Bunker Hill (CV 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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timeless lessons of war. As Flight Ofiicer he worked ceaselessly to give everybody the word. On July 8, when Lieutenant Lewis M, Ford reported aboard as Executive Officer, the squadron had reached its complement, Soon the roar of torpedo bombers had risen above the constant hum of Chinco's terrible mosquitoes, the owners of nearby poultry farms lamented the fact that their hens no longer got enough rest to lay eggs. Day and night the squadron worked. Those fellows who were fortunate enough to have their wives with them-Wildhack, Folkedahl, Gag- non and the rest-rode to and from the air station in jeeps and carryalls at all hours of the night and day-to Pokomoke City, to the Channel Bass Hotel on Chincoteague Island, to apartments and small houses all over the countryside. Unmarried officers and men slept in unpfartitioned, barn-like struc- tures which afforded no individual privacy nor collective security against roving hounds, bugs or thunder showers. There were many of each, but the fellows seemed to like it. By the end of summer, after days of solo familiarization, section, division, squadron and air group formation flying in theTBF, after weeks of glide bombing attacks along Virginia beaches, torpedo runs against rocks in the Chesapeake Bay, group attacks against visiting British warships, after numerous emergency landings, tail chases, 20-minute mail runs to Norfolk, sun baths on the parking strips, minor accidents and hair raising es- capes, after countless trips in a deathless carryall to pick up the laundry in Pokomoke city, after night flying above fog moving in from the sea, the breathless weekends at Ocean City, Washington, New York, after hand-to-hand combat drills and endless volley- ball games Conce the Skipper ripped the seat right out of his pantsj, and watermelon parties in the pines, after Ensign B0bbY Pittman had eaten more oysters than any man alive, after mistakes and lessons that Were hard to learn, misgivings, adjustments, triumphs, after a ten-day Quonset Point work- Out-Torpedo Squadron Eight came K0 feel the urge to get one with it, to go aboard a carrier, to test itself and prove itself, to do better. On August 16, three days after returning from Quonset Point, the squadron attended commissioning of the U.S.S. Intrepid in Portsmouth Navy Yard. On September 30, at 1300, jam packed into large Navy buses, the squadron shoved off from Chincoteague in a torrential rain and soon found itself in the Atlantic, bound south to Trinidad. The shakedown cruise was successful. Only one torpedo plane was lost during the month's fast-paced operations. No personnel was lost. But the most memorable phase of the cruise was not the flying the boys did, but the carni- val spirit of their liberties. The night at the Macqueripe Club, at Port of Spain, when Dave Carter wrested control of a bull fiddle in the orchestra and Meathead Phillips went swimming in the gold-fish pond, it was clear that this outfit was not so wrapped up in itself it couldn't have fun in a big way. It was evident, beyond the surface lunacy, beneath the double-talk of poker games, be- hind the spontaneous gaiety of the ready- room or the bemused calm of the more sober members, that these fellows had learned to live together, just as they had learned to fly together, and that one day, when aloft to fight together, they would again succeed. The carnival spirit never left them, never let them down. On December 10, 1943, having been stranded by an accident of fate on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal, they lost no time in setting up shop in downtown Panama City, with Fishcake Sewell prais- ing the Lord and Buck Buxton passing the ammunition. In San Francisco, temporarily stationed at NAS, Alameda, the squadron perfected an- other skillful blend of steady flying and high- powered schmaltz. Then, a few days after New Year's, 1944, the squadron moved west across the Pacific to NAS, Puunere, on the island of Maui, T.H. For the first time since it had been commis- sioned, the entire Air Group found itself

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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,

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really operating from the same field. The life of 'Torpedof Squadron Eight began to merge with theilarger, more significant life of the air group. But the spirit was un- -changed. Now the friendships which had been exclusively of the individual squadrons ,grew to encompass allthree. Team-work be- tween the squadrons developed as the day .approached when together they would rendez- vous, turn further westward, meet and con- -quer the enemy. On the afternoon of March 15, Torpedo Eight flew aboard the Bunker Hill somewhere south of Pearl Harbor. - u 5 Egg LM gvgkwg res e a iz fm 1 ' , i .Q ,M Q X ,Lx 5,-1-,xv jf. '-F42 . l -. K 'F 'HU MS . . iiiiiis i5S9?1ihs?Z5???fi?-'i'5Yif5iii'?75?fiiaiif PA ff PA ,Q ei l F., are W, - ':51S'f'oL 'lf' - Ii U v:-, ' -., '7ETu.'X'.'Q '1Zf? jf llllsifnfig., 'ffl ll ' ' Jr i l?-L ' Q 'l ' Ii ' l Jig gli ,'-' '14 ' ll? ? ',52i'21f' Co ,I M X - . . ...ga Lf. ar.. Q... .mfs M 440' it P l 3 I iq ' my ,if i .,.1 gg 7, xg f T5 ar.. ips -R'-1 . .I 9 N lr-N. 1 f 'Q . ' ,.p1 -- . Q as WAW 'MWF f if - iw ,fa 4--is ' fig, li 1 J J lr 5 il : ,fr '- 5fi'.-ig 'i' 5' 'S 'fi' ' -4- - -gkt ill j : -QB-gg'-'wrf'X9' 'ilk' H, ? r w. Nwxlfj La-it L , f Z vs, ' ,Q mil V 3: 1 will -i ri ft' mlb J -' f i qw ii' ,,.,i,-,-,, , me-4,4 g 7 .4,,,., . ,,,.,. wrt., .X ,gm ., 5, ,, ,pq ---- 4 ,3, . !HH'l - ,f'ff:2', Life. ,.-: 5Ff1gg l '-new e- .a,-a - - . f fr: 51-P' :2 ' ffl?-2,11 iff' f The men of Torpedo Eight were ready- sand they knew. they were on the spot. They Were carrying on the most famous name in Naval aviation, a name sanctified by the heroism of the original Eight at Midway. .And they were following in the footsteps of 'Torpedo Seventeen, which had set a record .for hits in the great operation at Truk in February. , Then-the Hrst strike. i The greatest task force of the war was 'charging through Qthe seas off Palau, 3,840 miles from Pearl. Interrupting the frantic .last-minute preparations in Ready Room Two, the Skipper stood up and quietly as-ked for a minute of silent prayer. Heads bowed and hearts quickened. FQ, a second all eyes rested proudly on the Sr per. They knew they would follow him any. Where . . . - Palau . . . Woleai . . .Hollandia. , , Truk . . . Those prayers before each strike had been answered. Torpedo Eight had not lost a pilot, even though every man in the squadron had felt Death's chill breath flit past him at least once. The Marianas--Death's holiday ended. Youthful Swede Swenson and George Wild- hack made the mission from which there is no return. J The others carried on for them. There was no time to think and mourn-the Jap fleet was coming out. The squadron's most agonizing days fol- lowed. Sitting and waiting. Memories of what happened to the original Eight when it attacked the fleet. But the humorin the ready room was still sharp and spontaneous. F ire Chief Haley, when he wasn't taking watches apart, dared anyone, particularly Lunde, to prove that he flew into the water. at Hollandia. ' Rugged Len Mason daily ran the deck , on Bill Gillerlain in double solitaire, a game which also made the moments pass for Ernie Leggett, Andy Andrews, Jim Gagnon, K. K. King and Johnny Peacock. ' John Shonk and'Will F olkedahl alternately dozed and read. Fifty Jap fleets could have been coming outand it wouldn't have worried John and Will. Eddie F ranze and Bob Oscar argued abOl1f the influence of the Norman invasion on Eng- lish literature. Robbie Robinson and Sheep-Dip Pittman extolled the merits of Texas and Wyoming ranch lands. - Fish Cake Sewell and Meat Head Phillips compared notes on the plantation belles of Mississippi and de goils of Long Island. Dave Carter drew groans every half hour by playing the recording of The Mor1kCY