My father Vic was lucky to be assigned to the new squadron commanded by Richard Crommelin (VF-88) in September 1944. My parents' photo album has a picture of the founding dinner party of VF-88 showing the Crommelins, Cagles, my parents, and many others in the new squadron. Before deploying to the Pacific, many VF-88 pilots including Vic …
My father Vic was lucky to be assigned to the new squadron commanded by Richard Crommelin (VF-88) in September 1944. My parents' photo album has a picture of the founding dinner party of VF-88 showing the Crommelins, Cagles, my parents, and many others in the new squadron. Before deploying to the Pacific, many VF-88 pilots including Vic were detached to form a new Corsair squadron, VBF-88.
On that final morning of the war when Vic was scheduled to fly, the report came back on the loss of the VF-88 pilots, and his mission was changed to 'Dumbo CAP' to protect seaplanes that were searching for survivors.
It has always bothered me that the decision was made to continue heavy conventional attacks during the period when there were credible reports of surrender discussions in the Japanese government.
Yeah, it's like the story my great-grand-uncle told me about losing his best friend in the unit at 10:55 a.m. on November 11, 1918, to a German sniper.
My father Vic was lucky to be assigned to the new squadron commanded by Richard Crommelin (VF-88) in September 1944. My parents' photo album has a picture of the founding dinner party of VF-88 showing the Crommelins, Cagles, my parents, and many others in the new squadron. Before deploying to the Pacific, many VF-88 pilots including Vic were detached to form a new Corsair squadron, VBF-88.
On that final morning of the war when Vic was scheduled to fly, the report came back on the loss of the VF-88 pilots, and his mission was changed to 'Dumbo CAP' to protect seaplanes that were searching for survivors.
It has always bothered me that the decision was made to continue heavy conventional attacks during the period when there were credible reports of surrender discussions in the Japanese government.
Yeah, it's like the story my great-grand-uncle told me about losing his best friend in the unit at 10:55 a.m. on November 11, 1918, to a German sniper.