How do you write a history of a WWII military unit when the official records of that unit lie at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean some three hundred miles from Fiji? The answer involves some serendipity, some luck, and the tenacity of one man to rebuild the story of his, and his comrades’ war experiences. This group of men organized for a unique mission, and share a unique story. Most of their casualties occurred on the way to the Pacific War-and every member of the unit was awarded the Purple Heart. Only through the efforts of one of their own can we finally write this book in their honor and their memory. Is it a history? Is it a memoir? Yes. It is the personal memories of the men intertwined with the recorded history of a WWII Pacific Campaign. Quoted from the memorial plaque at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base: Initially torpedoes and almost destroyed, the squadron rose from disaster to top performance of its control mission in the air war of the Pacific.
Sharks tore bodies from partially submerged life rafts in their hunger for human flesh. Some of the sharks had already made off with screaming men, and the blood from the bodies of those boys attracted more sharks. There were schools of them, I don’t know how many, but they were seven to ten feet long-they even pulled men off rafts. After this horrific experience, losing ten of their numbers, 357 men gathered and set out on their mission to save the lives of stricken American pilots and inflict deadly damage on the enemy. This book is a trip through history and the collective memories of the men who were their. From New Guinea to the Philippines they fought and bled on battlefields not as heralded by the films or books–but just as deadly to the men who hit those beaches and fought in those jungles after enduring the sinking of the ship that was to bring them to war.