Tag Archives: F4U corsair

Gull Winged Angels

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It happened 80 years ago this month.

June 1945. A Marine F4U Corsair firing a salvo of eight five-inch forward-firing aircraft rockets, or FFARs, into an enemy crest of the mountain at Okinawa. Each 80-pound solid-fuel rocket, which preceded the famed Zuni, had a 45-pound HE warhead and a range of about a mile. “The terrific intensity is evident in the explosion of the rocket,” notes the original period caption of the photograph.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, by Lieutenant David Douglas Duncan, USMCR, now in the collections of the National Archives 127-GW-520-126420

While the Corsair was a fierce dogfighter, earning an 11:1 kill ratio in the hands of U.S. Navy, Fleet Air Arm, RNZAF, and USMC aviators, their heavy use in troop support over the island earned them the nickname of the “Angels of Okinawa.”

A Vought F4U Corsair, of a U.S. Marine Corps fighter squadron, fires a salvo of eight five-inch rockets at a Japanese position in southern Okinawa, circa early June 1945. Photographed from the observer pod of a P-38 Lightning by Marine Corps combat photographer Lieutenant David Douglas Duncan, USMCR. The photo plane, only about 40-50 feet behind the F4U, was knocked out of control by the rocket blast and nearly crashed. U.S. Marine Corps Photograph. Catalog #: USMC 129356

FG-1D Corsair fighters of US Marine Corps squadron VMF-323 in flight over Okinawa, Japan, 10 June 1945 NARA

Although “obsolete” with the introduction of jet fighters, the rocket-carrying Corsair returned to the ground-support role with relish over the skies of Korea and Indochina in the 1950s.

Loading 5-inch rockets on F4U-4 Corsairs of VMF-323 aboard USS Badoeng Strait (CVE-116), off Korea, September 1950. USMC Photo A413601 National Archives Identifier 74237271

Black Sheep Squadron (VMF-214) – Korea. 1st MAW– The First Marine F4U Corsair fighter-bomber pilot to land at newly captured Kimpo Airfield was First Lieutenant John V. Banes, 18 September 1950. While flying off a carrier in close support of Marine infantrymen. Banes, hit while bombing the Communists, thanked his lucky stars and the ground troops for the ready, friendly airfield. The feeling was mutual with the troops on the ground. Marine Corps Photo A3725 by Cpl. R. J. Laitinen. National Archives Identifier 74242918, Local Identifier 127-GR-77-A3725

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) ordnancemen loading rockets beneath the port wing of a Fighter Squadron 64 (VF-64) F4U-4B Corsair, during operations off the Korean coast, 21 May 1951. Note the different types of rocket warheads and details of carts used to transport the rockets. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-439903

Double Seven

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80 Years Ago this month: 77th Naval Construction Battalion insignia on the cowling F4U Corsair at Bougainville, February 1944. Note the M1911 in the shoulder holster of the aviator to the right in case he wound up in the “walking club” and a bubble canopied F4U-4B in the background. During the period the image was captured, the base was home to Marine Aircraft Group 24 (MAG-24) which included VMF-211, 212, 215, 218, 222, 223, VMSB-235, 244, and VMTB-134, and 232. The plane painted was White 77 (possibly BuNo 17677?), with the cowling design applied by hand by T. Preuit, of the 77th’s Sign Shop.

Via The U.S. Navy Seabee Museum

The 77th NMCB was formed stateside at Camp Peary, WV on New Year’s Eve 1942 and shipped out just eight months later for points West via Port Hueneme in August 1943. Bound for Guadalcanal, the battalion’s first echelon began arriving in Vella La Vella by 25 September and from there transferred as a body to Bougainville starting that same December.

There, for the next four months, they constructed the YOKE field as well as a myriad of buildings and support facilities for MAG 24.

They were aboard when what was known as the three-week-long “Battle of Bougainville Perimeter” took place, with ‘Bees conducting 24-hour armed patrols while they worked and enduring nearly 1,000 Japanese artillery shells close to their camp, their personnel spending almost all of their off time sheltering in slit trenches.

M1903 Seabees in the 77th Naval Construction Battalion armory cleaning & checking their rifles

“At chapel services, attendance held up well despite the shelling,” noted the 291-page WWII cruisebook for the battalion.

Once that was accomplished, the “Double Seven” moved on to Emirau and Sangley Point, ending the war in the P.I.

Inactivated on 15 October 1945, the battalion earned 22 purple hearts, an NMCM, and three bronze stars for heroism.

LTJG Bob Barker, Corsair Jock

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The late Robert William “Bob” Barker, who was the brightest part of staying home sick as a kid, also did his bit as part of the Greatest Generation.

Bob enlisted in the Navy Reserve Aviation Cadet (AvCad) program in November 1942 at age 18 while attending Drury College in Springfield, Missouri on a basketball scholarship. 

He trained at 11 locations including eight Navy air bases on six different types over the next three years:

  • William Jewell College – Liberty, Missouri: 6th Battalion Cadet ground school and athletic training.
  • Ames, Iowa—Iowa State University: Taylorcraft L-2 Grasshopper flight training.
  • University of Georgia: Preflight School and Navy Basketball Team.
  • Millington Naval Air Station- Memphis, Tennessee: Stearman NS2 Biplane Training.
  • Corpus Christi, Texas Naval Air Station: Completed flight training and received Commission as a Navy Ensign.
  • Cabaniss Field Texas: Vultee BT-13 Valiant Training.
  • Beeville, Texas: SNJ Texan flight training.
  • DeLand Naval Air Station—DeLand, Florida: FM2 Wildcat flight training (during his honeymoon)
  • Great Lakes Naval Air Station—Lake Michigan: Carrier landing qualifications on USS Wolverine (IX-64)— the infamous paddlewheel “Covered wagon of the Great Lakes.”
  • Banana River Naval Air Station: Gunnery runs on U.S. Navy Mariner aircraft to train their crews.
  • Goose Island Michigan: F4U Corsair training with VF-97 and advancement to Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG).

He was in line to be deployed to the Pacific to fight the Empire in August 1945 when the whistle was blown.

As Barker summed up:

“I was a Naval Aviator, a Fighter Pilot. I completed all facets of my training, including my qualifying landings on a carrier. I was all ready to go, and when the enemy heard that I was headed for the Pacific, they surrendered. That was the end of World War II.”

Demobilized in November 1945, he remained in the inactive Naval Reserve until 1960.

You will be missed, sir.

And, with that, I’ll leave you with one of his greatest three minutes, which he filmed at a spry 73.

So I went to see Devotion…

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I weighed in last week on the behind-the-scenes attention to detail of the new J. D. Dillard/Erik Messerschmidt Sony Pictures war biopic Devotion, focusing on the too-short life of Ens. Jesse Leroy Brown and his “Fighting Swordsmen” wingman, Lt. (j.g) Thomas J. Hudner Jr., who flew side-by-side at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War.

1950 photo of Fighting 32 (VF 32) ahead of USS Leyte’s Med deployment that soon became a Korean combat tour

If you missed that, the production went all-out, leasing real MiG-15s, F4U Corsairs, A-1 Skyraiders, and F8F Bearcats, then constructing an Essex-class straight deck carrier in a field to put them all on for static shots.

I mean, Dillard is the son of a Blue Angel and his first memory is touching the nose of his dad’s just-landed F-18– so what do you expect?

Said the director on his use of these vintage war birds:

It was by far the most meticulous part of the filmmaking process, but it was important to me aesthetically that we put as much realism in front of the camera as we could. There aren’t even enough of these period planes still flying to fill the skies in the way that we wanted to. But what we always prioritized is that the action happening closest to the camera was practical. That 17th plane, half a mile off, can totally be CGI. But the plane flying very close to the camera is a real Corsair painted with the real squadron’s letters and numbers, and there are real stunt pilots in those planes, executing real maneuvers. That was very important to me and ultimately worth the prep and the planning.

And, besides tapping in actor Glen Powell– who played the cocky “Hangman,” the modern Iceman substitute in the new Maverick movie– Dillard also used the same aerial photography team that worked on that project but with the benefit of fewer restrictions.

“I joke that they spent 200-plus million dollars on R&D, then came to work with us,” Dillard says. And since his film didn’t use modern U.S. Navy planes, he had more freedom. “There is significantly less red tape when you want to take that plane 15 feet over the water at more than 100 miles an hour and photograph it, which at one point we did,” he says. “There are also technical differences in photographing those aircraft… As a small example, you can’t put a camera directly behind an F-18, because there’s jet blast. But we could sit our camera plane right on the tail of the Corsair because it has a propeller — you’re not worried about the camera melting from the afterburner.”

With this lead-up, how could I NOT go see the movie on opening night last week?

I can report that it was a good film, that should be seen on the biggest screen possible to drink it in, full of amazing and unique warbird shots. As far as the plot, it is based on a true story and they stick to most of the real details with only minor deviations. The dialog was a little hokey at times but certainly not any worse than that seen in other modern war films.

As Brown was the first African-American U.S. Navy officer killed in action, he has long deserved a decent film telling his story and this is it. Going past that, it is entertaining and, while circling back to the racial elephant in the room several times, doesn’t make it the prime driving point of the film. I’m no movie rater but if you had to ask me, I’d give it at least an 8 out of 10 overall.

If you have some time to kill, you could find worse ways to spend two hours.

Perhaps it will lead to Brown getting a destroyer named after him. 

Speaking of which.

Welcome home, Hudner

Of interest, the SURFLANT-tasked Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Thomas Hudner (DDG-116), commissioned in 2018, just returned this weekend from the inaugural deployment of the Gerald R Ford Carrier Strike Group.

As detailed by the ship’s social media page:

-We sailed 15,148 miles,
-Conducted 7 replenishments at sea,
-Set 8 Sea and Anchor details
-Completed 2 Straits Transits
-Saw winds as high as 52 knots,
-Completed 78 flight quarters,
-Inducted 4 new Chief Petty Officers,
-Qualified 3 new Officers of the Deck, 2 new Tactical Action Officers, and 8 new Engineering Officers of the Watch
– Expended 52,266 rounds of ammo,
– Passed 1 Engineering Certification,
– Visited 2 new countries,
And made countless memories along the way.

    Whistling up an Essex class carrier and matching Corsairs

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    Ensign Jesse L. Brown, USN. In the cockpit of an F4U-4 Corsair fighter, circa 1950. He was the first African-American to be trained by the Navy as a Naval Aviator, and as such, he became the first African-American Naval Aviator to see combat. Brown flew with Fighter Squadron 32 (VF-32) from USS Leyte (CV-32). Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. USN 1146845.

    This week is the opening of the J. D. Dillard/Erik Messerschmidt Sony Pictures war biopic Devotion, focusing on the too-short life of Ens. Jesse Leroy Brown and his “Fighting Swordsmen” wingman, Lt. (j.g) Thomas J. Hudner Jr., who flew side-by-side at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War.

    The obligatory trailer:

    And, from the Navy, Dillard and Glen Powell (who portrays Hudner) talk about the importance of maintaining historical accuracy while filming, which pulled in vintage Corsairs and F8F Bearcats from around the globe and the construction of a 1:1 scale CV-32 deck/island in a field in Statesboro, Georgia.

    Nice they aren’t totally CGI!

    As Brown was a Hattiesburg native Mississippian, his deeds have long been remembered at the Mississippi Military History Museum at Camp Shelby and the African American Military History Museum in Hattiesburg. The latter has a life-sized Brown standing on the deck of the USS Leyte.

    It is great that this story is finally getting some bigger exposure.

    In a deeper dive into the story overall, USNI host Eric Mills sits down with Thomas Hudner III, son of the real-life MOH recipient depicted in Devotion.

    Godspeed, Col. Glenn

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    149 combat missions in WWII and Korea, splashed 3 MiGs, picked up 6 DFCs and 18 Air Medals. Also did some space stuff.

    149 combat missions in WWII and Korea, splashed 3 MiGs, picked up 6 DFCs and 18 Air Medals. Also did some space stuff.

    He wasn’t sure whether the flaming debris was the rocket pack or the heat shield breaking up. “Fortunately,” he told an interviewer,“ it was the rocket pack – or I wouldn’t be answering these questions.”

    Griffin Corsair warming up

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    F4U-4 VF-871 CV-9 1952 essex pukin dogs now vf173

     

    A Vought F4U-4 Corsair fighter of fighter squadron VF-871 Griffins being prepared for a mission in Korea on the aircraft carrier USS Essex (CV-9) in 1952. The Essex was deployed to Korea from 16 Jun 1952 to 6 Feb 1953 with Air Task Group Two (ATG-2) and VF-871 flew both from the Essex‘s deck and that of the USS Princeton (CV-37). VF-871 was a reserve squadron that was called to active duty on 20 Jul 1950. As such it was one of the last US Navy fighter squadrons to fly the WWII-era gull wing Corsair, with most of these craft being rapidly retired after Korea cooled down. VF-871 was redesignated VF-123 The Blue Racers in 1953. On 12 Apr 1958 it was again redesignated VF-53 Black Knights before it was finally redesignated VF-143 Pukin’ Dogs on 20 Jun 1962. Today they fly F-18E’s of CAW7 currently assigned to the Eisenhower— who was likely President when this picture was taken.