Lindbergh saved my life

Air Classics, Dec 2000 by Tremblay, E Gerald

A US MARINE RECALLS, WITH GRATITUDE, THE INSIGHTS HE GAINED FROM A FAMOUS AMERICAN AVIATOR

In 3 July 1943, I received my wings as a Naval Aviator in Corpus Christi, Texas, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve. I immediately went to operational training near Melbourne, Florida. Here, I learned to fly and fight of the Grumman F4F Wildcat which, at the beginning of the war, was the Navy's hottest fighter. I found it to be rather slow and cumbersome compared to the enemy fighters such as the Zero, Bf 109, and FW 190 which we were studying as part of our training.

I was very happy when I received orders in November 1943 to report to Marine Corps Air Station El Toro to check out in the new high-performance F4U Corsair. After acquiring 50 hours in this wonderful plane and completing a refresher course in instrument flying, I and eleven other F4U pilots - all from the Marine Reserves - received overseas orders. We appropriately named ourselves the I Dirty Dozen. We climbed aboard the USS Yarmouth, which had never sailed in the Pacific, and steamed toward our destination in the company of two destroyers, a repair ship, and a light aircraft carrier loaded with warplanes. We stopped in Hawaii where we practiced field carrier landings. After a few days, we again boarded Yarmouth and, escorted by our two destroyers and the small carrier, proceeded at about 15 knots to Funafuti Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. When we arrived, the twelve brand-spanking-new F4Us were offloaded from the carder by crane. The aircraft had been pickled to preserve them for the long on-deck voyage. With the help of MSgt. Magnuson and Lt. Col. Kirby, both excellent regular Marines, we degunked the preservative from the planes, installed and adjusted the brakes, installed and boresighted the six .50-caliber machine guns in each plane, swung the compasses, and test flew the planes to make

sure they were in tip-top battle condition.

On 19 March 1944, we took off from Funafuti and flew over unbroken water, sometimes having to detour around huge cumulonimbus clouds to Nanomea and Makin Islands where we refueled bodies and planes. The next day we resumed our flight Kwajalein Atoll, a total distance of 1450 miles. The 3000-foot landing strip on Rol Namur looked very small as we approached at 8000 feet. All twelve Corsairs landed safely early in the afternoon.

I was immediately assigned to replace a VMF-441 squadron pilot who had been recently killed on a combat mission. We were attached to Marine Aircraft Group 31 (MAG-31) of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, which then consisted in part of two SBD Dauntless dive-bomber squadrons and two Corsair squadrons, VMF-441 and VMF-311. John H. Glenn, the now famous astronaut and US Senator, was a pilot in VMF-311.

Our F4Us were a mixture of old and new. The newer models were being developed by MAG-31 on Roi as fighter-bombers capable of carrying, in addition to 2400 rounds of .50 ammunition, bombs, rockets, and napalm. One hundred and eightygallon droppable fuel tanks were being converted into napalm bombs. The F4U could carry three of these terrifying bombs, which could each spread a path of fire 100 feet wide and 300 feet long. Special bomb and rocket racks for the F4U were also under development.

In September 1944, after I had flown more than 25 missions in the central Pacific, I learned that Charles Augustus Lindbergh was coming to Roi to develop the F4U into a fighter-bomber and to instruct us how to be more skillful pilots. Everyone was thrilled at the thought of the Lone Eagle coming to fly with us and to talk about piloting and fighting our planes.

In May 1927, Lindbergh became an instant international hero by being the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean nonstop from New York to Paris in the Ryan Spirit of St. Louis, which he had helped to design. When he returned to the United States, he was honored by his country with a Park Avenue ticker-tape parade in the company of President Calvin Coolidge.

Because of his proGerman sentiments expressed publicly before the war, Lindbergh, who was then a colonel on inactive status in the Army Air Corps, was denied active duty. He became quite frustrated because he felt he could contribute materially to the development of our rapidly growing military air force. In desperation, he took the position as civilian consultant to several aircraft companies, including Chance Vought.

Form the time I joined VMF-441, it had been our mission to keep the Japanese military facilities, especially the airports and naval facilities, on the bypassed islands of Jaluit (see Amelia Earhart article in this issue), Wotje, Mille, and Maleolap out of commission by frequent bombing and strafing. The US Navy had bypassed these heavily fortified islands, leaving behind several thousand stranded Japanese military personnel.

Until Lindbergh arrived, we carried external fuel tanks on our missions which prohibited us from carrying more than 2000 pounds of bombs on our Corsairs. Lindbergh taught us that by using different power settings from those we had been using, we could fly much farther and use less fuel. One day in September 1944, he took off from Roi with 4000 pounds of bombs and only the 380-gallon main fuel tank. He flew the mission to Wotje, a round trip of 360 nautical miles, and landed with a comfortable reserve of fuel. This was the heaviest bomb load the F4U had ever carried. Later, because of his instructions, several of us were able to conserve fuel in the same way.