-4 'hi if -, . , 4: r YQA 5 Z L6 N... A e l f '-tif s X .T I: V I- I i Q ,AA X I Q,- . f 5 ll '- V' W., 1 . l li-fir! Y V' 3 'I e - i v i 1 .w u u V , 'W KST- A V, Q , ., ' '.,. i IW ' 'l lf -- '. ' Q I, mm- I ,J 55.1, Nvvvii imvfxi ,P ' - .1 fiiiiili ill f :ww .r , I -SJW 4, 'f,..,f,j, Ji, WV, !Yj1,Ei,f,,!w,,xw, , - L'f'll'l ',f'filn 4. .1 'ma a W , ,Ml 'wldriili 1 '- 1 m.yp,,g .ig , i 1' ,, 5'- in, ll ff ,ff-. e 1 lgfzlliif! ei. F ri- 1 i . x X ir S 3 af 5.5 Pg, X .1 ' v o if i . X' 1 r Y i +- v 3' ' ff Vi . .3 . X 7,4 v..w,,if3Q4, A .1-lf E . I Ai Pvt gif- f r 1f' 5 ' 1 LTU i - f I J wifi' pggkf -e Q .K 1 ,LM . g In lb, , I ' V La. X New Q 1 .1-A? -V Y Eu iii-elsif .T J s if ' l , ' , rw- ' ,' QL, ip' ,L 4389, ' '3 '?47iga:r.a, early 1943 had been costly months for Ameri- can aircraft and carriers in the far-Hung Pacific, where inferior forces were meeting around-the-clock schedules in stemming a Nippon tide that threatened to engulf nearly half of the world. One day before leaving Jacksonville Commander Bill met a battle- wise lieutenant who at the time was an in- structor at Jacksonville, Lieutenant Scott lVIcCuskey Qnow Lieutenant Commanderi. After several hours and much conversation, Commander Collins had persuaded lVlcCuskey to join Fighting Eight, a task that wasn't too difficult in view of lVIcCuskey's checkered

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they struck the fear of God into the hearts of stranded Japanese at Hollandia, they flew peacefully, almost monotonously, over the once-vaunted bastion of Truk, they opened the battle for the Marianas andipaced a leg of the greatest carrier-borne fighter sweep in the history of warfare. That calm morning of-I Guam in June, Fighting Eight took to the air and participated in routing the Jap Naval air arm, they patrolled Guam fields as if they had been born there, and when the sun set on fleeing Japanese fleet units that day, more than 400 Emperial supermen had been burnt from the sky and their blood had splotched with crimson the unbelievable vastness of a perennially blue Pacific. They struck Manila, too, and Mindanao, they bombed ships and strafed sampans after Nip- pon pilots quit the air, and they fulfilled a part of an American pilot's dream when they flew in attack formation down the Philippine capital's Dewey Boulevard. Every fighter pilot visualizes a dream day, when the Hellcats are freed to tangle with other fighters AND they run INTO Jap fighters. Fighting Eight watched, with rueful eyes but little bitterness, as other fighting squadrons amassed higher totals of planes shot down, even watched when other fighting squadrons of the same task force, but with different target assignments, were able to find Nip interceptors to shoot down. Fighting Eight's day came at Formosa. The sweep and escort hit the jackpot and their story unraveled as they landed back aboard. Lieutenant Commander lVlcCuskey rolled up the deck smiling, and holding up three fingers, Beard held up a pair of fingers, Skipper Collins held up his hand-five! The sixteen fighters of the sweep found the brawl they'd sought and in a racing, dancing, action- Packed few minutes sent thirty-one planCS burning down out of the skies. The escort returned, with similar reports. Over the par- tially cloud-covered target the warriors shot ra total of fifty-one Japs out of the homeland air, tO a loss of one fighter for the squadron- Returning observers reported that the Naval aviators were without equal that day, and that Fighting Eight was golden boy of the premature Fourth of July celebration. In addition to an outright challenge of Japan's most celebrated airmen, the fighters flew a cordon of airtight protection over the bombers and torpedo planes, whose pre-Christmas sur- prise packages rocked the island from sunrise to sunset, echoed across the 100-mile wide channel to China, reverberated on the streets of.Tokyo and rattled the scared Emperor's spine. With what was becoming milk runs over the Philippines, Fighting Eight closed its Pacific chapter with this impressive paragraph: Planes destroyed in actual combat: 153 shot down out of the air, eighteen probably destroyed, forty-eight damaged, 277 planes destroyed or badly damaged on the ground, a total of 2107 actual combat sorties were flown by the squadron personnel in 192 strikes against the enemy, and this does not include any part of the 986 combat air patrols and anti-submarine patrols flown. One of the unique features of Fighting Eight's record is that the squadron turned in an enviable bombing record on the side: 43,450 tons of enemy shipping, exclusive of small craft, sent to the bottom, 31,700 tons heavily damaged, probably sunk, and 60,200 tons damaged by fire, explosion and strafmg. A total of fifteen fuel dumps were destroyed by the fighters in attacks against enemy-held ground installa- tions, which included violent and effective airfield bombings. Pace-setter for the fighters in planes shot down was Lieutenant Commander McCuskey, with fourteen. Commander Collins and Lieu- tenant Feightner and Lieutenant Cjgj Dan Rehm came second with nine Japs each, other aces include Lieutenants William A. McCor- mick, George N. Kirk, and John R. Galvin, with seven planes each, Lieutenants Harlan Gustavson, Donald F. Cronin, and Lieuten- ant Qjgj Ralph Rosen, six, Lieutenant Com- mander Hoel, Lieutenant Cjgb John W. Top- liff, Lieutenant Cjgj Peter J. VanDerlinden, with five each.