WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:13.000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:44.957 --> 00:00:46.394 -Careful, it'’s hot! -I need something! 4 00:00:46.481 --> 00:00:47.830 The damn thing is jammed! 5 00:00:47.917 --> 00:00:49.136 -You have to pull the release! -I can'’t! 6 00:00:49.223 --> 00:00:50.441 -There'’s a piece of flak! -Hey! 7 00:00:50.528 --> 00:00:52.008 -It'’s wedged! -This one'’s out! 8 00:00:52.095 --> 00:00:53.183 -Pull the release! -I am! 9 00:00:53.270 --> 00:00:55.272 Get me something to pry this! 10 00:00:55.359 --> 00:00:56.534 It'’s coming loose! It'’s loose! 11 00:00:56.621 --> 00:00:58.449 That'’s got it! 12 00:00:58.536 --> 00:00:59.842 I can'’t get the rear 13 00:00:59.929 --> 00:01:01.365 bomb bay doors to close! 14 00:01:01.452 --> 00:01:03.411 The flak must have damaged the Pneumatics! 15 00:01:03.498 --> 00:01:06.762 We'’ll have to close them by hand! 16 00:01:13.421 --> 00:01:14.335 Nothing! 17 00:01:14.422 --> 00:01:15.640 No movement! 18 00:01:15.727 --> 00:01:17.033 Nothing! 19 00:01:17.120 --> 00:01:19.601 Flak! FUBAR! 20 00:01:19.688 --> 00:01:22.212 What about the bomb hoist? 21 00:01:22.299 --> 00:01:23.866 Yeah! We can strap it 22 00:01:23.953 --> 00:01:25.781 to the doors and winch them up, 23 00:01:25.868 --> 00:01:27.739 like McCaskill'’s crew! 24 00:01:35.051 --> 00:01:37.140 Patitucci, status? 25 00:01:37.227 --> 00:01:38.402 Electrical fire! 26 00:01:38.489 --> 00:01:39.490 How bad? 27 00:01:39.577 --> 00:01:41.231 Bad. Real bad. 28 00:01:45.409 --> 00:01:47.107 Bombardier to tail gunner: 29 00:01:47.194 --> 00:01:49.805 Wright, we'’ve just extinguished a fire in the radar compartment. 30 00:01:49.892 --> 00:01:51.633 Heavy flak damage to the electrical system. 31 00:01:51.720 --> 00:01:52.895 Be advised. Over. 32 00:01:52.982 --> 00:01:55.158 You alright back there? 33 00:01:55.245 --> 00:01:57.291 Wright, please respond, over. 34 00:02:04.776 --> 00:02:06.778 Get every available fire extinguisher back here! 35 00:02:06.865 --> 00:02:07.910 -Understood? -Yeah! 36 00:02:07.997 --> 00:02:09.999 Go, go, go! 37 00:02:10.086 --> 00:02:12.044 Wright? 38 00:02:12.132 --> 00:02:14.612 Wright? Wright? 39 00:02:17.093 --> 00:02:19.139 Ship'’s interphone, non-functional, Captain! 40 00:02:19.226 --> 00:02:20.879 Ship'’s radio still transmitting and receiving, 41 00:02:20.966 --> 00:02:22.185 but I don'’t know for how long! 42 00:02:22.272 --> 00:02:23.534 Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. 43 00:02:23.621 --> 00:02:24.927 This is Mashnote, this is Mashnote, 44 00:02:25.014 --> 00:02:26.624 this is Mashnote, over. 45 00:02:26.711 --> 00:02:27.973 Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. 46 00:02:28.060 --> 00:02:29.410 This is Mashnote, this is Mashnote, 47 00:02:29.497 --> 00:02:30.411 this is Mashnote. 48 00:02:30.498 --> 00:02:31.847 Transmitting for fix. 49 00:02:31.934 --> 00:02:33.979 We will be Davy Jones, Davy Jones, over. 50 00:02:34.066 --> 00:02:35.764 Captain, all radio facilities are out. 51 00:02:35.851 --> 00:02:40.116 We have A channel VHF only, again, A channel VHF only. 52 00:02:40.203 --> 00:02:42.379 Copy, Sparks! Switching to A channel VHF. 53 00:02:43.293 --> 00:02:44.773 Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. 54 00:02:44.860 --> 00:02:46.905 Wing, this is Dragon Lady, this is Dragon Lady, 55 00:02:46.992 --> 00:02:49.691 this is Dragon Lady, two-seven-seven, respond, over. 56 00:02:49.778 --> 00:02:50.866 Copy, Dragon Lady, 57 00:02:50.953 --> 00:02:52.172 go ahead, over. 58 00:02:52.259 --> 00:02:53.695 We are heavily damaged from flak. 59 00:02:53.782 --> 00:02:55.305 Electrical fire in our tail section. 60 00:02:55.392 --> 00:02:56.872 Inform Playmate of our condition. 61 00:02:56.959 --> 00:02:58.526 Copy, Dragon Lady. 62 00:02:58.613 --> 00:03:00.528 Damage due to flak, electrical fire, aft. 63 00:03:00.615 --> 00:03:02.399 Informing Playmate. Over. 64 00:03:02.486 --> 00:03:03.835 Roger, Wing. Shutting down power 65 00:03:03.922 --> 00:03:05.750 until this fire is under control. 66 00:03:05.837 --> 00:03:07.317 Copy, Dragon Lady. 67 00:03:09.014 --> 00:03:10.929 Out. 68 00:03:11.016 --> 00:03:12.844 Gibbs! Cut power! 69 00:03:12.931 --> 00:03:14.237 Copy! Cutting power! 70 00:03:20.112 --> 00:03:21.462 Wright! 71 00:03:32.821 --> 00:03:35.215 Find a place and get yourself secure! 72 00:03:36.825 --> 00:03:38.566 Captain, the fire'’s under control. 73 00:03:38.653 --> 00:03:40.785 It'’ll stay out as long as the power stays off. 74 00:03:40.872 --> 00:03:43.005 It'’s fighting us. Everything on this ship is electrical! 75 00:03:43.092 --> 00:03:44.311 That shell blast under the cockpit 76 00:03:44.398 --> 00:03:45.529 has everything shorting out on us. 77 00:03:45.616 --> 00:03:47.009 Sparking wires started it. 78 00:03:47.096 --> 00:03:49.054 We need power back to get us home. 79 00:03:49.141 --> 00:03:51.361 The wiring, it'’s got to be shredded! 80 00:03:51.448 --> 00:03:52.623 -Gibbs! -Sir? 81 00:03:52.710 --> 00:03:53.755 I need power back! 82 00:03:53.842 --> 00:03:55.452 Can you give it to me? 83 00:03:57.976 --> 00:03:59.761 Standby, Captain. 84 00:04:04.287 --> 00:04:06.420 Power restored, Captain! 85 00:04:26.875 --> 00:04:30.574 Fire, everything is on fire. 86 00:04:30.661 --> 00:04:32.620 Say again, say again! 87 00:04:32.707 --> 00:04:35.187 Everything is on fire! 88 00:04:38.278 --> 00:04:39.627 Captain, the fire has resumed. 89 00:04:39.714 --> 00:04:41.324 We used all the extinguishers! 90 00:04:41.411 --> 00:04:43.674 Wing, this is Dragon Lady, we are preparing to ditch. 91 00:04:43.761 --> 00:04:44.980 Radio our position to Navy Playmate... 92 00:04:45.067 --> 00:04:46.460 Verdeschi! What'’s our position? 93 00:04:46.547 --> 00:04:48.200 -I'’m working on it! -ETA, Lieutenant? 94 00:04:48.288 --> 00:04:50.551 Wing, this is Dragon Lady... 95 00:04:50.638 --> 00:04:52.117 Gibbs, my airspeed indicator, 96 00:04:52.204 --> 00:04:53.467 it'’s non-functional! 97 00:04:53.554 --> 00:04:56.557 Airspeed is two-seven-zero miles per hour. 98 00:04:56.644 --> 00:04:58.167 -Two-seven-zero. -...this is Dragon Lady, 99 00:04:58.254 --> 00:05:00.082 two-seven-seven, respond, over! 100 00:05:00.169 --> 00:05:01.823 Lieutenant! Our position, please! 101 00:05:01.910 --> 00:05:03.303 -Copy! -Wing, this is Dragon Lady. 102 00:05:03.390 --> 00:05:04.782 -Respond, over. -Captain, 103 00:05:04.869 --> 00:05:06.131 Captain, our position is 30 degrees... 104 00:05:06.218 --> 00:05:08.090 Wing, we are preparing to ditch. 105 00:05:08.177 --> 00:05:09.526 Copy, over. 106 00:05:09.613 --> 00:05:11.049 Captain, all radio facilities are out. 107 00:05:11.136 --> 00:05:13.313 Channel A VHF, out! I can'’t get it back. 108 00:05:13.400 --> 00:05:17.055 Copy, all radio facilities out! 109 00:05:17.142 --> 00:05:19.014 We have to cut the power! 110 00:05:22.974 --> 00:05:24.280 Gibbs, cut power! 111 00:05:24.367 --> 00:05:25.325 Copy! 112 00:05:25.412 --> 00:05:26.848 Install ditching braces! 113 00:05:26.935 --> 00:05:29.154 Open all escape exits and assume ditching positions. 114 00:05:29.241 --> 00:05:30.765 Prepare to ditch! 115 00:05:30.852 --> 00:05:33.985 Open all escape exits, assume ditching positions! 116 00:05:50.132 --> 00:05:52.090 Gibbs, on my command, I'’m gonna need power back. 117 00:05:52.177 --> 00:05:54.049 Copy! Power back on your command. 118 00:05:56.181 --> 00:05:58.749 Two hundred and seventy miles per hour. 119 00:05:58.836 --> 00:06:00.621 Descending at 3,000 feet per minute! 120 00:06:00.708 --> 00:06:02.318 Level out at 500 feet. 121 00:06:02.405 --> 00:06:04.886 Prepare for 25 degrees of flaps when power is restored. 122 00:06:04.973 --> 00:06:07.454 Copy, 500 feet, 25 degrees of flaps! 123 00:06:09.020 --> 00:06:11.980 We are at 3,500 feet and descending. 124 00:06:21.903 --> 00:06:24.427 One thousand feet! 125 00:06:25.863 --> 00:06:27.691 Nine hundred feet! 126 00:06:30.346 --> 00:06:31.913 Eight hundred feet! 127 00:06:34.829 --> 00:06:36.613 Seven hundred feet! 128 00:06:39.399 --> 00:06:40.661 Six hundred feet! 129 00:06:45.187 --> 00:06:47.668 -Gibbs, standby on power. -Standing by! 130 00:06:47.755 --> 00:06:49.147 Five hundred and fifty feet! 131 00:06:49.234 --> 00:06:50.758 Gibbs, power! 132 00:06:50.845 --> 00:06:53.108 Copy, power restored, Captain! 133 00:06:59.810 --> 00:07:02.073 Standby to cut engines two and four! 134 00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:03.945 Standing by to cut engines two and four! 135 00:07:04.032 --> 00:07:05.294 Twenty-five degrees of flaps! 136 00:07:05.381 --> 00:07:06.730 Twenty-five degrees of flaps! 137 00:07:06.817 --> 00:07:08.166 Cut engines two and four! 138 00:07:08.253 --> 00:07:09.907 Cutting engines two and four! 139 00:07:13.563 --> 00:07:14.825 Three hundred feet. 140 00:07:14.912 --> 00:07:16.871 Do you see any swell down there, Lieutenant? 141 00:07:16.958 --> 00:07:18.916 Negative! Two hundred feet! 142 00:07:19.003 --> 00:07:21.484 I'’m gonna put us down into the wind. 143 00:07:21.571 --> 00:07:23.878 Hundred and ten miles an hour. One hundred feet! 144 00:07:23.965 --> 00:07:25.183 Here we go. 145 00:07:27.664 --> 00:07:29.971 Nose up. Nose up! 146 00:07:57.999 --> 00:07:59.304 Everyone out! 147 00:08:29.813 --> 00:08:30.771 Gotcha! 148 00:08:44.785 --> 00:08:46.917 He'’s hurt! He'’s hurt! 149 00:08:48.528 --> 00:08:50.007 Easy, easy, easy. 150 00:08:54.708 --> 00:08:57.014 Easy, easy, easy. 151 00:08:57.101 --> 00:08:58.668 We gotta even up these boats, boys. 152 00:08:58.755 --> 00:09:00.452 Verdeschi, Lloyd! 153 00:09:02.716 --> 00:09:03.934 Who do we have? 154 00:09:04.021 --> 00:09:05.719 Sound off! 155 00:09:05.806 --> 00:09:07.329 Wilcoxon. 156 00:09:07.416 --> 00:09:08.939 Gibbs present, sir! 157 00:09:09.026 --> 00:09:10.593 James! 158 00:09:10.680 --> 00:09:12.203 Lloyd! 159 00:09:12.290 --> 00:09:13.814 Verdeschi! 160 00:09:13.901 --> 00:09:15.467 Cody! 161 00:09:15.555 --> 00:09:17.121 Tancreti! 162 00:09:17.208 --> 00:09:18.775 Weaver. 163 00:09:18.862 --> 00:09:20.821 How you feeling, Sergeant? 164 00:09:20.908 --> 00:09:22.736 Still here, Cap. 165 00:09:22.823 --> 00:09:24.564 -Do we any have morphine? -Yes, sir. 166 00:09:24.651 --> 00:09:27.218 Get this man some morphine! 167 00:09:27.305 --> 00:09:30.482 Anybody have eyes on Patitucci, Larson, or Wright? 168 00:09:30.570 --> 00:09:33.529 Wright deceased prior to ditching, Captain. 169 00:09:33.616 --> 00:09:35.705 You'’re certain? 170 00:09:35.792 --> 00:09:37.533 Absolutely certain. 171 00:09:43.800 --> 00:09:45.541 James, sound that whistle. 172 00:09:45.628 --> 00:09:47.151 All eyes, look sharp! 173 00:09:57.814 --> 00:09:59.207 Cap... 174 00:09:59.294 --> 00:10:01.862 do they know we'’re down? 175 00:10:01.949 --> 00:10:03.254 It'’ll be okay. 176 00:10:03.341 --> 00:10:06.431 They'’ll be coming for us. 177 00:10:06.518 --> 00:10:08.042 They'’ll be coming. 178 00:10:12.437 --> 00:10:15.136 What the crew of the Dragon Lady did not know 179 00:10:15.223 --> 00:10:17.704 was that on the island of Iwo Jima, 180 00:10:17.791 --> 00:10:20.489 a 22-year-old pilot and his crew 181 00:10:20.576 --> 00:10:22.796 would be coming for them. 182 00:10:22.883 --> 00:10:26.060 But that pilot, my great uncle, 183 00:10:26.147 --> 00:10:29.324 Royal A. Stratton, 184 00:10:29.411 --> 00:10:31.195 would never return home. 185 00:10:38.942 --> 00:10:43.120 Many young enlisted men came from small-town America, 186 00:10:43.207 --> 00:10:46.341 places like Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, 187 00:10:46.428 --> 00:10:48.996 where our veterans are revered 188 00:10:49.083 --> 00:10:52.303 and things still move a little slower, 189 00:10:52.390 --> 00:10:56.786 where family reunions, old-timey guessing games, 190 00:10:56.873 --> 00:10:59.746 and favorite pastimes are still alive and well. 191 00:11:10.278 --> 00:11:13.194 For anyone who'’s lost a loved one in war, 192 00:11:13.281 --> 00:11:17.764 the emptiness left behind can resonate for generations. 193 00:11:17.851 --> 00:11:21.289 For my family, it was World War II. 194 00:11:21.376 --> 00:11:24.988 Many of us didn'’t know my great uncle, just a name: 195 00:11:25.075 --> 00:11:27.730 Royal A. Stratton. 196 00:11:27.817 --> 00:11:30.690 But the few still among us who did 197 00:11:30.777 --> 00:11:35.520 also reside here, in small-town America. 198 00:11:35.607 --> 00:11:38.001 I didn'’t know it then, but going home 199 00:11:38.088 --> 00:11:40.264 is where my long journey began-- 200 00:11:40.351 --> 00:11:42.310 traveling back through time. 201 00:12:20.827 --> 00:12:23.743 His orders from Dad was watch Ada, 202 00:12:23.830 --> 00:12:25.657 '’cause I was the smallest one. 203 00:12:32.621 --> 00:12:36.059 I met Royal in School. 204 00:12:36.146 --> 00:12:38.496 We were in the fifth grade together. 205 00:12:45.547 --> 00:12:47.157 He was nice. 206 00:12:47.244 --> 00:12:50.334 We would go out and sit on our swing on the back porch, 207 00:12:50.421 --> 00:12:52.293 and he'’d talk about everything. 208 00:12:55.731 --> 00:12:58.865 I knew Royal before Mary Ellen knew Royal. 209 00:12:58.952 --> 00:13:00.692 My mother'’s maiden name was Timmerman. 210 00:13:00.780 --> 00:13:02.433 So it was Mary Ellen Timmerman. 211 00:13:02.520 --> 00:13:04.653 And, he was dating my aunt Kay at the time. 212 00:13:04.740 --> 00:13:06.742 Well, I was going with another fella. 213 00:13:09.353 --> 00:13:11.051 I said, "Would you like to meet her?? 214 00:13:11.138 --> 00:13:12.443 He said, "Sure!" 215 00:13:18.406 --> 00:13:19.886 That was it. 216 00:13:22.323 --> 00:13:24.281 They hit it off and here we are. 217 00:13:25.892 --> 00:13:27.807 My mom, she was a spitfire. 218 00:13:27.894 --> 00:13:30.200 One time when my dad was supposed to pick her up 219 00:13:30.287 --> 00:13:32.986 at seven, and he wasn'’t there, and she left. 220 00:13:33.073 --> 00:13:34.901 And he came about ten after seven 221 00:13:34.988 --> 00:13:36.859 and asked where she was and she said, 222 00:13:36.946 --> 00:13:38.730 "If you'’re not here at seven, she'’s gone." 223 00:13:38.818 --> 00:13:40.254 She wouldn'’t wait on him. 224 00:13:40.341 --> 00:13:41.385 From then on, 225 00:13:41.472 --> 00:13:43.083 if he was gonna be late, he'’d call. 226 00:13:43.170 --> 00:13:45.215 And my grandpa, his dad, 227 00:13:45.302 --> 00:13:47.043 would say, "I want to meet this girl 228 00:13:47.130 --> 00:13:49.263 that'’s having you call her when you'’re gonna be late." 229 00:13:49.350 --> 00:13:50.655 He was never late again. 230 00:13:58.098 --> 00:13:59.839 It was about a hundred yards 231 00:13:59.926 --> 00:14:01.579 north of where the present one is. 232 00:14:01.666 --> 00:14:03.277 The building is still there. 233 00:14:07.498 --> 00:14:10.110 It was a Travel Air 2000. 234 00:14:10.197 --> 00:14:11.633 It was a biplane. 235 00:14:11.720 --> 00:14:14.070 Two wings, open cockpits, 236 00:14:14.157 --> 00:14:17.900 powered by a 90-horsepower OX-5 engine. 237 00:14:17.987 --> 00:14:20.860 He was very gifted as a pilot. 238 00:14:20.947 --> 00:14:25.386 And I'’m so proud of him, very, very proud of him. 239 00:14:37.093 --> 00:14:40.140 We were moored over at Pearl City Landing. 240 00:14:40.227 --> 00:14:42.011 That morning, 241 00:14:42.098 --> 00:14:44.796 we were all awakened by the... 242 00:14:44.884 --> 00:14:46.363 the bombs going off. 243 00:14:57.070 --> 00:15:00.900 7:59 a.m. 244 00:15:00.987 --> 00:15:03.511 That'’s when they hit. 245 00:15:03.598 --> 00:15:05.469 When they bombed Pearl Harbor 246 00:15:05.556 --> 00:15:07.384 and they sunk theArizona, 247 00:15:07.471 --> 00:15:09.212 and they sunk those other ships, 248 00:15:09.299 --> 00:15:11.606 and those men were in steaming oil 249 00:15:11.693 --> 00:15:13.260 on the sea dying, 250 00:15:13.347 --> 00:15:16.524 the country rallied, but the country was different. 251 00:15:16.611 --> 00:15:19.657 I was at a movie at the Tivoli in Richmond, Indiana, 252 00:15:19.744 --> 00:15:21.485 when they closed down the screen 253 00:15:21.572 --> 00:15:23.966 and the owner came on stage and told us 254 00:15:24.053 --> 00:15:25.141 that we had been bombed. 255 00:15:25.228 --> 00:15:27.665 I think we realized at that time 256 00:15:27.752 --> 00:15:30.581 that we were going to be in a long fight. 257 00:15:41.941 --> 00:15:43.768 ...1941... 258 00:15:43.855 --> 00:15:47.250 Went to school and when we got to civics class, 259 00:15:47.337 --> 00:15:49.644 our teacher had brought in this portable radio 260 00:15:49.731 --> 00:15:51.472 and we listened spellbound. 261 00:15:51.559 --> 00:15:55.867 ...a date which will live in infamy. 262 00:15:55.955 --> 00:15:58.914 Infamy; a word we'’d never heard before. 263 00:15:59.001 --> 00:16:00.698 Then he turned to the Congress 264 00:16:00.785 --> 00:16:02.918 and he asked them to declare war, and they did. 265 00:16:03.005 --> 00:16:05.660 ...with the unbounding determination 266 00:16:05.747 --> 00:16:08.228 of our people, 267 00:16:08.315 --> 00:16:12.667 we will gain the inevitable triumph, 268 00:16:12.754 --> 00:16:14.451 so help us God. 269 00:16:18.890 --> 00:16:20.805 There was quite an inundation 270 00:16:20.892 --> 00:16:24.505 of people showing up at recruiting stations 271 00:16:24.592 --> 00:16:26.855 in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor. 272 00:16:26.942 --> 00:16:29.989 I enlisted out of Binghamton, New York. 273 00:16:35.907 --> 00:16:39.433 I signed all the papers and was sent to Camp Blanding, Florida, 274 00:16:39.520 --> 00:16:41.304 which was an infantry base, 275 00:16:41.391 --> 00:16:44.046 and I thank the good Lord 20 times a day 276 00:16:44.133 --> 00:16:45.656 that I didn'’t join the infantry. 277 00:16:45.743 --> 00:16:47.919 I wanted to get in the action. 278 00:16:48.007 --> 00:16:49.530 Of course we were just emerging 279 00:16:49.617 --> 00:16:51.053 from the Great Depression. 280 00:16:51.140 --> 00:16:55.188 America in tragedy comes together. 281 00:16:55.275 --> 00:16:57.929 The Depression had a great leavening effect. 282 00:16:58.017 --> 00:17:00.497 We were living in a quite different world. 283 00:17:00.584 --> 00:17:05.720 We had rationing: butter, milk, eggs, silk stockings. 284 00:17:05.807 --> 00:17:07.852 Consequently, a lot of people would begin to grow 285 00:17:07.939 --> 00:17:09.593 what they called a Victory Garden. 286 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:12.944 An estimated 40 percent of the vegetables grown in America 287 00:17:13.032 --> 00:17:14.859 were grown in those Victory Gardens. 288 00:17:14.946 --> 00:17:16.165 And there were these drives. 289 00:17:16.252 --> 00:17:17.471 They needed rubber desperately. 290 00:17:17.558 --> 00:17:19.038 They needed scrap metal. 291 00:17:19.125 --> 00:17:21.866 And I saved tin foil in bundles 292 00:17:21.953 --> 00:17:24.086 and gave it to the collectors. 293 00:17:24.173 --> 00:17:26.306 As a matter of fact, some people began to give up-- 294 00:17:26.393 --> 00:17:27.829 I know Rita Hayworth did-- 295 00:17:27.916 --> 00:17:30.266 to give up the bumpers on their cars 296 00:17:30.353 --> 00:17:32.529 to the scrap metal people, honest to God. 297 00:17:32.616 --> 00:17:35.837 Everybody shared in the war effort. 298 00:17:35.924 --> 00:17:37.839 My mother rolled bandages, 299 00:17:37.926 --> 00:17:40.450 worked for the Red Cross in Oklahoma. 300 00:17:40.537 --> 00:17:43.279 My great regret then was that I wasn'’t a little bit older 301 00:17:43.366 --> 00:17:45.890 so I could actually wear a uniform. 302 00:17:45.977 --> 00:17:48.676 I wanted to do that too. I wanted to get involved. 303 00:17:48.763 --> 00:17:52.288 So I convinced my mother, if I joined the Navy under-age, 304 00:17:52.375 --> 00:17:55.204 I would not be sent overseas until I was 18. 305 00:17:55.291 --> 00:17:57.467 Now, it was a lie, but I was desperate. 306 00:17:57.554 --> 00:17:59.774 I wanted so badly to get into the service. 307 00:17:59.861 --> 00:18:01.384 It had to be fought. 308 00:18:01.471 --> 00:18:05.606 We were fighting Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo. 309 00:18:05.693 --> 00:18:07.260 The entire world was at war. 310 00:18:07.347 --> 00:18:09.827 These madmen had to be stopped. 311 00:18:09.914 --> 00:18:12.700 So you sign on and you do what you can. 312 00:18:12.787 --> 00:18:15.006 So we had a nation that had a purity of purpose 313 00:18:15.094 --> 00:18:16.965 and that was to eliminate evil in the world. 314 00:18:17.052 --> 00:18:18.575 My name is John Ree. 315 00:18:18.662 --> 00:18:21.361 Freeland C. Terpenning. 316 00:18:21.448 --> 00:18:23.580 Walter O. Sheppard. 317 00:18:23.667 --> 00:18:25.060 Milton Robbins. 318 00:18:25.147 --> 00:18:26.409 Mark Kishego. 319 00:18:26.496 --> 00:18:27.802 Raymond Lee. 320 00:18:27.889 --> 00:18:29.760 -Verle Westerman. -John Misterly. 321 00:18:29.847 --> 00:18:32.023 -Edward Goetz. -Lyle Umenhoffer. 322 00:18:32.111 --> 00:18:33.895 -Jerry Yellin. -Earl Holliman. 323 00:18:52.957 --> 00:18:54.568 There were so many pilots, 324 00:18:54.655 --> 00:18:56.047 were shot down, 325 00:18:56.135 --> 00:18:58.180 and they didn'’t know whether they survived 326 00:18:58.267 --> 00:19:00.487 or whether they were in the water for weeks. 327 00:19:00.574 --> 00:19:03.751 The 4th Emergency Rescue Squadron was formed 328 00:19:03.838 --> 00:19:06.319 when the Navy decided that they were spending 329 00:19:06.406 --> 00:19:09.583 too much time rescuing Air Force pilots. 330 00:19:09.670 --> 00:19:12.063 So, the next thing I knew I had orders to go 331 00:19:12.151 --> 00:19:14.936 through the advanced training school at Pensacola 332 00:19:15.023 --> 00:19:16.764 learning to fly the PBY. 333 00:19:16.851 --> 00:19:20.246 We'’re talking about a Consolidated PBY, 334 00:19:20.333 --> 00:19:23.336 which was a sea plane; amphibious. 335 00:19:23.423 --> 00:19:25.555 It had landing gear you could land on. 336 00:19:25.642 --> 00:19:28.558 It was built so that you could land in water. 337 00:19:28.645 --> 00:19:30.169 Primarily I would say 338 00:19:30.256 --> 00:19:32.954 the thought was rescue in the open sea. 339 00:19:33.041 --> 00:19:35.130 An airplane gets shot down, 340 00:19:35.217 --> 00:19:36.827 whatever reason you had to ditch, 341 00:19:36.914 --> 00:19:39.395 a PBY was one of the best airplanes 342 00:19:39.482 --> 00:19:43.051 for landing and picking up people and retrieving them. 343 00:20:22.264 --> 00:20:23.961 After we were graduated 344 00:20:24.048 --> 00:20:27.182 from Pensacola, we were designated Naval Aviators. 345 00:20:27.269 --> 00:20:30.968 We were then entitled to wear Navy Wings and Air Corps Wings. 346 00:20:31.055 --> 00:20:33.797 We wore Air Corps Wings over our heart, 347 00:20:33.884 --> 00:20:35.712 Navy Wings on the right side. 348 00:20:35.799 --> 00:20:38.411 After, we were sent to Biloxi, Mississippi. 349 00:20:38.498 --> 00:20:39.890 Keesler Field. 350 00:20:39.977 --> 00:20:42.850 That'’s where we became a member of a crew. 351 00:20:58.518 --> 00:21:00.737 I knew Royal Stratton real well. 352 00:21:00.824 --> 00:21:02.348 He was a dear good friend. 353 00:21:02.435 --> 00:21:03.914 Extremely excellent pilot. 354 00:21:04.001 --> 00:21:06.352 I can'’t say enough about his piloting ability. 355 00:21:06.439 --> 00:21:08.005 And a fine man. 356 00:21:15.970 --> 00:21:17.624 And then flew from there 357 00:21:17.711 --> 00:21:21.367 to McClellan Field in Sacramento, California. 358 00:21:21.454 --> 00:21:24.021 We went over with white planes 359 00:21:24.108 --> 00:21:27.851 and they painted them blue to match the water 360 00:21:27.938 --> 00:21:31.942 so planes flying above us wouldn'’t be able to see us. 361 00:21:32.029 --> 00:21:35.946 It was a Catalina and we named it Prowlin'’ Puss. 362 00:21:36.033 --> 00:21:39.559 And we had a Prowlin'’ Puss on the side of the plane 363 00:21:39.646 --> 00:21:42.213 and he'’s sitting drumming his fingers. 364 00:21:42.301 --> 00:21:44.868 It was a real good picture. 365 00:21:44.955 --> 00:21:46.305 We thought it was. 366 00:21:46.392 --> 00:21:47.784 My engineer, 367 00:21:47.871 --> 00:21:50.265 he came up with the name Superduck. 368 00:21:50.352 --> 00:21:53.834 And he painted Superduck on Superduck. 369 00:21:53.921 --> 00:21:56.227 We called it the old Lard Ass. 370 00:21:56.315 --> 00:21:57.707 Took off at 90 knots, 371 00:21:57.794 --> 00:21:59.883 flew at 90 knots, and landed at 90 knots. 372 00:22:24.125 --> 00:22:25.605 We waited there for 373 00:22:25.692 --> 00:22:29.348 our instructions to go overseas. 374 00:22:37.312 --> 00:22:39.967 John Garfield, a New York actor, 375 00:22:40.054 --> 00:22:43.753 all excited about the Stage Door Canteen, 376 00:22:43.840 --> 00:22:45.407 told Bette Davis about it. 377 00:22:45.494 --> 00:22:48.279 It was made up, of course, of Broadway stage actors 378 00:22:48.367 --> 00:22:51.500 entertaining G.I.s, American service men, 379 00:22:51.587 --> 00:22:54.851 about to embark for the adventure of their lives. 380 00:22:54.938 --> 00:22:57.724 And Bette instantly caught fire and said: 381 00:22:57.811 --> 00:23:00.857 "This is the West Coast port of embarkation 382 00:23:00.944 --> 00:23:03.512 and they'’re coming flooding through here 383 00:23:03.599 --> 00:23:05.862 and they have nowhere to go. 384 00:23:05.949 --> 00:23:08.169 So, there has to be a Hollywood Canteen," 385 00:23:08.256 --> 00:23:10.519 and indeed, it happened. 386 00:23:12.913 --> 00:23:14.654 And they created this wonderful, 387 00:23:14.741 --> 00:23:16.307 wonderful place where the soldiers, 388 00:23:16.395 --> 00:23:18.527 who were on their way overseas in the Pacific, 389 00:23:18.614 --> 00:23:21.487 could stop and be fed, you know, by movie stars 390 00:23:21.574 --> 00:23:24.272 and dance with movie stars and be entertained. 391 00:23:24.359 --> 00:23:26.492 The war was on, and my mother, 392 00:23:26.579 --> 00:23:28.363 one night she came home and she said 393 00:23:28.450 --> 00:23:30.409 "You'’re going to sing at the Hollywood Canteen." 394 00:23:30.496 --> 00:23:32.672 And I got out on the stage 395 00:23:32.759 --> 00:23:36.197 and I sang and they stood up and applauded, 396 00:23:36.284 --> 00:23:39.156 and what I realized is these young men, 397 00:23:39.243 --> 00:23:43.944 they were so baby-faced, and young, and courageous, 398 00:23:44.031 --> 00:23:47.513 and they loved everything we did for them. Everything. 399 00:23:47.600 --> 00:23:50.603 We had the big bands playing there. 400 00:23:50.690 --> 00:23:52.561 One name band after another. 401 00:23:52.648 --> 00:23:54.824 Any that was in town at the time 402 00:23:54.911 --> 00:23:57.131 would be happy to play for nothing 403 00:23:57.218 --> 00:23:59.263 to our young military. 404 00:23:59.350 --> 00:24:02.092 And so there was some pretty great dancing done 405 00:24:02.179 --> 00:24:04.268 on the most crowded of dance floors. 406 00:24:04.355 --> 00:24:06.357 I got five hours'’ liberty every night 407 00:24:06.445 --> 00:24:08.272 and I would hightail it right over 408 00:24:08.359 --> 00:24:09.578 to the Hollywood Canteen, 409 00:24:09.665 --> 00:24:11.188 which was incredible. 410 00:24:11.275 --> 00:24:13.974 And I remember walking in one day 411 00:24:14.061 --> 00:24:16.498 and there was the great, gorgeous John Garfield 412 00:24:16.585 --> 00:24:19.675 with his sleeves rolled up and apron on doing dishes. 413 00:24:19.762 --> 00:24:22.591 And it was a sight that I'’ll never forget as long as I live. 414 00:24:22.678 --> 00:24:24.463 The boys wanted proof 415 00:24:24.550 --> 00:24:26.987 that they had been to the Hollywood Canteen. 416 00:24:27.074 --> 00:24:28.641 So I signed everything. 417 00:24:28.728 --> 00:24:31.905 I had to sign their best girl'’s pictures, imagine. 418 00:24:31.992 --> 00:24:34.821 What a privilege it was for me to be part of that. 419 00:24:34.908 --> 00:24:37.388 The barn held about a thousand G.I.s 420 00:24:37.476 --> 00:24:39.652 and a number of hostesses to welcome them. 421 00:24:39.739 --> 00:24:41.131 And finally, one night, 422 00:24:41.218 --> 00:24:42.742 they prepared for the millionth man 423 00:24:42.829 --> 00:24:45.309 to come through those doors, and he did. 424 00:24:45.396 --> 00:24:47.616 The place just absolutely erupted 425 00:24:47.703 --> 00:24:49.009 when he walked through the door. 426 00:24:49.096 --> 00:24:51.054 He didn'’t know he was the millionth man. 427 00:24:51.141 --> 00:24:52.882 By the time they closed in '’45, 428 00:24:52.969 --> 00:24:55.145 they had served three million service men. 429 00:24:55.232 --> 00:24:57.583 Many of them, of course, never came back. 430 00:24:57.670 --> 00:25:01.325 So that was the last view they had of America, 431 00:25:01.412 --> 00:25:05.721 and kindness and people trying to help them. 432 00:25:11.640 --> 00:25:14.121 My mom wanted to name me Royal Ann. 433 00:25:14.208 --> 00:25:16.471 Thank God she didn'’t. Dad said no. 434 00:25:16.558 --> 00:25:19.082 "If we ever have a son, we'’ll name him Royal." 435 00:25:19.169 --> 00:25:20.736 So he named me Vicky Elaine. 436 00:25:20.823 --> 00:25:23.173 He was gone a lot when he was in the service and... 437 00:25:23.260 --> 00:25:25.393 he was home when I was born 438 00:25:25.480 --> 00:25:27.830 and then he left when I was four days old 439 00:25:27.917 --> 00:25:30.354 and that'’s the last we saw him. 440 00:25:30.441 --> 00:25:34.010 Then we did get instructions to go overseas. 441 00:25:34.097 --> 00:25:35.925 I had our aircraft 442 00:25:36.012 --> 00:25:39.450 blessed by a priest before I ever left the States. 443 00:25:39.538 --> 00:25:41.496 But, I'’m not Catholic. 444 00:25:41.583 --> 00:25:43.411 I'’m an Episcopalian. 445 00:25:43.498 --> 00:25:46.370 But I asked each man if they had any objection to it, 446 00:25:46.457 --> 00:25:47.589 and they said, "No, sir." 447 00:25:47.676 --> 00:25:49.199 And so the airplane was blessed 448 00:25:49.286 --> 00:25:51.898 and I have the Saint Christopher medal on the wall here. 449 00:25:51.985 --> 00:25:54.465 It was glued to my instrument panel. 450 00:25:54.553 --> 00:25:56.685 We took off different days en route 451 00:25:56.772 --> 00:25:59.645 to Hickam Air Corps Base in Honolulu. 452 00:25:59.732 --> 00:26:01.647 And it was a long flight. 453 00:26:01.734 --> 00:26:04.737 We lost a plane when we first went overseas. 454 00:26:04.824 --> 00:26:06.477 Nobody knows what happened. 455 00:26:06.565 --> 00:26:09.829 It gets awful dark as you keep going west. 456 00:26:09.916 --> 00:26:12.571 And there'’s lots of water under there. 457 00:26:12.658 --> 00:26:15.312 Our first flight to get to where we were gonna serve, 458 00:26:15.399 --> 00:26:17.140 we had to make to Hawaii. 459 00:26:18.620 --> 00:26:20.317 As I remember it, we took off 460 00:26:20.404 --> 00:26:22.058 about 3 o'’clock in the morning 461 00:26:22.145 --> 00:26:23.625 from Sacramento, California. 462 00:26:23.712 --> 00:26:25.322 And about halfway across, 463 00:26:25.409 --> 00:26:27.237 we got a radio transmission-- 464 00:26:27.324 --> 00:26:29.065 it was all in code, of course-- 465 00:26:29.152 --> 00:26:31.502 they told us to turn around and go back. 466 00:26:31.590 --> 00:26:33.679 That there was a headwind gonna hit us 467 00:26:33.766 --> 00:26:36.812 and we probably didn'’t have enough gas to reach Honolulu. 468 00:26:36.899 --> 00:26:39.119 They want us to return to Sac-- 469 00:26:41.034 --> 00:26:43.558 Zalkan, how far are we from Hawaii? 470 00:26:45.342 --> 00:26:46.822 Seven-point-five hours 471 00:26:46.909 --> 00:26:48.258 at our current heading and airspeed. 472 00:26:48.345 --> 00:26:49.651 If we maintain, total flight time 473 00:26:49.738 --> 00:26:51.131 will be just over 19 hours. 474 00:26:51.218 --> 00:26:52.828 We'’ve passed the halfway point. 475 00:26:52.915 --> 00:26:54.438 What'’s happening? 476 00:26:54.525 --> 00:26:57.528 They want us to turn around and go back. 477 00:26:57.616 --> 00:26:59.748 To Sacramento? 478 00:26:59.835 --> 00:27:02.142 That doesn'’t make any sense. 479 00:27:04.753 --> 00:27:07.277 Radar operator to engineer. 480 00:27:07.364 --> 00:27:10.454 How long can we stay airborne with those new Tokyo tanks? 481 00:27:10.541 --> 00:27:12.108 Over. 482 00:27:12.195 --> 00:27:16.330 We got about 20 hours'’ total flight time, Chief, over. 483 00:27:16.417 --> 00:27:18.332 Copy, Doc. 484 00:27:18.419 --> 00:27:22.031 Radio operator to pilot. 485 00:27:22.118 --> 00:27:24.033 Pilot to radio operator, go ahead. 486 00:27:24.120 --> 00:27:25.556 Lieutenant, we'’ve been instructed 487 00:27:25.644 --> 00:27:27.733 to return to Sacramento, over. 488 00:27:27.820 --> 00:27:30.083 Copy. Instructed to return to Sacramento, over. 489 00:27:30.170 --> 00:27:31.606 Return to Sacramento? 490 00:27:31.693 --> 00:27:34.348 Sir, I requested code verification. 491 00:27:34.435 --> 00:27:37.003 Transmitting party was unable to verify, over. 492 00:27:37.090 --> 00:27:38.439 Copy, unable to verify. 493 00:27:38.526 --> 00:27:39.875 Japanese dummy transmission? 494 00:27:44.532 --> 00:27:46.882 Pilot to crew; according to my calculations, 495 00:27:46.969 --> 00:27:49.580 we are past the halfway point to our destination. 496 00:27:49.668 --> 00:27:53.323 Therefore, I will ask each of you to vote, yay or nay, 497 00:27:53.410 --> 00:27:55.717 as to whether we return to Sacramento. 498 00:27:55.804 --> 00:27:58.067 Take a moment to consider, over. 499 00:27:58.154 --> 00:28:01.636 Navigator to pilot, you flying by ear again, Lieutenant? 500 00:28:01.723 --> 00:28:03.116 Pilot to navigator; 501 00:28:03.203 --> 00:28:04.552 1st Lieutenant. 502 00:28:04.639 --> 00:28:07.163 And are my calculations incorrect? Over. 503 00:28:07.250 --> 00:28:08.556 No, sir. 504 00:28:08.643 --> 00:28:10.645 Your calculations are correct, over. 505 00:28:10.732 --> 00:28:12.603 Navigator, please say again, over. 506 00:28:12.691 --> 00:28:14.780 Your calculations are correct. 507 00:28:17.043 --> 00:28:18.958 -Over? -Over! 508 00:28:19.045 --> 00:28:20.699 Repeat. 509 00:28:22.265 --> 00:28:23.832 And so we all voted-- 510 00:28:23.919 --> 00:28:25.268 let'’s go ahead. 511 00:28:25.355 --> 00:28:27.183 And when we did land at Honolulu, 512 00:28:27.270 --> 00:28:29.925 we were in the air 19 hours and 55 minutes 513 00:28:30.012 --> 00:28:31.361 as I remember it. 514 00:28:31.448 --> 00:28:33.537 And our flight engineer later told me-- 515 00:28:33.624 --> 00:28:39.239 He said we had about 15 minutes'’ flying time left, so-- 516 00:28:41.807 --> 00:28:44.679 From Wheeler Field we went to a little spot 517 00:28:44.766 --> 00:28:46.986 in the ocean called Johnson Island. 518 00:28:47.073 --> 00:28:49.249 Orders, we finally got them 519 00:28:49.336 --> 00:28:51.686 after two or three weeks. 520 00:28:51.773 --> 00:28:54.645 We searched for General Harmon, 521 00:28:54.733 --> 00:28:56.299 he was an Air Corps General. 522 00:28:56.386 --> 00:28:57.736 Most of the time 523 00:28:57.823 --> 00:29:00.129 when we were searching for rafts, 524 00:29:00.216 --> 00:29:02.871 I was in the blister watching for it 525 00:29:02.958 --> 00:29:05.482 because radar wouldn'’t pick it up. 526 00:29:05.569 --> 00:29:08.398 And the radar on our plane was up high 527 00:29:08.485 --> 00:29:10.618 so you couldn'’t shoot down with it. 528 00:29:10.705 --> 00:29:12.402 You had to shoot out. 529 00:29:12.489 --> 00:29:15.275 I don'’t think they ever did know what happened to that plane. 530 00:29:15.362 --> 00:29:17.799 We couldn'’t find any evidence of it anywhere. 531 00:29:17.886 --> 00:29:20.541 Even though we were all a bunch of young guys, 532 00:29:20.628 --> 00:29:22.891 we suddenly became men. 533 00:29:22.978 --> 00:29:25.720 So we left there and headed west again. 534 00:29:25.807 --> 00:29:27.243 From Johnson Island 535 00:29:27.330 --> 00:29:28.941 we were sent temporary duty 536 00:29:29.028 --> 00:29:31.595 to Kwajalein, Eniwetok, 537 00:29:31.682 --> 00:29:33.249 Bikini Atoll, 538 00:29:33.336 --> 00:29:34.947 and finally to Saipan. 539 00:29:35.034 --> 00:29:36.775 When we got to Saipan, 540 00:29:36.862 --> 00:29:41.344 officers and enlisted men both lived in tents in the mud. 541 00:29:41.431 --> 00:29:44.434 Wise guy me said, "Where'’s the hotel?" 542 00:29:44.521 --> 00:29:46.349 And they said, "You'’re sleeping here." 543 00:29:46.436 --> 00:29:48.047 From Saipan, 544 00:29:48.134 --> 00:29:50.005 we had four flights in the squadron: 545 00:29:50.092 --> 00:29:52.007 A flight, B flight, C flight, D flight. 546 00:30:06.674 --> 00:30:09.329 It was the largest airplane to go into production 547 00:30:09.416 --> 00:30:11.070 during World War II. 548 00:30:11.157 --> 00:30:13.855 It was a beautiful airplane, flew beautifully. 549 00:30:13.942 --> 00:30:17.424 One problem, the engines, they overheated readily. 550 00:30:17.511 --> 00:30:19.295 We were losing a lot of them at sea. 551 00:30:19.382 --> 00:30:22.211 There were 20 crews in our squadron, 552 00:30:22.298 --> 00:30:25.736 and of each of the squadrons assembled on Saipan, 553 00:30:25.824 --> 00:30:29.001 I must say that half of those crews were lost 554 00:30:29.088 --> 00:30:31.481 during the time we were bombing Japan. 555 00:30:59.118 --> 00:31:02.686 It was horrifying because I don'’t think many of them were 556 00:31:02.773 --> 00:31:05.864 over five feet over the water when they took off. 557 00:31:05.951 --> 00:31:08.779 And it was hair-raising to them, I'’m sure. 558 00:31:31.411 --> 00:31:33.152 Why was Iwo Jima important? 559 00:31:33.239 --> 00:31:35.458 Because it was midway point 560 00:31:35.545 --> 00:31:38.244 from the Marianas to Tokyo. 561 00:31:38.331 --> 00:31:39.941 There were two things important 562 00:31:40.028 --> 00:31:41.160 about Iwo Jima. 563 00:31:41.247 --> 00:31:42.639 One, it was within range 564 00:31:42.726 --> 00:31:44.554 of Japan for fighter aircraft: 565 00:31:44.641 --> 00:31:47.993 P-47s and P-51s could reach Japan and come back. 566 00:31:48.080 --> 00:31:51.257 And it was an emergency landing strip for B-29s 567 00:31:51.344 --> 00:31:54.260 that carried 11 or 12 crew members. 568 00:31:54.347 --> 00:31:58.133 So it was a place of rescue for the B-29s. 569 00:31:58.220 --> 00:32:00.701 Hundred and fifty of us got shipped out at one time. 570 00:32:00.788 --> 00:32:04.096 And I'’ll never forget it, the first sergeant came out, 571 00:32:04.183 --> 00:32:07.621 was giving us a pep talk, 572 00:32:07.708 --> 00:32:10.537 and all of a sudden he stopped. 573 00:32:23.245 --> 00:32:27.771 He said: "You men are gonna make history." 574 00:32:27.858 --> 00:32:30.426 And history we did. 575 00:32:35.257 --> 00:32:36.606 During the battle, 576 00:32:36.693 --> 00:32:39.870 there was 36 planes landed there. 577 00:32:39.958 --> 00:32:43.874 The first one was on the 13th day. 578 00:32:43.962 --> 00:32:46.181 That left 23. 579 00:32:46.268 --> 00:32:47.835 It'’s almost two a day. 580 00:32:47.922 --> 00:32:50.142 And those 36 planes 581 00:32:50.229 --> 00:32:53.275 probably saved 360 lives 582 00:32:53.362 --> 00:32:56.626 because there'’s a minimum crew of ten. 583 00:32:56.713 --> 00:32:58.541 So they attacked Iwo Jima 584 00:32:58.628 --> 00:32:59.716 and finally got it. 585 00:32:59.803 --> 00:33:01.240 My wing of our squadron 586 00:33:01.327 --> 00:33:02.719 were assigned to Iwo 587 00:33:02.806 --> 00:33:06.071 and we flew rescue operations out of there. 588 00:33:06.158 --> 00:33:07.637 The island itself was 589 00:33:07.724 --> 00:33:10.249 about four, or four and a half miles long, 590 00:33:10.336 --> 00:33:12.207 and a mile and a half wide. 591 00:33:12.294 --> 00:33:15.428 And there was around 40,000 of us on the island. 592 00:33:15.515 --> 00:33:19.040 Life on Iwo Jima was miserable. 593 00:33:19.127 --> 00:33:20.520 We had no fresh water. 594 00:33:20.607 --> 00:33:22.870 They had a distiller ship out on the ocean 595 00:33:22.957 --> 00:33:24.959 and we drank distilled ocean water. 596 00:33:25.046 --> 00:33:28.484 That extremely fine volcanic ash was always in the air. 597 00:33:28.571 --> 00:33:30.965 Our only means of washing up: 598 00:33:31.052 --> 00:33:34.186 going into the ocean with your clothes on and all. 599 00:33:34.273 --> 00:33:36.579 Where our encampment was down 600 00:33:36.666 --> 00:33:38.407 right next to Suribachi. 601 00:33:38.494 --> 00:33:40.583 There was two crews to a tent. 602 00:33:40.670 --> 00:33:44.631 No floors; it was really kind of nomadic conditions. 603 00:33:44.718 --> 00:33:47.547 We spent six months living in the tents. 604 00:33:47.634 --> 00:33:49.679 Me and Holliday, the flight engineer, 605 00:33:49.766 --> 00:33:51.899 always slept in the plane, and Sam. 606 00:33:51.986 --> 00:33:54.815 Well, old Sam Zuck was a mechanic, he was a good one. 607 00:33:54.902 --> 00:33:56.643 So they assigned him to our plane. 608 00:33:56.730 --> 00:33:58.471 And so wherever we'’d land, 609 00:33:58.558 --> 00:34:00.908 Sam was always going around working on the plane. 610 00:34:00.995 --> 00:34:02.605 Me and Holliday had been up 611 00:34:02.692 --> 00:34:04.825 most of the night playing poker somewhere. 612 00:34:04.912 --> 00:34:06.522 And Sam, he'’d get up while me 613 00:34:06.609 --> 00:34:08.481 and the flight engineer was trying to sleep, 614 00:34:08.568 --> 00:34:10.309 and he'’d start working on the plane. 615 00:34:10.396 --> 00:34:12.746 And he'’d be hammering, and that plane is just like a drum. 616 00:34:12.833 --> 00:34:14.922 When you'’d beat on the side, it reverberates, 617 00:34:15.009 --> 00:34:17.011 and the flight engineer told Sam, he said, 618 00:34:17.098 --> 00:34:18.795 "Sam, why don'’t you knock that off? 619 00:34:18.882 --> 00:34:20.710 We can let that go to some other time." 620 00:34:20.797 --> 00:34:23.452 But old Sam wasn'’t that way. Sam was conscientious. 621 00:34:23.539 --> 00:34:25.628 And Holliday, he said, "Sam, damn it, 622 00:34:25.715 --> 00:34:28.762 I gave you a direct order to go back to bed." 623 00:34:28.849 --> 00:34:30.111 I couldn'’t stand it. I laughed. 624 00:34:41.079 --> 00:34:43.298 We got eight new B-17s 625 00:34:43.385 --> 00:34:45.866 and was on Iwo Jima till the war ended. 626 00:34:45.953 --> 00:34:49.043 I was a radio operator on Bulgin'’ Bessie. 627 00:34:49.130 --> 00:34:52.133 We would go on standby offshore 628 00:34:52.220 --> 00:34:54.657 so that if a crippled plane come back, 629 00:34:54.744 --> 00:34:57.182 we had the boat on the B-17. 630 00:34:57.269 --> 00:34:59.445 We could drop a boat or give assistance 631 00:34:59.532 --> 00:35:02.578 and call a submarine or a rescue ship in 632 00:35:02.665 --> 00:35:04.232 to assist them. 633 00:35:04.319 --> 00:35:05.842 A lot of airplanes have ditched 634 00:35:05.929 --> 00:35:07.540 because of mechanical problems. 635 00:35:07.627 --> 00:35:09.281 A lot of them made it too. 636 00:35:09.368 --> 00:35:13.023 Kind of luck plays a big part of that. 637 00:35:20.857 --> 00:35:25.427 My combat experiences began on March 7th, 1945, 638 00:35:25.514 --> 00:35:28.996 when our squadron landed P-51s on Iwo Jima. 639 00:35:29.083 --> 00:35:31.390 We knew that there were Dumbos, 640 00:35:31.477 --> 00:35:33.435 PBYs flown by the Army Air Corps, 641 00:35:33.522 --> 00:35:36.090 and the Navy, on the way to Japan. 642 00:35:36.177 --> 00:35:38.048 The next group were the destroyers 643 00:35:38.136 --> 00:35:39.702 on top of the ocean. 644 00:35:39.789 --> 00:35:41.748 And the next group were the submarines. 645 00:35:41.835 --> 00:35:43.967 And yes, we knew that they were out there. 646 00:35:44.054 --> 00:35:46.361 We had code words for them. We named them something. 647 00:35:46.448 --> 00:35:47.928 And we used them. 648 00:35:48.015 --> 00:35:50.235 My father was Hiram Cassedy. 649 00:35:50.322 --> 00:35:53.499 He was a submarine commander in the Pacific 650 00:35:53.586 --> 00:35:56.197 and he took command of the Tigrone. 651 00:35:56.284 --> 00:35:58.460 When the Tigrone was commissioned, 652 00:35:58.547 --> 00:36:00.506 Hiram was put in charge 653 00:36:00.593 --> 00:36:05.380 of the whole lifeguard rescue operation in the South Pacific. 654 00:36:05.467 --> 00:36:08.688 When the pilots were coming back from a mission, 655 00:36:08.775 --> 00:36:11.691 if they had been hit and couldn'’t get the planes 656 00:36:11.778 --> 00:36:14.563 back to base, then they would coordinate 657 00:36:14.650 --> 00:36:17.000 where they were going to ditch the plane, 658 00:36:17.087 --> 00:36:21.440 and the sub would come up as close as they could to them 659 00:36:21.527 --> 00:36:24.573 and then rescue the pilots and the crew. 660 00:36:24.660 --> 00:36:26.880 This work was very dangerous 661 00:36:26.967 --> 00:36:30.536 because they were operating in enemy waters. 662 00:36:30.623 --> 00:36:32.755 V Square 10 was the plane 663 00:36:32.842 --> 00:36:34.496 we flew overseas. 664 00:36:34.583 --> 00:36:38.587 And it'’s got a name: A-Broad with Eleven Yanks. 665 00:36:38.674 --> 00:36:42.330 You know, flying missions is kind of a harrowing experience. 666 00:36:42.417 --> 00:36:45.551 There'’s 1,500 to 1,700 miles 667 00:36:45.638 --> 00:36:48.641 between Saipan and the target area of Japan. 668 00:36:48.728 --> 00:36:51.731 And as far as we knew, there'’s nothing between us 669 00:36:51.818 --> 00:36:53.211 but open ocean. 670 00:36:53.298 --> 00:36:55.082 We were on our way to the target 671 00:36:55.169 --> 00:36:58.346 when the propeller ran away, ran at high-speed, 672 00:36:58.433 --> 00:37:00.479 and we were not able to control it. 673 00:37:00.566 --> 00:37:03.003 So we headed for the island of Agrihan. 674 00:37:03.090 --> 00:37:06.398 Just before we got there, fire broke out on the engine. 675 00:37:06.485 --> 00:37:08.574 And when fire broke out, we bailed out. 676 00:37:08.661 --> 00:37:11.620 We were at 3,000 feet at three o'’clock in the morning 677 00:37:11.707 --> 00:37:13.666 over the wide Pacific Ocean, 678 00:37:13.753 --> 00:37:16.408 but at least with an island visible to us. 679 00:37:16.495 --> 00:37:18.801 I'’m sure we were all hanging in our parachutes 680 00:37:18.888 --> 00:37:20.803 when the plane exploded 681 00:37:20.890 --> 00:37:23.458 and crashed into the island of Agrihan. 682 00:37:23.545 --> 00:37:26.983 Well after daylight, a PBY flying boat flew over. 683 00:37:27.070 --> 00:37:29.290 Little did I know that they had been alerted 684 00:37:29.377 --> 00:37:31.118 and they came to search for us. 685 00:37:31.205 --> 00:37:33.120 The B-29 scattered itself 686 00:37:33.207 --> 00:37:35.209 across about a third of the way up. 687 00:37:35.296 --> 00:37:37.211 We circled in close. 688 00:37:37.298 --> 00:37:40.606 I never once felt that we were all lost, 689 00:37:40.693 --> 00:37:44.740 but I was extremely thankful when I saw the PBY flying over. 690 00:37:44.827 --> 00:37:46.264 Twelve of us bailed out. 691 00:37:46.351 --> 00:37:49.963 Unfortunately, only 11 were picked up. 692 00:38:13.856 --> 00:38:17.164 So we got alongside of them, and two of my crewmen, 693 00:38:17.251 --> 00:38:19.253 they got a rope to the life raft 694 00:38:19.340 --> 00:38:21.908 and we were able to pull them up to the aircraft, 695 00:38:21.995 --> 00:38:24.345 and between all the men on the crew, 696 00:38:24.432 --> 00:38:26.391 we were able to get the three men in 697 00:38:26.478 --> 00:38:28.610 through the blister of the aircraft. 698 00:38:45.671 --> 00:38:47.237 My name is Doug West. 699 00:38:47.325 --> 00:38:48.891 I'’m the son of Clyde Allen West. 700 00:38:48.978 --> 00:38:51.111 He was a captain and pilot of the B-29 bomber 701 00:38:51.198 --> 00:38:52.591 called Dragon Lady. 702 00:38:52.678 --> 00:38:54.332 It was actually his final mission 703 00:38:54.419 --> 00:38:56.986 and he was flying Dragon Lady on a bombing mission over Japan. 704 00:38:57.073 --> 00:38:59.075 I'’m Steven Wilcoxon, and I'’m the son 705 00:38:59.162 --> 00:39:00.773 of Roderick Gale Wilcoxon. 706 00:39:00.860 --> 00:39:02.818 My dad was flying as co-pilot 707 00:39:02.905 --> 00:39:05.386 on the Dragon Lady when she went down. 708 00:39:05.473 --> 00:39:10.609 In 1945, General LeMay, of the 73rd Bomb Wing, 709 00:39:10.696 --> 00:39:12.611 and all of the 20th Air Force, 710 00:39:12.698 --> 00:39:15.701 decreed that incendiary raids should be carried out 711 00:39:15.788 --> 00:39:19.792 to successfully stop the production of war matériel. 712 00:39:19.879 --> 00:39:22.838 So incendiary bombing was carried out. 713 00:39:22.925 --> 00:39:25.754 It was not a small thing to prep 714 00:39:25.841 --> 00:39:28.278 one of those planes for a mission like that. 715 00:39:28.366 --> 00:39:31.456 It would start six to eight hours before the mission. 716 00:39:31.543 --> 00:39:33.849 And those missions were 15 to 18 hours long. 717 00:39:33.936 --> 00:39:35.895 That particular mission, that was the Yokahama raid. 718 00:39:35.982 --> 00:39:37.766 They were flying off of North Field Tinian. 719 00:39:37.853 --> 00:39:39.420 That was the same airfield 720 00:39:39.507 --> 00:39:42.118 that the Enola Gay in the 509th set up. 721 00:39:42.205 --> 00:39:44.338 On their way back, they encountered flak, 722 00:39:44.425 --> 00:39:46.253 and it damaged the plane. 723 00:39:46.340 --> 00:39:48.386 The shell that damaged them the most 724 00:39:48.473 --> 00:39:49.996 exploded right under the cockpit, 725 00:39:50.083 --> 00:39:52.172 and it started electrical fires in the airplane, 726 00:39:52.259 --> 00:39:54.392 and the airplane was also hit in other places. 727 00:39:54.479 --> 00:39:56.611 So, they were pretty badly limping. 728 00:39:56.698 --> 00:39:58.439 The plane was an electronic airplane, 729 00:39:58.526 --> 00:40:02.312 and it was dependent on the internal navigation, 730 00:40:02.400 --> 00:40:04.314 radar, and electronic controls, 731 00:40:04.402 --> 00:40:06.839 and if the electronic system went out, 732 00:40:06.926 --> 00:40:08.710 then you couldn'’t control the aircraft. 733 00:40:08.797 --> 00:40:10.625 They kept turning off the electrical system, 734 00:40:10.712 --> 00:40:12.975 and it was able to get the fire to stop, 735 00:40:13.062 --> 00:40:15.151 but then whenever they tried to turn it back on again, 736 00:40:15.238 --> 00:40:16.762 the fire started again. 737 00:40:16.849 --> 00:40:18.459 The tail gunner apparently 738 00:40:18.546 --> 00:40:20.418 burned alive because of the fire. 739 00:40:20.505 --> 00:40:21.897 -Wright! -Everybody else is trying 740 00:40:21.984 --> 00:40:23.551 to put the fires out. It'’s chaos. 741 00:40:23.638 --> 00:40:25.597 You have no situational awareness 742 00:40:25.684 --> 00:40:27.599 outside the aircraft and you don'’t know 743 00:40:27.686 --> 00:40:29.775 if you'’re going to be called on to parachute 744 00:40:29.862 --> 00:40:32.995 or whether or not the pilot is gonna put her down. 745 00:40:34.693 --> 00:40:38.218 So he decided to ditch the airplane. 746 00:40:38.305 --> 00:40:40.263 You can feel your stomach goes right up in your throat. 747 00:40:40.350 --> 00:40:42.744 I mean, you can feel the plane is going down like a stone. 748 00:40:42.831 --> 00:40:44.877 Descending at 3,000 feet per minute! 749 00:40:44.964 --> 00:40:47.532 That'’s a really rapid descent. 750 00:40:47.619 --> 00:40:49.403 It would be very close 751 00:40:49.490 --> 00:40:51.231 to feeling as if you'’re in free-fall. 752 00:40:51.318 --> 00:40:53.712 The noise and the vibration 753 00:40:53.799 --> 00:40:56.062 are just tremendous, they'’re absolutely deafening. 754 00:40:56.149 --> 00:40:58.456 And you feel this through your whole body. 755 00:40:58.543 --> 00:41:00.153 You want to put her down tail-first, 756 00:41:00.240 --> 00:41:01.459 smoothly hit the water, 757 00:41:01.546 --> 00:41:03.286 and you'’ve got to keep her level. 758 00:41:08.770 --> 00:41:10.119 When the plane crashed, 759 00:41:10.206 --> 00:41:11.860 several of the crewmen were swept out. 760 00:41:11.947 --> 00:41:14.254 Two were lost and never recovered. 761 00:41:14.341 --> 00:41:16.343 At that point, because the ship was sinking, 762 00:41:16.430 --> 00:41:18.301 they had to get on to their life rafts. 763 00:41:18.388 --> 00:41:20.521 They weren'’t able to radio anybody their location 764 00:41:20.608 --> 00:41:22.523 because the electrical equipment had been out. 765 00:41:22.610 --> 00:41:24.133 They could count on the fact that somebody 766 00:41:24.220 --> 00:41:25.613 was gonna be looking for them. 767 00:41:25.700 --> 00:41:27.789 They just didn'’t know how much information 768 00:41:27.876 --> 00:41:29.487 the rescuers would have about them 769 00:41:29.574 --> 00:41:31.663 because their communications had been cut off. 770 00:41:31.750 --> 00:41:34.535 So they were out there floating in the middle of the ocean 771 00:41:34.622 --> 00:41:36.581 probably thinking that this could be the end, 772 00:41:36.668 --> 00:41:38.844 that they didn'’t know whether they were going to be rescued, 773 00:41:38.931 --> 00:41:40.846 killed by a Japanese submarine 774 00:41:40.933 --> 00:41:43.196 or Zeros that may have seen them and come in. 775 00:41:43.283 --> 00:41:46.416 You'’re at zero elevation and everything is above you. 776 00:41:46.504 --> 00:41:49.158 You know, the Queen Mary could be a hundred yards away 777 00:41:49.245 --> 00:41:51.509 and if you weren'’t on the top of one of the swells, 778 00:41:51.596 --> 00:41:52.771 you'’d never see it. 779 00:41:52.858 --> 00:41:54.729 So, it was a scary thing 780 00:41:54.816 --> 00:41:57.558 because you just don'’t know how long you'’re gonna be. 781 00:41:59.560 --> 00:42:01.083 How'’s Weaver? 782 00:42:01.170 --> 00:42:03.085 We'’re out of morphine. 783 00:42:05.914 --> 00:42:09.178 She nosed over too quick, Cap. 784 00:42:09.265 --> 00:42:11.398 Couldn'’t get to the provisions. 785 00:42:13.618 --> 00:42:16.359 James, any food or water in that thing? 786 00:42:16.446 --> 00:42:17.839 Negative, Captain. 787 00:42:19.885 --> 00:42:22.235 How long do these rafts stay afloat? 788 00:42:22.322 --> 00:42:24.367 They'’ll hold for a good long while, Verdeschi. 789 00:42:24.454 --> 00:42:26.587 Don'’t you worry. We'’ll be on Tinian 790 00:42:26.674 --> 00:42:28.981 long before these rafts give way. 791 00:43:23.862 --> 00:43:25.254 Sam. 792 00:43:26.778 --> 00:43:28.562 Sam! 793 00:43:30.172 --> 00:43:31.260 Sam! 794 00:43:31.347 --> 00:43:33.480 Rise and shine, boys. 795 00:43:33.567 --> 00:43:35.917 Sam, why don'’t you knock that off 796 00:43:36.004 --> 00:43:38.485 till another time? 797 00:43:41.140 --> 00:43:43.098 You boys up all night playin'’ poker again? 798 00:43:43.185 --> 00:43:45.753 Samuel Zuck, I'’m giving you a direct order! 799 00:43:45.840 --> 00:43:48.103 Stop working! 800 00:43:50.802 --> 00:43:52.847 My cousin would never put up with this. 801 00:43:52.934 --> 00:43:55.589 You know, the last time you told that story, 802 00:43:55.676 --> 00:43:57.373 Doc Holliday was your uncle. 803 00:43:57.460 --> 00:43:59.898 Don'’t start with me, Chief. 804 00:43:59.985 --> 00:44:01.595 The operations officer, 805 00:44:01.682 --> 00:44:04.206 he got notice from whomever 806 00:44:04.293 --> 00:44:06.861 that this was down or that was down, 807 00:44:06.948 --> 00:44:09.995 and he'’s the one that came and notified us that, 808 00:44:10.082 --> 00:44:11.300 "You'’re on, go." 809 00:44:15.740 --> 00:44:17.393 Sam! Lieutenant'’s on his way! 810 00:44:17.480 --> 00:44:19.787 We'’re going up; emergency search and rescue. 811 00:44:21.397 --> 00:44:23.182 Can you put that back on? 812 00:44:26.054 --> 00:44:27.882 Zalkan: B-29 ditched. 813 00:44:27.969 --> 00:44:30.406 Last known position. Go ahead and plot us a course. 814 00:44:30.493 --> 00:44:31.886 They'’re in the water-- we'’re against the clock. 815 00:44:31.973 --> 00:44:33.671 Roger that. 816 00:44:33.758 --> 00:44:35.368 We gotta get those propsturned through. 817 00:44:35.455 --> 00:44:36.761 Sam! 818 00:44:48.990 --> 00:44:51.514 Zuck, you breaking my plane? 819 00:44:51.601 --> 00:44:52.951 No, sir. 820 00:44:53.038 --> 00:44:54.735 You still looking for a change of scenery? 821 00:44:54.822 --> 00:44:56.302 -Yes, sir. -When you'’re done there, 822 00:44:56.389 --> 00:44:57.477 come aboard. 823 00:44:57.564 --> 00:44:59.653 Yes, sir! 824 00:44:59.740 --> 00:45:01.220 Thank you, sir! 825 00:45:26.506 --> 00:45:28.160 Radio check, radio check. 826 00:45:28.247 --> 00:45:29.901 -Tower check. -Radio, copy. 827 00:45:29.988 --> 00:45:30.684 Navigator, check. 828 00:45:30.771 --> 00:45:32.294 Radar operator, copy. 829 00:45:33.774 --> 00:45:34.557 Doc, let'’s get this thing running. 830 00:45:34.644 --> 00:45:35.994 Start on engine number one. 831 00:45:36.081 --> 00:45:38.561 Engineer to pilot, copy, start on engine number one. 832 00:45:47.266 --> 00:45:48.920 Start on engine two. 833 00:45:49.007 --> 00:45:51.444 Engineer to pilot, copy, start on engine number two. 834 00:46:14.510 --> 00:46:16.295 Walnut, this is Dumbo number one 835 00:46:16.382 --> 00:46:17.600 requesting clearance for takeoff on Maple, 836 00:46:17.687 --> 00:46:19.385 emergency rescue, over. 837 00:46:19.472 --> 00:46:20.952 Copy, Dumbo. 838 00:46:21.039 --> 00:46:23.041 You are currently number one and cleared for takeoff, Maple. 839 00:46:23.128 --> 00:46:23.998 Over. 840 00:46:24.085 --> 00:46:25.217 Copy, tower. 841 00:46:29.003 --> 00:46:30.657 Pilot to crew, prepare for takeoff. 842 00:47:02.820 --> 00:47:03.951 Navigator to pilot, 843 00:47:04.038 --> 00:47:05.518 we'’ve reached their last known position, over. 844 00:47:05.605 --> 00:47:07.215 Pilot to navigator, copy. 845 00:47:07.302 --> 00:47:08.347 Very nice work, Zalkan. 846 00:47:08.434 --> 00:47:10.566 Over. 847 00:47:10.653 --> 00:47:13.265 We'’re going to do an expanded square search. 848 00:47:13.352 --> 00:47:14.440 They'’re out here somewhere. 849 00:47:14.527 --> 00:47:16.398 Lieutenant, we'’re well within fighter range. 850 00:47:16.485 --> 00:47:16.921 We'’re going to have to keep moving 851 00:47:17.008 --> 00:47:18.966 when we find them. 852 00:47:19.053 --> 00:47:20.446 If we find them. 853 00:47:20.533 --> 00:47:22.491 We'’re not leaving without them, Lieutenant. 854 00:47:22.578 --> 00:47:24.667 It'’s very difficult to find people 855 00:47:24.754 --> 00:47:26.626 in a small boat in the ocean. 856 00:47:26.713 --> 00:47:28.280 It'’s just a big ocean out there, 857 00:47:28.367 --> 00:47:30.238 and a lot of room, 858 00:47:30.325 --> 00:47:32.545 and if you make a pass going east to west 859 00:47:32.632 --> 00:47:34.547 and turn around and come back the other way, 860 00:47:34.634 --> 00:47:36.070 how close are you? 861 00:47:36.157 --> 00:47:40.292 Because you can'’t come back a mile off or two miles off. 862 00:47:40.379 --> 00:47:42.772 There were Japanese subs in the area, 863 00:47:42.860 --> 00:47:45.775 and the crew members that he was trying to rescue 864 00:47:45.863 --> 00:47:49.431 would not be surviving by nightfall. 865 00:47:53.131 --> 00:47:54.480 Cap? 866 00:47:54.567 --> 00:47:55.916 What is it, Sparks? 867 00:47:56.003 --> 00:47:59.398 Cap, you hear it? 868 00:47:59.485 --> 00:48:00.616 I think you'’re hearing things, Cody. 869 00:48:00.703 --> 00:48:02.183 No. 870 00:48:02.270 --> 00:48:04.533 No, I know that sound. 871 00:48:04.620 --> 00:48:08.450 It'’s a twin engine, synchronized. 872 00:48:08.537 --> 00:48:10.278 One of ours. 873 00:48:22.421 --> 00:48:24.075 Hey, that'’s not funny! 874 00:48:24.162 --> 00:48:24.858 You know, you should keep your mouth shut 875 00:48:24.945 --> 00:48:25.946 if you don'’t know what you'’re talking about. 876 00:48:26.033 --> 00:48:26.729 Why don'’t you shut the hell up, Tancreti? 877 00:48:26.816 --> 00:48:27.687 We lost Wright. 878 00:48:27.774 --> 00:48:29.732 We already lost two guys! 879 00:48:29.819 --> 00:48:31.778 And now you'’re hearing things? 880 00:48:31.865 --> 00:48:33.171 Come on! False hope is worse than no hope! 881 00:48:33.258 --> 00:48:35.390 Don'’t give people false hope! 882 00:49:00.938 --> 00:49:02.156 Engineer to pilot, I'’ve got eyes 883 00:49:02.243 --> 00:49:04.376 on nine Davy Jones in two Goodyears! 884 00:49:04.463 --> 00:49:06.378 Repeat: nine Davy Jones, two Goodyears. 885 00:49:06.465 --> 00:49:07.553 Copy, Doc. We'’ve seen them. 886 00:49:07.640 --> 00:49:08.858 Coming around for another pass. 887 00:49:08.946 --> 00:49:10.773 What is the condition of the crew? Over. 888 00:49:10.860 --> 00:49:12.514 One appears to be critical. 889 00:49:12.601 --> 00:49:13.951 The others, satisfactory. Over. 890 00:49:16.127 --> 00:49:17.519 How far out is that Navy Lifeguard sub? 891 00:49:17.606 --> 00:49:20.000 ETA to Playmate, three hours, at maximum speed. 892 00:49:26.485 --> 00:49:28.269 Pilot to crew, prepare for water landing. 893 00:49:28.356 --> 00:49:31.098 Floats down, floats down. 894 00:49:31.185 --> 00:49:33.666 Copy, floats down, floats down, over! 895 00:49:55.079 --> 00:49:56.558 He made an open sea landing, 896 00:49:56.645 --> 00:49:57.646 which was prohibited. 897 00:49:57.733 --> 00:49:59.126 It was just too dangerous. 898 00:49:59.213 --> 00:50:02.390 He thought of others before he thought of himself. 899 00:50:02.477 --> 00:50:04.218 We pulled up to the raft. 900 00:50:04.305 --> 00:50:06.177 He was afraid to kill the engine 901 00:50:06.264 --> 00:50:08.092 because we had to get out of there as quick as we could. 902 00:50:08.179 --> 00:50:11.356 And so the plane was always moving forward. 903 00:50:11.443 --> 00:50:13.880 The life raft was floating back under the plane. 904 00:50:13.967 --> 00:50:15.534 When we'’d come up, 905 00:50:15.621 --> 00:50:17.014 the tail of the plane would be way out of the water 906 00:50:17.101 --> 00:50:18.885 and then come down and slap. 907 00:50:18.972 --> 00:50:22.584 Well, it was beatin'’ those guys to death in the raft. 908 00:50:22.671 --> 00:50:25.848 And so I had to lean out as far as I could over the blister 909 00:50:25.935 --> 00:50:27.633 and pull the raft forward 910 00:50:27.720 --> 00:50:29.809 against the motion of the plane 911 00:50:29.896 --> 00:50:30.505 Start climbing. 912 00:50:30.592 --> 00:50:31.985 Right over! Hurry! 913 00:50:33.900 --> 00:50:35.423 Come on boys, go! 914 00:50:38.122 --> 00:50:38.992 Hold up! 915 00:50:39.079 --> 00:50:41.734 Take my hand! 916 00:50:48.219 --> 00:50:49.263 Keep an eye out. 917 00:50:49.350 --> 00:50:50.960 I'’m worried about Zeroes. 918 00:50:57.489 --> 00:50:58.925 Logan! 919 00:50:59.012 --> 00:51:00.535 Get those men on board! 920 00:51:00.622 --> 00:51:03.582 Double time, double time! 921 00:51:03.669 --> 00:51:05.366 -Watch his leg! -Go, boys, go! 922 00:51:23.993 --> 00:51:25.821 -Pull him in! -Got him! 923 00:51:28.215 --> 00:51:29.564 You'’re next! 924 00:51:29.651 --> 00:51:30.913 I can'’t leave him. 925 00:51:31.000 --> 00:51:33.481 We'’re not leaving anyone! Lets go! 926 00:51:33.568 --> 00:51:35.353 We'’re not leaving you. 927 00:51:35.440 --> 00:51:36.963 You hear me? 928 00:51:48.931 --> 00:51:51.369 Then we got down to the injured guy in the raft. 929 00:51:51.456 --> 00:51:53.327 You never saw such a pitiful look on a guy'’s face 930 00:51:53.414 --> 00:51:54.981 in your life. 931 00:51:55.068 --> 00:51:58.419 He thought we'’s gonna go off and leave him. 932 00:51:58.506 --> 00:51:59.681 What'’s your name, airman? 933 00:51:59.768 --> 00:52:02.249 Weaver. My name'’s Weaver. 934 00:52:02.336 --> 00:52:03.120 All right, Weaver. 935 00:52:03.207 --> 00:52:04.512 I'’m Logan. 936 00:52:04.599 --> 00:52:05.992 I need you to work with me for a minute. 937 00:52:06.079 --> 00:52:07.602 Can you do that for me, Weaver? 938 00:52:07.689 --> 00:52:09.082 I can'’t move. 939 00:52:09.169 --> 00:52:10.431 You have to leave me. 940 00:52:10.518 --> 00:52:11.693 We'’re not going to leaving you! 941 00:52:11.780 --> 00:52:12.912 Go! 942 00:52:12.999 --> 00:52:14.043 You listen to me! 943 00:52:14.131 --> 00:52:15.175 We are all going home! 944 00:52:15.262 --> 00:52:16.742 Do you understand me? 945 00:52:30.234 --> 00:52:31.365 Logan! 946 00:52:34.455 --> 00:52:36.762 Logan! 947 00:52:44.335 --> 00:52:47.555 -Hang on! -Watch his head! 948 00:55:25.539 --> 00:55:26.845 And in the meantime, 949 00:55:26.932 --> 00:55:28.890 the radioman had been very busy searching for help 950 00:55:28.977 --> 00:55:30.588 and he got in touch with a submarine, 951 00:55:30.675 --> 00:55:32.285 the U.S.S. Tigrone, 952 00:55:32.372 --> 00:55:33.721 and I think it took them an hour, 953 00:55:33.808 --> 00:55:35.332 or maybe a little more, 954 00:55:35.419 --> 00:55:37.769 to reach our destination, which they did. 955 00:56:25.947 --> 00:56:27.819 Scheuch. 956 00:56:27.906 --> 00:56:29.037 You go on now. 957 00:56:29.124 --> 00:56:31.083 I can'’t, I... I have to make sure 958 00:56:31.170 --> 00:56:32.911 -everyone gets-- -Walter. 959 00:56:32.998 --> 00:56:36.175 I outrank you, son. 960 00:56:36.262 --> 00:56:39.526 They'’re going to ask a lot of questions about today. 961 00:56:39.613 --> 00:56:41.354 You just tell '’em it was a direct order. 962 00:56:41.441 --> 00:56:42.921 That I stayed with the ship. 963 00:56:44.792 --> 00:56:46.315 You go on with our skipper now. 964 00:56:46.403 --> 00:56:49.623 Get him safely across. 965 00:56:49.710 --> 00:56:51.669 Put his head to the back. 966 00:57:05.987 --> 00:57:08.337 They transported the pilot 967 00:57:08.425 --> 00:57:11.123 from the plane to the sub in a sling of some kind. 968 00:57:15.040 --> 00:57:17.869 Then the front of the sub pulled up to the plane wing. 969 00:57:17.956 --> 00:57:19.131 The nose of the sub was, I want to say, 970 00:57:19.218 --> 00:57:21.829 about two or three feet beyond the end of the wing. 971 00:57:21.916 --> 00:57:23.265 To get on the sub, 972 00:57:23.352 --> 00:57:26.399 we all climbed out one of the windows of the plane 973 00:57:26.486 --> 00:57:28.488 and made our way out on the wing. 974 00:57:28.575 --> 00:57:32.274 As the swells came by, we'’d go up and down. 975 00:57:32.361 --> 00:57:34.059 One moment, the sub would be below us 976 00:57:34.146 --> 00:57:35.713 and the next moment, 977 00:57:35.800 --> 00:57:39.325 it'’d rise up above us and then back down. 978 00:57:39.412 --> 00:57:42.284 Well, we walked out on the end of the plane wing 979 00:57:42.371 --> 00:57:45.636 and when the sub would start coming up, we'’d jump on it. 980 00:57:45.723 --> 00:57:48.073 You had to time it just right. 981 00:57:48.160 --> 00:57:50.989 You'’d go up and come back down and the next guy'’d jump. 982 00:57:51.076 --> 00:57:54.383 All those men on the plane made that transfer safely 983 00:57:54.471 --> 00:57:57.125 with no incident whatsoever. 984 00:57:57.212 --> 00:57:59.127 They'’d already taken the wounded guy. 985 00:57:59.214 --> 00:58:00.346 Thank goodness we found out later 986 00:58:00.433 --> 00:58:02.261 he didn'’t have a broken back. 987 00:58:02.348 --> 00:58:04.176 Come to find out, he had a whole bunch of flesh 988 00:58:04.263 --> 00:58:06.831 gouged out of one thigh. 989 00:58:06.918 --> 00:58:11.009 They got him straightened around pretty well. 990 00:58:11.096 --> 00:58:13.490 Being as I had been taking care of Lieutenant Stratton, 991 00:58:13.577 --> 00:58:15.840 I was next to the last man off the plane. 992 00:58:15.927 --> 00:58:19.408 The last man was Captain Zalkan, our navigator. 993 00:58:19.496 --> 00:58:22.281 But we all made it safe and sound with no problems. 994 00:58:57.142 --> 00:58:59.274 We thought Stratton was as good a pilot as we could have. 995 00:58:59.361 --> 00:59:01.407 We thought he was as good a pilot as there was 996 00:59:01.494 --> 00:59:02.843 in the organization. 997 00:59:32.264 --> 00:59:33.091 They surfaced, 998 00:59:33.178 --> 00:59:35.354 it would have been a formal burial at sea. 999 00:59:35.441 --> 00:59:37.356 Captain Cassedy, the captain of the Tigrone, 1000 00:59:37.443 --> 00:59:39.967 he would read the burial service, 1001 00:59:40.054 --> 00:59:43.667 and then the body will be slid over the side of the ship, 1002 00:59:43.754 --> 00:59:45.494 with the crew at attention. 1003 00:59:45.582 --> 00:59:48.106 Hiram took things on the boat personally. 1004 00:59:48.193 --> 00:59:51.805 It was done with dignity, respect, and love. 1005 01:00:08.517 --> 01:00:09.736 That was a record. 1006 01:00:09.823 --> 01:00:12.304 That was the most pilots and aircrew rescued 1007 01:00:12.391 --> 01:00:14.262 by any lifeguard submarine. 1008 01:00:14.349 --> 01:00:17.048 The sub put them ashore on Iwo Jima on June the 1st. 1009 01:00:17.135 --> 01:00:20.051 And there'’s a picture of them on the deck of the Tigrone 1010 01:00:20.138 --> 01:00:21.879 when she pulled into Iwo Jima 1011 01:00:21.966 --> 01:00:24.185 and there was a famous radio transmission 1012 01:00:24.272 --> 01:00:27.754 that Cassedy had sent after he had left his lifeguard station 1013 01:00:27.841 --> 01:00:31.105 to Commander in Chief, submarines, and said, 1014 01:00:31.192 --> 01:00:34.152 "Tigrone has saved the Air Force and is returning to Iwo Jima 1015 01:00:34.239 --> 01:00:36.371 with 28 Zoomies." 1016 01:00:36.458 --> 01:00:38.330 We'’d come back from a mission one time 1017 01:00:38.417 --> 01:00:41.420 and there was a large group of people around a tent. 1018 01:00:41.507 --> 01:00:44.553 One of the survivors was telling us what had happened. 1019 01:00:44.641 --> 01:00:46.860 I got to talk to John Logan, 1020 01:00:46.947 --> 01:00:50.124 who was a member of that crew who witnessed 1021 01:00:50.211 --> 01:00:53.301 all that horrendous stuff. 1022 01:00:53.388 --> 01:00:54.651 No good. 1023 01:00:56.130 --> 01:00:58.089 No good. 1024 01:00:58.176 --> 01:01:03.094 We were transferred to Iwo Jima in May of 1945. 1025 01:01:03.181 --> 01:01:05.923 We learned that we were replacing a crew 1026 01:01:06.010 --> 01:01:08.577 that their service had been lost, 1027 01:01:08.665 --> 01:01:12.320 and this crew was headed by Lieutenant Royal Stratton 1028 01:01:12.407 --> 01:01:16.107 and was killed in that operation. 1029 01:01:16.194 --> 01:01:18.326 I wanted to get down to where the action was. 1030 01:01:18.413 --> 01:01:22.243 And I got the opportunity to volunteer as a co-pilot 1031 01:01:22.330 --> 01:01:24.463 in the 4th Emergency Rescue Squadron. 1032 01:01:24.550 --> 01:01:26.117 And I didn'’t want to be a co-pilot, 1033 01:01:26.204 --> 01:01:28.423 but that'’s the way it all worked out. 1034 01:01:28.510 --> 01:01:30.338 In the long view of things, 1035 01:01:30.425 --> 01:01:33.167 probably it was the best thing that ever happened to me! 1036 01:01:33.254 --> 01:01:36.257 So I was assigned to Captain Richardson'’s crew, 1037 01:01:36.344 --> 01:01:38.390 and that very hour, 1038 01:01:38.477 --> 01:01:40.827 I was on a plane headed for Iwo Jima. 1039 01:01:40.914 --> 01:01:44.483 I noticed that he had me sit in the pilot seat. 1040 01:01:44.570 --> 01:01:46.006 Well, I didn'’t realize it at the time, 1041 01:01:46.093 --> 01:01:48.574 but later, I found out the reason that I flew 1042 01:01:48.661 --> 01:01:50.358 in the pilot seat is because 1043 01:01:50.445 --> 01:01:51.925 when the prop comes off of that motor, 1044 01:01:52.012 --> 01:01:54.014 it comes and kills the pilot. 1045 01:01:54.101 --> 01:01:57.757 So, Bud and I became great friends later on after the war 1046 01:01:57.844 --> 01:02:01.456 and I never ceased to remind him of that fact. 1047 01:02:01.543 --> 01:02:03.415 And he always blushed up and said, 1048 01:02:03.502 --> 01:02:05.678 "Well, you were last in." 1049 01:02:09.551 --> 01:02:13.512 It was the 3rd of July, 1945. 1050 01:02:13.599 --> 01:02:16.733 I always remember it because I say I got my fireworks 1051 01:02:16.820 --> 01:02:18.996 a day early. 1052 01:02:19.083 --> 01:02:20.388 I'’ll never forget that day. 1053 01:02:20.475 --> 01:02:25.437 It was---it was, uh, it wasn'’t good at all. 1054 01:02:25.524 --> 01:02:26.830 I was a squadron leader 1055 01:02:26.917 --> 01:02:28.919 on a mission over Chichijima. 1056 01:02:29.006 --> 01:02:30.442 Richard Schroeppel, 1057 01:02:30.529 --> 01:02:31.965 Dick Schroeppel from Ridgewood, New Jersey, 1058 01:02:32.052 --> 01:02:34.098 was my wingman. 1059 01:02:34.185 --> 01:02:36.100 And I gave a waggle and we all strung out 1060 01:02:36.187 --> 01:02:37.841 in a string formation, 1061 01:02:37.928 --> 01:02:40.278 turned our airplanes over, and went down and dropped 1062 01:02:40.365 --> 01:02:44.021 500-pound bombs on the Japanese landing strip 1063 01:02:44.108 --> 01:02:45.805 on Chichijima. 1064 01:02:45.892 --> 01:02:47.720 And they were shooting at me first, 1065 01:02:47.807 --> 01:02:49.678 but they hit Dick Schroeppel. 1066 01:02:49.766 --> 01:02:52.856 And he got up and bailed out, got into a one-man life raft, 1067 01:02:52.943 --> 01:02:54.248 got out to sea a little bit. 1068 01:02:54.335 --> 01:02:56.076 We called for a Dumbo. 1069 01:02:56.163 --> 01:02:58.339 There was anti-aircraft on both sides 1070 01:02:58.426 --> 01:03:00.211 where you went in to this bay. 1071 01:03:00.298 --> 01:03:03.649 Well, he was down inside the bay in his little dinghy, 1072 01:03:03.736 --> 01:03:05.782 and we got the boat down to him, 1073 01:03:05.869 --> 01:03:09.524 and the Japanese were all firing at him 1074 01:03:09.611 --> 01:03:11.526 and firing at us. 1075 01:03:11.613 --> 01:03:13.093 We were called there, 1076 01:03:13.180 --> 01:03:14.703 but by the time we got there, 1077 01:03:14.791 --> 01:03:17.532 another B-17 had dropped his boat. 1078 01:03:17.619 --> 01:03:19.970 We could see flashes from the shore. 1079 01:03:20.057 --> 01:03:22.494 An Army PBY landed 1080 01:03:22.581 --> 01:03:24.409 with a flight surgeon in it. 1081 01:03:24.496 --> 01:03:26.193 Of course I was a co-pilot, 1082 01:03:26.280 --> 01:03:29.022 but that was the first time I'’d ever landed in a PBY. 1083 01:03:29.109 --> 01:03:31.024 I had no experience. 1084 01:03:31.111 --> 01:03:33.722 To tell you the truth, I thought we were sinking. 1085 01:03:33.810 --> 01:03:35.289 He saw the rescue boat 1086 01:03:35.376 --> 01:03:36.987 that was dropped by the B-17. 1087 01:03:37.074 --> 01:03:38.597 The only thing that I regret, 1088 01:03:38.684 --> 01:03:40.817 we didn'’t get the guy. 1089 01:03:40.904 --> 01:03:42.819 And that, of course, haunts me. 1090 01:03:42.906 --> 01:03:44.864 He had been killed, 1091 01:03:44.951 --> 01:03:47.475 and the squadron that replaced my squadron 1092 01:03:47.562 --> 01:03:49.608 were ordered to use rockets to sink 1093 01:03:49.695 --> 01:03:53.873 that rescue lifeboat with Dick Schroeppel'’s body in it 1094 01:03:53.960 --> 01:03:56.876 so that the commanding officer of Chichijima 1095 01:03:56.963 --> 01:03:59.052 wouldn'’t have another liver to eat, 1096 01:03:59.139 --> 01:04:03.100 of which he was accused of doing after the war. 1097 01:04:03.187 --> 01:04:04.753 It was a bad day. 1098 01:04:04.841 --> 01:04:08.757 We were just fortunate that we got out of there and back to Iwo 1099 01:04:08.845 --> 01:04:10.672 without any more problems. 1100 01:04:10.759 --> 01:04:12.718 We had some holes in the plane 1101 01:04:12.805 --> 01:04:15.721 but they didn'’t happen to hit anything vital 1102 01:04:15.808 --> 01:04:17.549 that knocked us down 1103 01:04:17.636 --> 01:04:21.335 or we'’d have been right down there with him. 1104 01:04:21.422 --> 01:04:23.424 July the 30th, 1945, 1105 01:04:23.511 --> 01:04:24.425 the ship was sunk. 1106 01:04:24.512 --> 01:04:27.733 I first went aboard in February 1942. 1107 01:04:27.820 --> 01:04:31.345 My name is Lyle Umenhoffer, I was Seaman First Class, 1108 01:04:31.432 --> 01:04:34.435 and I served aboard the U.S.S. Indianapolis. 1109 01:04:34.522 --> 01:04:36.785 My station was the last one on the back of the ship. 1110 01:04:36.873 --> 01:04:38.962 The eight-inch guns back aft, 1111 01:04:39.049 --> 01:04:40.877 that'’s where I went in to be a gunner'’s mate. 1112 01:04:40.964 --> 01:04:42.879 Well, they took us over to Hunter'’s Point. 1113 01:04:42.966 --> 01:04:45.316 This huge, big crate was sitting on the dock. 1114 01:04:45.403 --> 01:04:47.187 So we loaded it aboard ship 1115 01:04:47.274 --> 01:04:49.233 and put a Marine guard on the door. 1116 01:05:00.853 --> 01:05:03.247 Well, we had no idea what it was or anything like that. 1117 01:05:03.334 --> 01:05:05.292 MacArthur was over there for a while, 1118 01:05:05.379 --> 01:05:07.468 and they thought maybe it was a load of toilet paper 1119 01:05:07.555 --> 01:05:09.340 or something to take to MacArthur. 1120 01:05:09.427 --> 01:05:10.689 Even on Saipan, 1121 01:05:10.776 --> 01:05:13.648 we didn'’t know anything about the mission. 1122 01:05:13.735 --> 01:05:16.042 We went to Guam and we took on ammunition 1123 01:05:16.129 --> 01:05:17.957 and supplies and things. 1124 01:05:18.044 --> 01:05:20.786 We left out and the captain requested escort 1125 01:05:20.873 --> 01:05:22.657 and they turned him down, 1126 01:05:22.744 --> 01:05:25.051 so we were by ourselves out in the Philippine Sea. 1127 01:05:25.138 --> 01:05:25.965 And that evening, 1128 01:05:26.052 --> 01:05:28.663 I had just got off watch at 12:00. 1129 01:05:28.750 --> 01:05:31.884 When the first torpedo hit, it blew off our bow. 1130 01:05:31.971 --> 01:05:33.668 And then when the second torpedo hit, 1131 01:05:33.755 --> 01:05:35.757 it hit in our high-octane gasoline 1132 01:05:35.844 --> 01:05:38.238 in one of our powder rooms where we kept our powder 1133 01:05:38.325 --> 01:05:39.587 for our ammunition. 1134 01:05:39.674 --> 01:05:41.589 And it exploded and sent fire 1135 01:05:41.676 --> 01:05:42.764 all through the front of the ship. 1136 01:05:42.851 --> 01:05:46.159 It was about 12 minutes after midnight when we got hit 1137 01:05:46.246 --> 01:05:48.988 and I went in the water and I didn'’t see anybody 1138 01:05:49.075 --> 01:05:51.034 until about 6:00 the next morning. 1139 01:05:51.121 --> 01:05:53.253 There was thousands and thousands of sharks 1140 01:05:53.340 --> 01:05:55.342 just milling around, 1141 01:05:55.429 --> 01:05:56.953 and barracuda. 1142 01:05:57.040 --> 01:05:58.563 We could see '’em, and they were picking guys 1143 01:05:58.650 --> 01:06:00.304 that was off by themselves. 1144 01:06:00.391 --> 01:06:02.045 They were just taking them real quick. 1145 01:06:02.132 --> 01:06:03.742 There'’s no sound out there, 1146 01:06:03.829 --> 01:06:06.049 just a little, maybe, chopping of a wave, 1147 01:06:06.136 --> 01:06:07.441 or something like that. 1148 01:06:07.528 --> 01:06:10.836 But then of course, there was guys talking 1149 01:06:10.923 --> 01:06:13.491 and crying and praying-- 1150 01:06:13.578 --> 01:06:15.493 we were out there for five days. 1151 01:06:15.580 --> 01:06:18.278 So we just kept hanging on, saying, well, 1152 01:06:18.365 --> 01:06:20.541 maybe somebody will spot us. 1153 01:06:20.628 --> 01:06:22.587 No water, no food. 1154 01:06:22.674 --> 01:06:24.589 The Navy didn'’t report 1155 01:06:24.676 --> 01:06:27.200 theU.S.S. Indianapolis missing 1156 01:06:27.287 --> 01:06:29.681 until three days later. 1157 01:06:29.768 --> 01:06:30.987 The fourth day, 1158 01:06:31.074 --> 01:06:33.467 Wilbur Gwinn and his crew, based on Tinian, 1159 01:06:33.554 --> 01:06:36.079 they were out to spot submarines. 1160 01:06:36.166 --> 01:06:37.950 They had put an antenna on the back of the plane 1161 01:06:38.037 --> 01:06:39.082 and it broke off. 1162 01:06:39.169 --> 01:06:40.953 So they went back in and picked up another one 1163 01:06:41.040 --> 01:06:42.389 and came back out again. 1164 01:06:42.476 --> 01:06:43.521 It started acting up, 1165 01:06:43.608 --> 01:06:46.306 so Wilbur Gwinn, he went back aft and he said, 1166 01:06:46.393 --> 01:06:47.699 "Let me take a look at this." 1167 01:06:47.786 --> 01:06:49.483 They had the bomb bay doors open. 1168 01:06:49.570 --> 01:06:52.921 He looked down and he saw an oil slick, which was us. 1169 01:06:53.009 --> 01:06:55.402 And he spotted the heads bobbing up and down, 1170 01:06:55.489 --> 01:06:57.622 we were splashing and everything, 1171 01:06:57.709 --> 01:06:59.537 and he said, "There'’s men in the water." 1172 01:06:59.624 --> 01:07:01.539 So he radioed back in. 1173 01:07:01.626 --> 01:07:04.672 Lieutenant Adrian Marks, his crew was standing by, 1174 01:07:04.759 --> 01:07:07.719 so he and his crew jumped in the PBY 1175 01:07:07.806 --> 01:07:09.677 and flew in and he saw sharks, 1176 01:07:09.764 --> 01:07:11.723 so he made an open-sea landing. 1177 01:07:11.810 --> 01:07:13.638 And he bounced a couple of times, 1178 01:07:13.725 --> 01:07:15.509 popped holes in the plane, 1179 01:07:15.596 --> 01:07:18.817 and they plugged them up and started taxiing around 1180 01:07:18.904 --> 01:07:22.342 and started picking up survivors just one at a time. 1181 01:07:22.429 --> 01:07:24.431 We were on Peleliu, flight D. 1182 01:07:24.518 --> 01:07:27.434 As a flight leader, I was able to dispatch 1183 01:07:27.521 --> 01:07:29.393 all three of our airplanes. 1184 01:07:29.480 --> 01:07:32.657 Lieutenant Richard C. Alcorn went to the northwest, 1185 01:07:32.744 --> 01:07:34.615 my aircraft went west, 1186 01:07:34.702 --> 01:07:37.705 and Lieutenant Willy Emonds went to the southwest. 1187 01:07:37.792 --> 01:07:40.186 Lieutenant Alcorn found them. 1188 01:07:40.273 --> 01:07:42.841 He landed, and the survivors had been in the water 1189 01:07:42.928 --> 01:07:44.234 withoutrafts. 1190 01:07:44.321 --> 01:07:47.541 He threw them rafts full of water and canned food, 1191 01:07:47.628 --> 01:07:49.282 or rations, rather. 1192 01:07:49.369 --> 01:07:52.198 Some of them ended up in rubber rafts, floundering, 1193 01:07:52.285 --> 01:07:56.420 and I swam out and grabbed it and swam to our airplane. 1194 01:07:56.507 --> 01:07:59.727 The surface craft reached them a little bit just before dark. 1195 01:08:04.428 --> 01:08:06.560 I was picked up probably about 8:00 1196 01:08:06.647 --> 01:08:08.171 from the PBY, 1197 01:08:08.258 --> 01:08:10.303 and that'’s when they sent a boat overto pick us up 1198 01:08:10.390 --> 01:08:12.305 from the U.S.S. Cecil Doyle. 1199 01:08:35.633 --> 01:08:36.547 We didn'’t know anything 1200 01:08:36.634 --> 01:08:38.070 about the atomic bomb. 1201 01:08:38.157 --> 01:08:39.811 It was a well-kept secret. 1202 01:08:39.898 --> 01:08:41.552 We didn'’t even know what the mission was, 1203 01:08:41.639 --> 01:08:43.336 but they called a mission. 1204 01:08:43.423 --> 01:08:45.860 and we took off, 5:00 in the morning, 1205 01:08:45.947 --> 01:08:47.775 and we had number one station, 1206 01:08:47.862 --> 01:08:49.995 which is right off the coast of Japan. 1207 01:08:50.082 --> 01:08:51.170 It was a beautiful day. 1208 01:08:51.257 --> 01:08:54.347 It was clear blue sky, maybe a cloud here and there 1209 01:08:54.434 --> 01:08:55.348 once in a while. 1210 01:08:55.435 --> 01:08:57.785 Smooth sailing, and we was going along there, 1211 01:08:57.872 --> 01:08:59.700 and all of a sudden, George, 1212 01:08:59.787 --> 01:09:02.181 radio operator that sat across from me, 1213 01:09:02.268 --> 01:09:05.315 he looked out the window and he see this cloud coming up 1214 01:09:05.402 --> 01:09:08.405 And he said, "What the hell was that?" 1215 01:09:08.492 --> 01:09:11.538 And I stood up and looked out the top hatch, 1216 01:09:11.625 --> 01:09:14.324 and you could see this flower getting bigger and bigger 1217 01:09:14.411 --> 01:09:15.238 and bigger. 1218 01:09:15.325 --> 01:09:16.848 We didn'’t see the flash 1219 01:09:16.935 --> 01:09:19.242 '’cause I don'’t think we were that close. 1220 01:09:19.329 --> 01:09:23.985 I do recall we felt the shock of it blowing out. 1221 01:09:24.072 --> 01:09:25.291 It just come over the radio 1222 01:09:25.378 --> 01:09:27.206 a short time later 1223 01:09:27.293 --> 01:09:30.427 that it was what they called the atomic bomb. 1224 01:09:30.514 --> 01:09:34.561 It was horrendous. 1225 01:09:34.648 --> 01:09:36.172 We didn'’t know at the time 1226 01:09:36.259 --> 01:09:40.828 how many thousands of people it had killed, but... 1227 01:09:40.915 --> 01:09:44.441 it was just something I was not very proud of. 1228 01:10:44.544 --> 01:10:46.459 On August 15th, 1229 01:10:46.546 --> 01:10:48.331 at about 10:00 in the morning, 1230 01:10:48.418 --> 01:10:51.856 we got the notice that the Japanese had surrendered. 1231 01:10:51.943 --> 01:10:54.380 I have received this afternoon 1232 01:10:54.467 --> 01:10:57.122 a message from the Japanese government 1233 01:10:57.209 --> 01:10:59.951 in reply to the message forwarded to that government 1234 01:11:00.038 --> 01:11:03.607 by the Secretary of State on August 11th. 1235 01:11:03.694 --> 01:11:06.349 I deem this reply a full acceptance 1236 01:11:06.436 --> 01:11:09.177 of the Potsdam Declaration, 1237 01:11:09.265 --> 01:11:11.963 which specifies the unconditional surrender 1238 01:11:12.050 --> 01:11:13.225 of Japan. 1239 01:11:47.694 --> 01:11:50.480 He got to about maybe 50 yards. 1240 01:11:50.567 --> 01:11:54.135 I could see the pilot as clearly as I'’m looking at you. 1241 01:11:54.222 --> 01:11:57.356 I thought sure that this was the end of my life. 1242 01:11:57.443 --> 01:11:59.053 Just at that point, 1243 01:11:59.140 --> 01:12:01.317 one of the shells from the destroyer 1244 01:12:01.404 --> 01:12:04.581 must have hit the bomb this kamikaze was flying with, 1245 01:12:04.668 --> 01:12:07.235 it just blew up in a huge ball of flame. 1246 01:12:07.323 --> 01:12:09.412 I didn'’t even see the wreckage. 1247 01:12:09.499 --> 01:12:13.024 That was my most frightening experience. 1248 01:12:13.111 --> 01:12:15.896 More so than landing in Tokyo Bay. 1249 01:12:15.983 --> 01:12:17.637 I was up at Japan 1250 01:12:17.724 --> 01:12:19.552 when Admiral Halsey came on and said 1251 01:12:19.639 --> 01:12:21.815 for all pilots to return to base, 1252 01:12:21.902 --> 01:12:23.339 that the war was over 1253 01:12:23.426 --> 01:12:24.992 and the Japanese had surrendered. 1254 01:12:25.079 --> 01:12:27.255 And then, one of the worst six hours 1255 01:12:27.343 --> 01:12:29.127 of my life of flying. 1256 01:12:29.214 --> 01:12:31.347 My father had taken me to see the movie 1257 01:12:31.434 --> 01:12:34.001 All Quiet on the Western Front, 1258 01:12:34.088 --> 01:12:37.135 where the guy gets plugged the last day of the war. 1259 01:12:37.222 --> 01:12:39.224 And I thought, oh shit, 1260 01:12:39.311 --> 01:12:40.356 this is going to happen, 1261 01:12:40.443 --> 01:12:41.357 we'’re going to get lost, 1262 01:12:41.444 --> 01:12:43.184 something bad is gonna happen. 1263 01:12:43.271 --> 01:12:46.057 And that'’s the way I thought all the way back to Iwo. 1264 01:12:46.144 --> 01:12:47.450 Near the end of the war, 1265 01:12:47.537 --> 01:12:52.280 we lost one aircraft with seven guys. 1266 01:12:52.368 --> 01:12:54.021 Shot down. 1267 01:12:54.108 --> 01:12:56.633 It hit us pretty bad. 1268 01:12:56.720 --> 01:13:00.811 Particularly when just hours away from the end of the war. 1269 01:13:00.898 --> 01:13:04.249 The last plane shot down in World War II was a PBY, 1270 01:13:04.336 --> 01:13:07.992 4th Emergency Rescue Squadron in Tokyo Bay. 1271 01:13:14.085 --> 01:13:16.957 We got a mission to fly a courier 1272 01:13:17.044 --> 01:13:18.829 to the battleship Missouri. 1273 01:13:18.916 --> 01:13:22.963 The courier was carrying the surrender documents. 1274 01:13:23.050 --> 01:13:25.662 I was co-pilot on that flight. 1275 01:13:25.749 --> 01:13:27.925 Charles Oates was the pilot. 1276 01:13:28.012 --> 01:13:30.884 The courier and I decided to play cribbage 1277 01:13:30.971 --> 01:13:32.103 on the way. 1278 01:13:32.190 --> 01:13:35.106 I could see the outline of the document binders 1279 01:13:35.193 --> 01:13:37.151 in his mailbag. 1280 01:13:37.238 --> 01:13:40.720 The courier wouldn'’t let go of that bag the entire flight, 1281 01:13:40.807 --> 01:13:44.115 obviously for good reason. 1282 01:13:44.202 --> 01:13:47.248 We are gathered here, 1283 01:13:47.335 --> 01:13:53.211 representatives of the major warring powers, 1284 01:13:53.298 --> 01:13:57.563 to conclude a solemn agreement 1285 01:13:57.650 --> 01:14:01.828 whereby peace may be restored. 1286 01:14:01.915 --> 01:14:09.314 The issues involving divergent ideals and ideologies 1287 01:14:09.401 --> 01:14:14.450 have been determined on the battlefields of the world. 1288 01:15:03.063 --> 01:15:06.110 I announce it my firm purpose, 1289 01:15:06.197 --> 01:15:09.766 in the tradition of the countries I represent, 1290 01:15:09.853 --> 01:15:13.509 to proceed in the discharge of my responsibilities, 1291 01:15:13.596 --> 01:15:15.685 with justice and tolerance, 1292 01:15:15.772 --> 01:15:19.340 while taking all necessary dispositions 1293 01:15:19.427 --> 01:15:23.083 to ensure that the terms of surrender 1294 01:15:23.170 --> 01:15:28.132 are fully, promptly, and faithfully complied with. 1295 01:15:30.134 --> 01:15:31.178 We didn'’t dream 1296 01:15:31.265 --> 01:15:33.093 of anybody getting killed. 1297 01:15:33.180 --> 01:15:35.182 We were friends. 1298 01:15:35.269 --> 01:15:37.358 When you lose a friend, 1299 01:15:37.445 --> 01:15:40.361 you lose a part of yourself. 1300 01:15:40.448 --> 01:15:44.278 We had built a theater on Saipan 1301 01:15:44.365 --> 01:15:46.324 where we could watch movies at night 1302 01:15:46.411 --> 01:15:49.109 and named it the Stratton Memorial Theater, 1303 01:15:49.196 --> 01:15:52.025 which proved what the gentlemen of the squadron 1304 01:15:52.112 --> 01:15:54.811 felt about Royal. 1305 01:15:54.898 --> 01:15:55.942 Unfortunately, he lost his life 1306 01:15:56.029 --> 01:15:58.249 But it'’s because of that that I'’m here today, 1307 01:15:58.336 --> 01:15:59.946 my family is here, 1308 01:16:00.033 --> 01:16:01.121 several generations of family are here 1309 01:16:01.208 --> 01:16:03.602 because of the efforts of Stratton and his crew. 1310 01:16:03.689 --> 01:16:05.343 So, words escape me 1311 01:16:05.430 --> 01:16:07.867 as to the gratitude I have for the gentleman. 1312 01:16:07.954 --> 01:16:11.349 Understanding that dynamic of the young soldier, 1313 01:16:11.436 --> 01:16:14.570 the hero is born just from circumstance. 1314 01:16:14.657 --> 01:16:16.876 He'’s pushed into a circumstance. 1315 01:16:16.963 --> 01:16:19.836 It'’s the decision he makes at that moment 1316 01:16:19.923 --> 01:16:21.533 that makes him the hero. 1317 01:16:21.620 --> 01:16:24.492 And some of them don'’t survive those decisions. 1318 01:16:24.580 --> 01:16:25.624 I'’m here. 1319 01:16:25.711 --> 01:16:27.539 I was born in '’52. 1320 01:16:27.626 --> 01:16:30.281 I was born way after this event, 1321 01:16:30.368 --> 01:16:32.109 so I'’m lucky to be here, 1322 01:16:32.196 --> 01:16:34.502 and I'’m lucky that the legacy goes on 1323 01:16:34.590 --> 01:16:37.331 and that these things are documented and we remember. 1324 01:16:37.418 --> 01:16:39.420 You know, when somebody is taken away from you so young, 1325 01:16:39.507 --> 01:16:42.467 that'’s the way you remember them forever. 1326 01:16:42.554 --> 01:16:44.208 You don'’t see '’em getting old and cranky 1327 01:16:44.295 --> 01:16:46.819 and losing their hair. 1328 01:16:46.906 --> 01:16:50.823 You know, he was always 22 in her mind. 1329 01:16:50.910 --> 01:16:55.698 It'’s hard to imagine the reverberations of, 1330 01:16:55.785 --> 01:16:57.830 of somebody, you know, 1331 01:16:57.917 --> 01:17:00.441 a very beloved family member, a community member, 1332 01:17:00.528 --> 01:17:04.097 a friend that is not here anymore. 1333 01:17:04.184 --> 01:17:08.493 My son was killed in Iraq in April of 2004. 1334 01:17:08.580 --> 01:17:11.191 The Cindy Sheehan that existed on April 3rd 1335 01:17:11.278 --> 01:17:13.803 didn'’t exist on April 4th. 1336 01:17:13.890 --> 01:17:15.674 It was a totally different person. 1337 01:17:15.761 --> 01:17:17.807 We got the knock on the door, 1338 01:17:17.894 --> 01:17:21.071 and the Army came to tell us that Casey was killed. 1339 01:17:21.158 --> 01:17:24.683 I fell on the floor screaming for I don'’t know how long, 1340 01:17:24.770 --> 01:17:27.251 until my head hurt, until my heart hurt, 1341 01:17:27.338 --> 01:17:28.861 and when I got up, I was a different person. 1342 01:17:28.948 --> 01:17:30.733 How could I not be? 1343 01:17:30.820 --> 01:17:32.604 I'’m sorry. 1344 01:17:34.824 --> 01:17:38.915 One of my limbs was amputated. 1345 01:17:39.002 --> 01:17:43.789 What is hard is to see how my mom reacted. 1346 01:17:43.876 --> 01:17:47.227 She never got over the death of my dad, ever. 1347 01:17:47.314 --> 01:17:49.229 You'’d mention his name and she'’d start crying, 1348 01:17:49.316 --> 01:17:50.535 so it was something 1349 01:17:50.622 --> 01:17:53.103 that I never really wanted to get to, 1350 01:17:53.190 --> 01:17:56.889 because it just tore her up too much. 1351 01:17:56.976 --> 01:17:59.892 She loved him till the day she died. 1352 01:17:59.979 --> 01:18:03.026 I like that old saying thatsays 1353 01:18:03.113 --> 01:18:06.116 a person never dies until the last person 1354 01:18:06.203 --> 01:18:08.248 that remembers that person dies. 1355 01:18:08.335 --> 01:18:10.468 So I don'’t think Casey'’s ever gonna die. 1356 01:18:10.555 --> 01:18:14.951 His story and our story is written up in history books 1357 01:18:15.038 --> 01:18:17.693 and has made that-- 1358 01:18:17.780 --> 01:18:21.044 that Casey is actually immortal. 1359 01:18:23.568 --> 01:18:26.963 It'’s Congress'’s responsibility 1360 01:18:27.050 --> 01:18:29.182 and our honor to call attention to those 1361 01:18:29.269 --> 01:18:32.969 who have given meritorious service to our country. 1362 01:18:33.056 --> 01:18:36.407 And certainly, the Congress recognize the importance 1363 01:18:36.494 --> 01:18:39.758 of those who have served in World War II. 1364 01:18:39.845 --> 01:18:42.239 We'’ve honored them with a special memorial, 1365 01:18:42.326 --> 01:18:45.068 and we know that those who served 1366 01:18:45.155 --> 01:18:47.244 are in some ways, 1367 01:18:47.331 --> 01:18:49.115 many of them are starting to answer 1368 01:18:49.202 --> 01:18:51.814 their last call of duty, 1369 01:18:51.901 --> 01:18:54.642 and we want to take every opportunity 1370 01:18:54.730 --> 01:18:56.166 to be able to come forward 1371 01:18:56.253 --> 01:18:58.516 for those individuals who have served 1372 01:18:58.603 --> 01:19:00.387 and pay them special recognition. 1373 01:19:00.474 --> 01:19:03.695 We rise in honor of World War II rescue pilot 1374 01:19:03.782 --> 01:19:06.002 1st Lieutenant Royal Stratton, 1375 01:19:06.089 --> 01:19:08.700 who died May 29th, 1945, 1376 01:19:08.787 --> 01:19:11.659 after being mortally wounded while saving nine crew members 1377 01:19:11.747 --> 01:19:13.966 from a downed B-29. 1378 01:19:14.053 --> 01:19:16.664 Royal hailed from Ellwood City, Pennsylvania. 1379 01:19:16.752 --> 01:19:18.536 His love of flying led to his enlistment 1380 01:19:18.623 --> 01:19:20.277 in the Army Air Corps, 1381 01:19:20.364 --> 01:19:22.670 where he excelled to become one of the few pilots 1382 01:19:22.758 --> 01:19:24.585 to wear both Army and Navy wings. 1383 01:19:24.672 --> 01:19:27.545 Royal joined the 4th Emergency Rescue Squadron. 1384 01:19:27.632 --> 01:19:29.242 With his crew of six, 1385 01:19:29.329 --> 01:19:31.462 he'’d fly off Iwo Jima and police flight paths 1386 01:19:31.549 --> 01:19:34.682 searching for B-29 bombers in jeopardy. 1387 01:19:34.770 --> 01:19:36.293 Generations have passed 1388 01:19:36.380 --> 01:19:39.426 since the members of the 4th Emergency Rescue Squadron 1389 01:19:39.513 --> 01:19:41.951 set foot on these shores. 1390 01:19:44.867 --> 01:19:46.738 It doesn'’t seem that long ago that they started out 1391 01:19:46.825 --> 01:19:49.001 on their journey 1392 01:19:49.088 --> 01:19:54.441 and faced an entire world at war. 1393 01:19:54.528 --> 01:19:57.793 This remote island of Iwo Jima is the last place on earth 1394 01:19:57.880 --> 01:20:02.319 a pilot from Pennsylvania, and many others, would set foot 1395 01:20:02.406 --> 01:20:03.929 and it'’s this hallowed ground 1396 01:20:04.016 --> 01:20:06.932 I'’ve chosen as the last stop on my journey as well. 1397 01:20:12.677 --> 01:20:14.679 Here, atop Mount Suribachi, 1398 01:20:14.766 --> 01:20:18.074 I'’m alone with the memory of those brave individuals 1399 01:20:18.161 --> 01:20:21.207 who forever set aside everything they could have been 1400 01:20:21.294 --> 01:20:23.644 in the name of freedom, 1401 01:20:23.731 --> 01:20:25.951 and they changed the world. 1402 01:20:33.611 --> 01:20:38.007 Many of us didn'’t know my great uncle, just a name: 1403 01:20:38.094 --> 01:20:41.445 Royal A. Stratton. 1404 01:20:41.532 --> 01:20:44.491 He was one among millions. 1405 01:20:44.578 --> 01:20:46.058 But he was ours. 1406 01:20:48.713 --> 01:20:50.846 I think back fondly about all the roads I'’ve taken 1407 01:20:50.933 --> 01:20:55.415 on this long journey reaching back through time. 1408 01:20:55.502 --> 01:20:59.376 But in all my travels, I'’ve found none so cherished 1409 01:20:59.463 --> 01:21:01.421 as the road that leads us home. 1410 01:21:01.508 --> 01:21:04.033 Floats up. 1411 01:21:04.120 --> 01:21:05.512 We'’re going home. 1412 01:21:33.062 --> 01:21:36.065 look back to you 1413 01:21:39.764 --> 01:21:41.766 we see the light 1414 01:21:41.853 --> 01:21:45.248 dispels the night 1415 01:21:56.912 --> 01:22:03.962 in truth and love 1416 01:22:06.399 --> 01:22:10.795 we are one family 1417 01:22:10.882 --> 01:22:15.017 we are one tribe united 1418 01:22:19.804 --> 01:22:23.503 my greatest joy 1419 01:22:23.590 --> 01:22:28.813 we are one family 1420 01:22:36.821 --> 01:22:38.649 It'’s been a good life that we'’ve had. 1421 01:22:38.736 --> 01:22:40.999 We'’ve had positive experiences, 1422 01:22:41.086 --> 01:22:43.219 we'’ve had a positive attitude. 1423 01:22:43.306 --> 01:22:44.655 What legacy do we want to leave behind, 1424 01:22:44.742 --> 01:22:45.873 you know? 1425 01:22:45.961 --> 01:22:48.572 We want to leave a legacy of peace and harmony 1426 01:22:48.659 --> 01:22:50.313 all over the world. 1427 01:22:50.400 --> 01:22:52.880 I just wanted to do my part. 1428 01:22:52.968 --> 01:22:56.362 I tried my best to do everything they asked of me, 1429 01:22:56.449 --> 01:22:59.452 and, uh, I got through. 1430 01:22:59.539 --> 01:23:01.106 We were out there to save lives 1431 01:23:01.193 --> 01:23:03.456 rather than to take lives. 1432 01:23:03.543 --> 01:23:05.458 Feels great knowing that we were 1433 01:23:05.545 --> 01:23:09.767 part of a group trying to rescue survivors. 1434 01:23:09.854 --> 01:23:12.335 You can'’t imagine the feeling that you have inside, 1435 01:23:12.422 --> 01:23:15.816 that you and these men saved those lives. 1436 01:23:15.903 --> 01:23:18.123 Everyone took pride in what they did 1437 01:23:18.210 --> 01:23:20.560 and it'’s a real happy feeling. 1438 01:23:25.174 --> 01:23:27.393 I'’ve had a terrific life. 1439 01:23:27.480 --> 01:23:30.570 I wouldn'’t trade anybody for mine. 1440 01:23:30.657 --> 01:23:33.138 Well, you don'’t salute without your hat.