Warbird Information Exchange

I was in the wiating room of the local VA hospital here (pinched nerve in my neck) and an old guy walked in wearing a Yorktown baseball cap. I asked him if he crewed her when the Japanese got her and he replied, "no, I was flying a fighter when she got hit..."

I was a little doped up but I shook his hand and thanked him for his sacrifices, and wobbled out of the waiting room. Then realized I didn't ask his name. Big tall guy from Mississippi. Does that ring a bell to anybody? I might have to camp out at the VA unti I run into him again so I can get an interview out of him before he passes away. Talk about a story! He said he ended up serving 21 years, through Korea, and flew jet fighters until he cracked one up and that was the end of his flying...

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

Stand still, Muddy. Let me slap you on the back of your head.

Can't help you with a name. Hope you can meet up with him again, I'm sure he's got some interesting stories to tell.

Mac

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WWII Naval Aviation Research - Pacific
https://www.ww2nar-pac.com/

Clay take a look here and see if maybe your friend might me standing at the end in this photo. (either end) ... and nothing wrong with a little head smacking, lots of us (here) could certainly use that every now and then. FWIW Dad was 6-2 .... I'm 6-3 and being tall makes for good vision especially when you have to fly with the canopy open all the time.

So I'm going to say your friend is either Mark Bright (VF-3) or Walt Hass (VF-42) both from the Yorktown. Hopes this helps.

Below from Rich Leonard over on Nathan's US-Aircraft.com website.

"This is the combined VF-3 + VF-42 + VF-8 pilot complement aboard USS Hornet, sometime after 6 June 1942, best guess is sometime around the 10th, mostly because the wounded Dan Sheedy appears to have been released from sickbay.

Most of the surviving VF-3 & VF-42 pilots from Yorktown who had landed aboard Enterprise on the 4th were launched as CAP on the 5th and then landed aboard Hornet to fill in the holes created by that ship's VF-8 losses. VF-3's Thach was the senior VF officer so he became the commander of what was laughing called VF-3-42-8.

Pilots in posted photo, front row L to R: Alfred Dietrich (VF-8), Duran Mattson (VF-42), Johnny Adams (VF-42), Morrill Cook Jr (VF-8), Robert Merritt (VF-8), Lawrence French (VF-8), George Formanek (VF-8), Carlton Starkes (VF-8), Dan Sheedy (VF-3), Elisha "Smokey" Stover (VF-8), Richard Hughes (VF-8), and Horace Bass (VF-42). Standing L to R: Mark Bright (VF-3), Doyle C "Tom" Barnes (VF-3), James Smith (VF-8), David Freeman (VF-8), Henry Fairbanks (VF-8), Robert "Ram" Dibb (VF-3), Warren Ford (VF-8), Bruce Harwood (VF-8), John "Jimmie" Thach (VF-3), Henry Carey (VF-8), John Sutherland (VF-8), Bill Barnes (VF-42), Art Brassfield (VF-42), George Markham (VF-42), John Bain (VF-42), Dick Crommelin (VF-42), Bill Leonard (VF-42 and, apropos of nothing else, my father), and Walt Hass (VF-42)"

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“PMURT KCUF”

More info on Walt Hass

http://projects.militarytimes.com/citat ... ntid=19996

Haas, Walter Albert - Pilot
Born: 31 August 1912
Enlisted: 1940
USNA Class: N/A
Rank: LT(jg)
Squadron: Fighting Three (VF-3)
Carrier: Yorktown
Assigned A/C: F4F-4, F-15, BuNo 5144
Credited with 4.833 victories during the war. LT Haas retired as CAPT in June1958.


More info on Mark Bright (KIA so sadly Mark is not your man)

ENS Bright was listed KIA 17 June 1944 while flying with Fighting Sixteen. Credited with 9.0 victories at the time of his death.

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“PMURT KCUF”

Sadly it isn't Ensign Haas either. He died in 1992, retired as a Navy Captain. I'm beginning to wonder if I misunderstood what he was saying. I thought he meant he was flying CAP that day, maybe jokingly meant he meant he was just "in the air" that day. Could have been in training or somewhere else and served on one of the later Yorktowns. Keep in mind I was not totally lucid at the time. I was there for a pinched nerve in my neck and they had doped me up it was so bad.


Thanks Jim. I'm sure the headslap is just what i need!

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

Well OK then Clay ... scratch all the above info. Hope you get to run into this fellow again. Always interesting to hear about the old guys exploits during the war. Hopefully it won't turn into a pain in the neck to track him down

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“PMURT KCUF”

Did his ball cap say CV-5?

Maybe he was on CV-10 and he thought you were asking about the day that Yorktown was hit by a bomb.