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nicely suntanned,
hale, and hearty
Rescued!
On 9 August, 1945, Lt (jg)
Vern Coumbe dove his F4U for a 500-pound bomb drop on a freighter
in the Ominato Naval Base. Upon pulling up, his plane was hit
by AA fire in the oil cooler, and the engine froze up at once.
He ditched the plane five miles south of the Jap base. He climbed
into his raft and awaited developments. After squadron planes
departed, he fought to hold his position against a strong west
wind thinking that a rescue mission might arrive that afternoon.
None did. During the night he napped for about 45 minutes. At
0300, when it was getting light, he found that he had drifted
to about one mile off the shore of Nakanosawa. He saw a beach
and a wooded area. He paddled furiously to the beach, where he
took his raft into the woods and settled down for the night. Before
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settling down, he buried
his ring in the sand. He said he didn't want the Japs to get it
if he was captured. At 0600, he was half asleep when he heard
planes approaching. They were F4Us from the Essex led by Lt. Tripp.
Coumbe ran down
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Wally, John, Jack & Benny after a friendly
dog fight in Hellcats. |
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to the beach, fired signal pistol, and waved
his white scarf. Ensign Jones spotted him and reported his position
back to the ship and to the CAP over the Task Group. Coumbe climbed
into his raft and paddled out against a strong wind and held a
position 300 yards off shore for three hours. When he became too
tired he went back ashore.
About noon, Lt Reidy arrived with three
F4Us and one F6F from Essex, and two OS2U float planes from the
USS North Carolina. Lt (jg) Wear flying an F4U was in the process
of dropping a raft when he made a very steep turn and crashed
in the sea about 400 feet off shore. He didn't survive. Coumbe
started swimming out into the bay (he`s a good swimmer) toward
the rescue plane. An OS2U piloted by Lt. Jacobs landed and tossed
out a line. When Coumbe was within 25 feet of the plane, the pilot
put one foot out on the wing and the other foot on the seat. The
plane lunged in the surf and his foot kicked the throttle open
causing the plane to go scooting off,
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OS2U Kingfisher
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knocking him overboard.
By this time, artillery had opened up from the Jap base, two shells
landing within 50 yards of the two men. The |
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scooting plane nicely drew away Naval base
gunfire so the second OS2U piloted by Lt (jg) Oliver, could land
and pick up the two pilots. The runaway plane was strafed by Lt.
Reidy and left sinking.
The rescue plane arrived at the USS North
Carolina at 1615 and, Coumbe arrived aboard Essex next the morning
— nicely suntanned, hale, and hearty.
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