Help locating a Helldiver veteran

[Chappie]

G'Day everyone,

Are there any WIX'ers who know where/how to locate a Helldiver aircrewmen. I'm working on a story about the aircraft and would like to get some first person accounts from a veteran before its too late.

Thanks in advance.




Chappie

[SaxMan]

I was going to suggest Hal Buell, but a quick search showed that he passed away last August. It's hard to believe that his passing was completely missed by us WIXers. His book "Dauntless Helldivers" is definitely one of the better narratives of life as a World War II carrier pilot, especially a dive bomber pilot, as it seems that fighter pilot biographies outnumber bomber pilots' ones by at least 4 to 1.

Really, a remarkable career: VS-5, VB-10 and VB-2. His stint with VB-10 included time at Guadalcanal as part of "Flight 300", a group of Enterprise dive bombers that landed and stayed at Henderson Field in the aftermath of the Eastern Solomons battle.

"Dauntless Helldivers" may be a good reference to try to find other Helldiver crew, though. As we all know, it's getting increasingly difficult to find World War II veterans, period, let alone ones who flew a specific type.

[JohnH]

Ah that is a great book!!! Need to go order it again as it was a paperback no I have no idea where it is.

[Jim MacDonald]

Billy Bush's Carrier Pilot was also a good book on VB pilots. He also was in VB-2.

Don't know if he's still with us or not. It was published by IUniverse (IUniverse.com), if he's still alive, they might be able to get you his contact info.

HTH,

Mac

[Zachary]

I'm not entirely sure if he is still with us, but you could try Kenneth Ebbers. He was interviewed for EAA's Timeless Voices of Aviation oral history program back in 2007. http://eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=1425899676

I can't give out his contact info, but he's in the whitepages, Oostburg, WI.

[JohnH]

Ken Ebbers died in 2009. Born in 1927, he was a very young teenager in the war. Amazing.



http://youtu.be/taLG9bpHKxY