Snippy already pointed you to our Taffy 3 thread.
P.S. Any relation to the "Colonel Flagg" from M.A.S.H.?
Posted on 06/22/2003 4:32:16 AM PDT by snippy_about_it
Snippy already pointed you to our Taffy 3 thread.
P.S. Any relation to the "Colonel Flagg" from M.A.S.H.?
The weather was clear with scattered cumulus clouds off the coast of Saipan on the morning of 19 June, 1944. As part of Task Force 58 protecting the Marianas landings, Fighting Squadron 16 was expecting an attack from the 400-plane Japanese carrier force. At 10:30 bogeys were picked up on radar approaching in several large groups and twelve Hellcats were launched from the USS Lexington to intercept the Japanese force. Twelve-victory ace, Lieutenant Alex Vraciu was one of the pilots in that group.
Leading a division of four Hellcats, Vraciu experienced engine problems and couldn't climb past 20,000 feet, but requested a vector from the fighter director and was put onto a line of Yokosuka D4Y2 Judy dive bombers. In the eight minute tail-chase, Vraciu splashed six. The air battle became known as the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot - Task Force 58 Hellcats destroyed over 300 Japanese aircraft. The following day, Alex Vraciu claimed his 19th and last victory, a Zeke.
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 HOUSE TO HOUSE — Members of 1st platoon, 3rd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, A Company, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), move from house to house conducting cordon searches and looking for weapons in Mosul, Iraq, June 18, during Operation Guliani. This is one of the many ongoing missions of the 101st Airborne Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Kieran Moore  RAINBOW FLAVOR — U.S. Army Spc. Jay Gerson of the 450th Civil Affairs Battalion (Airborne) gives a little girl from the village of Dai Kalay a taste of the rainbow, some Skittles candy, during a Team village patrol in the Kandahar Province of Afghanistan, June 14. The Team Village patrols made up of Task Force Devil soldiers and Romanian forces provide situation awareness, assessment of village needs, distribution of humanitarian aid and gather passive intelligence in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Leopold Medina Jr.  GATHERING INTEL — Soldiers of 450th Civil Affairs Battalion (Airborne), 301st Psychological Operations Company (Airborne), and Romanian forces, meet with the villagers from the Baybbam Darrah village June 14. The soldiers ask questions, thereby gathering passive intelligence and assessing the village's needs in addition to providing situation awareness during a Team Village patrol. The Team Village patrol also distributes humanitarian aid consisting of school supplies as well as shoes and clothing in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Leopold Medina Jr.  THROUGH THE STREETS — The 101st Airborne Division's Maj. Michael Albertson, the interim mayor of Al Hamdania, Iraq's liaison officer, greets local children during a walk through the streets with city council members, June 16. Defense Dept. photo by Sgt. Michael Bracken, U.S. Army.  HANDSHAKE — U.S. Army Maj. Michael Albertson, the interim mayor's Liaison Officer from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), talks with local children as he walks with several city council members in Al Hamdania, Iraq, during Operation Iraqi Freedom June 16. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael Bracken  A Marine sniper team with 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, trudges through sliding dirt to move into a shooting position during a security halt along the route to Baghdad. Among the units returning from war, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment may change the future of Marine Corps Reserve units. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Gunnery Sgt. Mark Oliva.
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LOL. Lucky for you it's a short drive!
The U. S. invasion of the Mariana Islands on 15 June 1944 brought the Japanese fleet out fighting for the first time since the naval battles of Guadalcanal in the fall of 1942. Determined to force a showdown battle, Admiral Soemu Toyoda ordered a combined fleet of 9 carriers and 18 battleships and cruisers to attack the U. S. warships protecting the landing on Saipan. Here Admiral Raymond Spruance, Commander of the U. S. Fifth Fleet, organized defensive preparations and sent 15 fast carriers of Task Force 58, commanded by Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher, west to intercept the Japanese, then only 90 miles away.
The battle opened early on 19 June with an attack on Task Force 58 by Japanese land-based planes from Guam and Truk. Hellcat fighters from our carriers destroyed 35 enemy fighters and bombers. The remainder of the battle was fought by 430 Japanese carrier planes attacking the 450 planes of Task Force 58 in four fierce waves.
At the end of the eight-hour onslaught, only 100 of the enemy planes returned to their carriers. The rest had been destroyed in the most decisive aerial combat in history. Thirty American planes were lost in what the fliers called the "Marianas Turkey Shoot." No damage was done to the U. S. Fifth Fleet's ships.
On the night of 19 June, the Japanese turned to the northwest and fled with the U. S. carriers in hot pursuit. On the evening of the 20th, Mitscher decided he could get no closer and launched 209 planes. The Japanese were now 300 miles away. This would be to the extreme limit of the fighters' range, plus they would be returning in the dark.
The success of the raid was just so-so. The Japanese carrier HIYO was sunk, but 20 of our planes were shot down and 80 more did not make it back. Of the 80 that went down, 51 pilots were saved. I was a crewmember of USS IRWIN (DD 794), and we picked up one of them.
It was a tricky, sticky thing. Not only were they low on fuel, but in the dark they had to find a carrier. They were coming back not in the formations we were used to seeing, but straggling in groups of two or three. Planes started to go down. Others circled, trying to find their carriers. It was then that Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher gave a four word order that made him the most beloved admiral in the Navy: "Turn on the lights." Immediately, every ship in the fleet turned on its searchlights and pointed the beams skyward. The glow from nearly 200 searchlights could be seen for a hundred miles.
As soon as a pilot knew he was going down, he would pick out a ship and flick his landing lights on and off. When we saw one of them coming, the crew on the port side searchlight depressed the beam to the water. The pilot could now judge how much elevation he had, and we on the ship could keep his plane in sight .... In he went.
Chief Boatswain Mate Jorgensen commanded the whaleboat and was alongside the plane, which was still afloat, in less than two minutes. The pilot was standing in the cockpit and jumped in when the boat came alongside. A crash landing at sea, and he didn't even get his feet wet!
Supper was late that night. Somehow those remarkable men in the galley stirred up a small cake, lit a candle, took it to the Officers' Mess and presented it to the young flier. It was his 22nd birthday.
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