Walsh of the corps

Air Classics, Jan 2003

KEN WALSH EXEMPLIFIED THE FIGHTING SPIRIT OF MARINE PILOTS TAKING THE CORSAIR INTO COMBAT

Lieutenant Ken Walsh had gone on, after his ignominious water landing mentioned in the main text, to become one of the leading pilots of VMF-124 and also its first ace which meant, of course, that he was the first Corsair ace. Walsh had enlisted as a recruit with the Marines during 1933. By hard work and by display of his considerable abilities, Walsh managed to work his way up through a number of different Marine positions. Before being accepted for pilot training during March 1936, Walsh was a radio man and aviation mechanic.

Reporting for flying training at NAS Pensacola, Florida, Ken Walsh would finally find what he wanted from the Corps. After gaining his wings, the pilot was assigned to fly observation aircraft and for four years he flew from Wasp, Yorktown, and Ranger. During that time he was an enlisted pilot - a rank that has now disappeared from the USMC. At the time of Pearl Harbor, the pilot was flying fighters with VMF-122 but when he was transferred to the new VMF-124, he was given the rank of second lieutenant.

Once in the combat area, Walsh and his squadron mates began taking their Corsairs on mission after mission against the enemy. On 1 April 1943, the squadron attacked a large force of enemy fighters and bombers on their way to blast American forces in the Solomons. In heavy dogfighting, Walsh destroyed two of the enemy aircraft and he was off and running.

However, history can repeat itself and a few days later the R-2800 in his Corsair quit and there was nowhere to go but into the water. Fortunately, the belly landing went a bit more smoothly and Walsh clambered over the side of the sinking Corsair to be rescued by a small boat and returned to base.

On 13 March, the Corsairs once again attacked a major enemy formation and the pilot knocked down three Zeros to become the first Corsair ace. Walsh kept increasing his score and by 15 August he had ten confirmed enemy aircraft to his credit.

During this time, the Japanese still had many of their combat-hardened pilots and they were anything but easy targets and in a swirling dogfight in late August, Walsh's Corsair was so extensively damaged by fire from numerous Zeros that it was junked after he limped back to base - but he evened the score by shooting down a Zero during the battle.

On 30 August, Walsh took part in a stunning aerial combat that saw the Corsairs of VMF- 124 join forces with USAAF Airacobras and Kittyhawks to provide cover for a Liberator strike on entrenched enemy forces in the Solomons. However, early into the flight Walsh's R-2800 began to pack up. Returning to base, he jumped out of his Corsair and ran to another which was ready to go. Keeping the power up, he hoped he would catch up with his squadron.

In the distance, he spotted a large formation and headed towards it. Unfortunately, what he thought was the American formation turned out to be over 50 Zeros. The enemy had been trailing the Americans and was waiting to take them by surprise. Realizing what was happening, Walsh shoved the throttle all the way forward and roared into the formation. With all six .50s blazing, two of the Zeros exploded - alerting the Americans and an immense air battle ensued.

Walsh engaged an experienced Zero pilot who got on his tail and no matter what Ken did, he could not shake the fighter and round after round slammed into the F4U. The R-2800 took numerous hits and stopped soon after. Once again, there was nowhere to go but down and Ken pulled off his third water landing. Spending a day in his life vest, he was picked up in the evening and returned to base.

Walsh was later recalled to the States where he was awarded the Medal of Honor and made an instructor with the rank of captain. Walsh managed to get back to the Pacific with a non-combat post but while taking an F4U-4 out on a test flight he engaged an enemy aircraft and destroyed the plane. This brought his war record to 21 aircraft destroyed.

Walsh was undoubtedly a hero but his experiences were also typical of many other USMC and Navy Corsair pilots - aces or not. Ray Dieckman painted his Corsair in the markings of Ken Walsh but, unfortunately, the ace passed away shortly before Ray took his aircraft into the air for the first time.