Bunker Hill (CV 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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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.

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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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TORPEDO EIGHT Shortly after noon on Friday, May 13, 1943, a rough-dried Ensign appeared in the oHice of Commander, Air Force Atlantic Fleet, NAS, Norfolk, and a yeoman told him that he had been assigned to Squadron VT-8. Do you mean Torpedo Squadron Eight? the Ensign, fresh from the laundries of Corpus Christi and Opa Locka, asked in bleak amaze- ment. Yes, said the yeoman politely, and the Ensign departed, ready for the laundry again. Seventeen days later, on June 1, Air Group Eight, was oH'icially commissioned. Lieu- tenant Commander William M. Collins of Fighting Eight, acting as Air Group Com- mander, designated Ensign Warren E. Lunde acting squadron commander of VT8. With Lunde at the commissioning were five other ensigns assigned to the squadron. During the brief, informal ceremony, as they looked in- quiringly at each other, all of them must have felt strange. None of them had ever flown a TBF-the Grumman Avenger. On hand, too, were thirty-five enlisted men, being carefully shepherded about by CASU 21, and on June 3, arrangements were made for them to be transported to NAAS, Chin- coteague, seventy miles north of Norfolk, where the squadron was to train. Skipper Lunde flew to Chincoteague in an SNJ to make arrangements for the growing outHt's arrival. The next day at 1600, five Avengers took oHf from East Field, Norfolk, and forty minutes later on the Hat, green coast of Vir- ginia, Torpedo Squadron Eight, boasting eight oHicers, all ensigns, began its long, sure flight toward become a reality. Torpedo Seventeen, temporarily operating at Quonset Point, R. I., when Eight first arrived at Chinco, returned on June 6 and some of embryo Eight received their cockpit checkouts from those officers, who were looked upon as veterans. In those days, almost every new ofiicer reporting for duty was of a higher rank than the acting Squadron Commander. Skippers changed so often that not even the oflicefs knew from breakfast 'til lunch at whom to smile. Lieutenant Cjgl Melville LeCompte took command on June 11 and reigned with such paternal, not to say stern, decorum that he was soon addressed by his awed but eager underlings as Father. 1 I The Father had scarcely unpacked his baggage before great changes were made in the squadron program, as it were. Fifteen crewmen were packed off to gunnery school at Dam Neck, Va., and little niceties such as morning musters, duty sections and flight schedules began to be included in the hap- hazard daily routine. New pilots and crew members reported aboard almost every day, by the 26th of June, at 1100, when Lieutenant Commander Andrew McB. Jackson, Air Group Commander, arrived to check squadron prog- ress and announce the coming of Torpedo Eight's commander, a fairly well-coordinated outfit had been achieved. But in the minds of every oflicer and man was the question: What sort of person will Skipper Musick be? The answer came from its logical sources, on July 1 the following entry appeared in the squadron log: H1345- Lieutenant Commander K. F. Musick reports aboard to assume command of Torpedo Squadron Eight. An SNJ had been sent to Norfolk to pick up the real skipper and his gear. Lieutenant Cjgl Ed Franze piloted the plane and had not even completed the dis- crepancy sheet, after landing at Chincoteague, before the stocky fellow in the second cock- pit was introducing himself to the men on the line. - A few minutes later Know wearing blouse and cap? he had relieved Father LeCompte of his temporary duties, shaken hands with the goggling junior officers andhastened t0 a muster of the enlisted men, where he spoke a word of greeting. Then the work began. Lieutenant fjgl Bob Oscar, formerly aboard the EnterpriSC, reported for duty on July 3rd, the sole mem- ber of the squadron with previous combat experience from which to teach the tough and . q . ggi . ,qs . Q,