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1943-1945 Training
Wally's
War
Glen
Wallace's War Diary 1
Editor's note: These are the pages from Glen's
diaries exactly as he wrote them at the time. He has attached
comments to add to or explain the entry.
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Naval Aviation Cadet, Feb. 1943 |
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The Original Diary text is in this column
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The modern text to by Captain Wallace to explain
each entry This Column
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13 OCTOBER 1942
Enlisted in Navy V5 Aviation program.
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Avenge The
Lex!
Enlisted
At the time, I was working
at the only civilian job I ever had in my whole life. It
was in a war plant where military aircraft parts were made.
My job was to push a little cart around loaded with parts
for the workers.
There was one station where a pretty
girl sat at a desk and inspected parts for flaws. I made
it a point to keep her well supplied as I had a serious
idea of a serious courtship. Her name was Yvonne Genevieve
Evans and I finally got a date by letting her drive my 1939
Plymouth.
The War was not going well and the
Navy was pitching hard for pilots. The recruiters got a
bunch of us together and said if we would sign up, we would
be assigned to "The Black Hawk Squadron" and stay
together for the duration of the war. (That was Recruiter
BS 'cause it never happened), so we ditty bopped off for
Chicago to sign up, but it turned out that I was under weight.
Being a cagey kid, I checked in at a hotel, bought a stalk
of bananas and proceeded to bulk up. That did the trick
and I raised my right hand and swore to go get killed. That's
what the
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USS Lexington being sunk (Nat'l
Archives)
Editor's Note: May 4-8,
1942. The Coral Sea. In this, the first naval battle in
history where fleets fought without the opposing ships
ever seeing each other, U.S. carrier forces turned back
a Japanese attempt to land at Port Moresby. In the battle,
the Japanese lost the light carrier Shoho but the U.S.
lost the first USS Lexington (CV 2)
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Officer who administered the oath said. He also told me
all the horror stories he could think of and finally asked
what motivated me to enlist. At that time the aircraft carrier,
Lexington had just been sunk and big banners were strung
across the streets of Chicago with the not so subtle message
of "AVENGE THE LEX." So I told the officer that
I wanted to become an Aviator to Avenge the Lex . . . and
it worked!
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9 NOVEMBER 1942
Milton,
Wisconsin. Flew Piper Cubs and
Aeroncas. Bonnie visited me.
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White Christmas
Bonnie
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Although her name was
Yvonne, I called
her Bonnie and it stuck for the rest of her life.
This flight training lasted through Christmas, and
when she visited, we all gathered around an old piano
and sang "White Christmas."
The airplanes were equipped
with skis
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Bonnie |
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the snow and ice was everywhere in that cold Wisconsin
area. Back then people got ice from the great lakes
and crews would be camped out there sawing out great
chunks. This was just too tempting for a recently soloed
pilot so I flew down until my skis were on the ice and
made a wild run right at the ice cutters . . . pulling
up at the last minute. Of course this resulted in a
severe tongue lashing back at the base but nothing else.
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The Original Diary text is in this
column
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The modern text to by Captain Wallace to explain
each entry This Column
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7 JANUARY 1942
Finished training.
9 JANUARY 1942
Married in St Louis. Honeymoon trip to Joplin, MO. Left Bonnie
there and drove home to pick up orders.
12 JANUARY
Pre Pre-Flight Training at the University in Greencastle, Indiana.
Bonnie visited and lost her job.
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"Anything
for the boys in the service . . ."
Secretly Wed
We
arrived in St. Louis and
stayed the night with my sister and her husband.
Next morning we said we were going to do some sightseeing,
but instead we went to the Court House to get married.
We told the Clerk that I was headed overseas and
we wanted to get married right now.
Well, in those days the motto
was "Anything for the boys in the service,"
so a Judge called us into his chambers and performed
the ceremony. At the proper moment, he turned to
me and said "You may now place the ring on
her finger." I told him I didn't have one,
to which he replied, "No problem", and
took a piece of string out of his desk. I tied it
around Bonnie`s finger and that was her wedding
ring. When we got back to my sister`s house, she
made us sleep in separate beds again that night.
Next day we departed for Joplin.
The reason we were so sneaky
about the wedding is that the Navy strictly prohibited
marriage for Naval Aviation Cadets. The penalty,
if caught, was no more flight training. So when
we arrived at Joplin, Bonnie took a bus back to
Rockford, Illinois and to work while I visited my
parents in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
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Left the 1939 Plymouth there
and took a bus to Greencastle, Indiana as my orders
directed.
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1939 Plymouth |
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Lost her
job
Visit from Bonnie
She lost her job because
she just took off without permission to visit her new hubby.
The training here consisted of 14-hour days studying trigonometry,
calculus, and other challenging subjects. Never did figure
out how that could help me fly a fighter plane.
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2 FEBRUARY 1943
Finished training.
4 FEBRUARY 1943
Pre Flight - University Iowa City. IA. Bonnie visited three times.
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stinky cheese
at night . . .
"Boot Camp"
Navy Preflight training
was all actually boot camp type stuff. Obstacle courses
to be run until you dropped; long hikes, and sports, which
included wrestling. As luck would have it I was paired up
with a big hairy guy who tied my tall, skinny bod in knots.
After a day of that, there were long hours of academic study
at night. One memory sticks in my mind: some smart aleck
rubbed stinky cheese on the light bulb so that after a while
the whole room smelled awful.
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The Original Diary text is in this column
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The modern text to by Captain Wallace to explain
each entry This Column
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3 MAY 1943
Finished training.
5 MAY 1943
Primary flight training. Olathe, Kansas. Flew N2S Stearmans. Bonnie
visited.
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boxcars
and Tornados
The Stearman
The Navy N2S Stearman
was an open-cockpit, biwing trainer and was often
called "The Yellow Peril." This was because
it was flown by young hot to trot Naval Aviation Cadets
with zero
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time. After we soloed we became pretty cocky (and probably
dangerous), and tried all kinds of crazy stuff . . .
such as one young daredevil flying just above |
Navy Stearman
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a moving freight
train and then put the wheels down on top of one of
the boxcars. When someone reported seeing a navy plane
riding on a train, all hell broke loose at the Base.
I don`t remember if the
guy was washed out or not.
Once a Kansas tornado visited
and next morning the field was littered with crumpled
up airplanes. They made a big pile over in one corner.
We flew 7 days a week and once a month got a "Cinderella
Liberty," (be back by midnight), in Kansas City.
Since we wore shoulder boards with one star on each
and no stripes, we told everybody we were one-star
Admirals.
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27 JULY 1943
Finished. 7 days leave.
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Beer and
chips
Visited Bonnie
Took a bus to Rockford,
Illinois, to visit Bonnie, who was living with her folks.
We were wined and dined (read beer and chips), by friends,
and her folks had a cookout for us. Back to Olathe,
Kansas, by bus and packed for travel by train to Corpus
Christi, Texas.
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8 AUGUST 1943
Corpus Christi Texas. Basic at Cabaniss Field. Flew SNVs. SNJs
for instruments at Mainside. Advanced at Kingsville. Bonnie visited.
Gave her wedding ring.
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Our
introduction to combat flying . .
They Collided!
When we finished
primary training in The N2S Yellow Peril at Olathe,
Kansas we headed for Corpus Christi, Texas in a "Cattle
Car" type train. With all my worldly goods packed
in a Navy issue Valpack suit bag, I arrived and with
many other cadets, took a bus for Cabaniss field.
The O in C lined us up and marched us to a spot in
front of the barracks.
Just as he was about to dismiss us, two SNJs started
dog fighting right overhead. We were told to stand
at
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ease and watch because
we would soon be doing that. What a thrill to see those
powerful (to us) birds dodging and weaving in a classic
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dogfight. THEN
IT HAPPENED! They collided head on and started falling
in pieces. The Officer quickly called us to attention
and marched us to the barracks, and that was our introduction
to the finer points of combat flying.
For Gunnery training we had
a 30-caliber machine gun synchronized to fire through
the propeller arc without hitting the blades. Well,
sometimes it did hit the blades and we then came back
as a "Whistler" cause the hole in the prop
blade made a shrill whistling sound.
Now, about the wedding ring.
As previously noted, Bonnie and I were married in
St. Louis by a Judge and I tied a string on her finger
for the ring. Now I was drawing big pay, $75 per month
plus flight pay for a grand total of $125. Wow, filthy
rich, so I bought her a wedding band with tiny diamond
chips in it. Then she took a bus all the way across
country to home in Rockford, Illinois.
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The Original Diary text is in this column
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The modern text to by Captain Wallace to explain
each entry This Column
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21 DECEMBER 1943
Commissioned and received wings of gold. Orders to Jacksonville,
Florida. Spent Christmas night in New Orleans. Arrived Jacksonville
27 December. Flew F4F Wildcats and sent for Bonnie.
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little
Wildcat Fighter
Survived New
Orleans & F4F
In those days the
trains were not the most reliable form of transportation.
But it was all we had so we got sidetracked in New
Orleans on Christmas Eve. This gave me time to fully
explore Bourbon Street and all the sights thereon
for the first time for this ole Missouri farm boy.
What an experience! Come midnight, I heard church
bells and decided to go in and see what was going
on. I sat in the back row on the isle and watched
the impressive Christmas ceremony. Then back to Bourbon
Street till daylight. I almost missed the train.
When Bonnie arrived (by bus)
in Jacksonville, we rented a one-room apartment not
far from the base, and just to be safe, we got married
again on 27 January 1944. The reason for this was
that cadets were not supposed to be married before
being commissioned. They kicked out my roommate just
because of that, so we wanted to get married again
for the Navy.
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| The little Wildcat
Fighter was real tricky to handle on the ground due
to a very narrow landing gear. On my first take off,
the wind got |
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under one wing and tilted me
so that I "Ground Looped," that is, drug
a wing on the runway. l taxied back to the ramp where
the Instructor hopped up on the wing and said to not
get out. He was afraid I would lose my nerve, so he
told me what the Admiral said: ..."if we buckled
up we could fly one of those suckers into a stone
wall and not get hurt." With that I lined her
up again and got airborne for the first time in a
Navy Fighter. Never mind that these very planes had
been used by the Marines in combat and had patched
bullet holes in them. Once when I was finishing up
a flight at 10,000 feet I decided to make a quick
letdown to the field, soo, I pointed her straight
down at full throttle and picked up so much speed
that the landing gear sheared off. With just one strut
holding on I lined up for the runway, the little WAVE
in the control tower said, "Sir, your landing
gear is dangling so please land in the grass."
So I made a belly flop landing and walked away. Back
then if a Fighter Pilot didn't have a few crashes,
he was just too cautious.
Finally, we were supposed to
live in the barracks and not off base, so at night
my buddies would make "Bunk Check" for me
while I was with my wife in our little one-room apartment.
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3 March 1944
Finished Operational Training
7 March 1944
Glenview, Ill. ( Chicago ) 8 landings aboard USS Sable in F4F
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Side
Wheelers
USS Sable and
Wolverine
The Sable and theWolverine
were two side-wheelers converted to little aircraft
carriers. They operated in Lake Michigan in sight
of Chicago. They were called
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Great Lakes Navy." Fledgling Naval Aviators had
to make six arrested landings on one of them to qualify
for carrier duty. They were narrow and very short with
no room to |
IX-81 USS Sable - Photo courtesy
U. S. Naval and Shipbuilding Museum |
store aircraft. I saw an SNJ hanging
by the tail over the side of the ship to be offloaded when
they returned to
The Greater Buffalo which
was converted to the USS Sable- Courtesy U. S. Naval
and Shipbuilding Museum |
shore. The day for
me to do the tail hook bit finally arrived after waiting
days for the weather to clear. It was snowing but we
went out anyway and did |
| our thing. Since there weren't
many planes airborne that day, I got to make eight landings
instead of six. The lake bottom is still littered with
Navy planes that didn't make it. In fact there are a
couple of them in the |
USS-Wolverine |
Naval Aviation Museum here in Pensacola.
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The Original Diary text is in this column
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The modern text to by Captain Wallace to explain
each entry This Column
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18 March 1944
Finished 21 days leave.
8 April 1944
Norfolk, Va
14 April 1944
Atlantic City, NJ. via Washington DC. Joined VF-83 flew Hellcats
( F6F ) Sent for Bonnie and lived at Northfield, NJ
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"Toonerville"
type trolley
The Boardwalk
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14-room house. It had kitchen and living room privileges.
I traveled back and forth to the base in a car pool.
Bonnie and I often visited the Boardwalk in Atlantic
City via a "Toonerville" type trolley. All
our worldly goods fit into suitcases then (and continued
to for several years.) I remember we had a "Pool"
for the Normandy landing. Pilots would ante up a quarter
and write a date on the bulletin board. Somebody won
it but I don't remember who. Bonnie and the other wives
would take turns cooking dinner. We had a good time
flying and socializing. It didn't take much to make
young folks happy back then. |
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1 July 1944
Ayer, Mass. Bonnie arrived by auto, with other squadron wives
and we lived in Ayer. 8 landings aboard USS Mission Bay-1 landing
on USS Kassan Bay- 7 landings on USS Prince William.
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F6Fs,
SB2Cs, and TBMs
In Hack
This is where the
Air Group came together and learned to operate as
a unit, F6F Hellcat fighters, SB2C Helldiver dive-
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SB2C Helldiver |
bombers, and
TBM Avenger Torpedo bombers. We practiced bombing
with miniature bombs and dry rocket runs on the tower.
Once one of those little iron bombs fell off a plane
in the landing
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| pattern and came right through
the mess hall roof. Live rocket practice was conducted
at Nantucket Island. Once when one of |
| the Hellcats went
bad, the pilot rode back to base sitting on the lap
of another pilot. A crazy thing to do, but he didn't
want to be deserted on that |
F6F Hellcat |
| barren island. Bonnie and I lived
in one room with kitchen privileges and rode bicycles
around the countryside, although she was five months
pregnant. This is the place where I learned the hard
way to be on time! Once the Air Group was scheduled
to fly cover for a simulated landing on New York. The
entire Air Group was involved and I was supposed to
take off on schedule, which was 3 O'clock in the morning.
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TBM Torpedo Bomber |
In those days metal
was scarce so our clock was made of pressed cardboard
(except for the gears), and wouldn't you know, it didn't
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| alarm that fateful morning. I
suited up, jumped on my bicycle and peddled furiously
the mile to the base just in time to see the last plane
take off. The CO and the XO took me by the arms and
walked me down the hangar while explaining that the
only reason to be late was . . . DEATH (your own personal).
Then they put me "In Hack," that is restricted
to the base for a week. Whew! Did that ever make an
impression on a young Ensign type. |
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The Original Diary text is in this column
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The modern text to by Captain Wallace to explain
each entry This Column
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1 November 1944
Finished and Bonnie and I traveled by train to San Diego
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A very pregnant
Bonnie
Finished Training!
On 1 November 1944, we
finished training! The whole Air Group was put on a long
train bound for San Diego, Calif. A very pregnant Bonnie
boarded with me to ride as far as St. Louis, where she would
stay with my sister. When we arrived there, we both decided
to just take a chance and ride on to the West Coast. The
squadron pilots called her "Little Mama" and brought
her goodies from the dining car.
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7 Nov 1944
San Diego, Calif. Left Bonnie at San Francisco and on . . .
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I kissed
her good bye and
Left Her to Have the
Baby
On 7 November 1944, we
arrived at San Diego, where I kissed her good bye and left
her to have the baby, while I went off to war. Long ago
and far away.
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The Original Diary text is in this column
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The modern text to by Captain Wallace to explain
each entry This Column
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10 Nov 1944
Boarded USS General Langfitt.
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10 November
1944
USS General Langfitt
This was a rusty old
tub with very primitive accommodations. For instance the
head (toilet) was a long metal trough with boards across
it at intervals to sit on. Seawater constantly flowed along
and carried out the poo-poo. Some smart aleck thought up
the bright idea of wadding up a bunch of toilet paper, setting
it on fire, and floating it down the trough. As it would
pass under a "sitter," it would do a quick scorch
job as it moved along. The yells made in quick succession
sounded like a steam calliope.
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16
Nov 1944
Arrived Honolulu, Hawaii.
2 Dec 1944
Inter-Island Steamer to Maui - NAS Puunene- Jimmy born Nov. 29,1944
- Sent Bonnie engagement ring
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Widow
Maker landings
Hellcats
Having married
her with a string around her finger (a real wedding
ring not till four months later), I now went all out
and bought her an engagement ring.
At NAS Puunene, we pilots lived
in two-story barracks and flew F6F Hellcats. We were
a wild and woolly bunch who lived to fly. Once four
of us procured a Jeep and
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island. Seeing bunches of coconuts hanging from the
trees we decided we needed some and |
F6F Hellcat |
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took a run at the tree with
the jeep and hit it a hard wallop. All it did was
bend the bumper . . . no coconuts. Since we had been
issued 38 cal. side arms, we proceeded to use them
to shoot down the stubborn nuts. The 38s just made
holes in them for the milk to drip out. We gave up
and went home. Another interesting thing was the squadron
that flew the new FM2 Wildcats. A small, noisy plane
that was much faster than the old F4F but nothing
else to brag about. So the pilots continually tried
to show us Hellcat drivers that they were just as
hot as we were. A favorite maneuver of theirs was
to do a loop to a landing. It was called a "Widow
Maker" landing. This was a real satisfying attention
getter until one failed to pull out and augured in
just short of the runway.
New rule — No more Widow
Maker landings.
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The Original Diary text is in this column
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The modern text to by Captain Wallace to explain
each entry This Column
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15 Dec 1944
Changed to Corsairs (F4U)
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a falling
brick . . .
F4U Corsairs
One day the Pentagon
decided that our Air Group should have a squadron
of fighter-bombers, F4U Corsairs. Very soon after,
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F4U Corsair |
there appeared a
bunch of Corsairs on the flight line, but who was going
to fly them? We found out when |
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the Skipper Selected
six "volunteers" to form the new Squadron.
I was one of them, and next day we climbed in the
cockpit with the Pilot's Manual in hand and checked
ourselves out. My first flight in this sleek bird
was somewhat memorable. After takeoff and admiring
how nice she handled, I noticed a red flag sticking
up on each wing. Jeeze, I had forgotten to lock the
wings down after unfolding them. Washer cutting time
for sure because if they folded in flight I would
become a falling brick. Very carefully I made a smooth
landing and quickly locked the wings and roared off
into the wild blue. I never told anyone about that.
Pilots from the other squadrons
were selected to complete the new VBF squadron. They
had no experience in fighter tactics and, as a consequence,
we lost many of them. In order to see over the long
nose of the Corsair, we had to adjust the seat to
its highest setting, and that's why I kept busting
my long skinny back. Finally, the parachute riggers
made a corset of heavy canvas for me and I laced it
tightly around my hips to keep my spine straight.
It worked pretty well except when we would have to
pull many Gs recovering from a dive.
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22 Dec 1944
Made 3 landings on USS Bougainville - 6 landings on CVE Makassar
Strait, in a Corsair.
1945
9 JAN 1945
Wedding Anniversary, sent Champagne and flowers to Bonnie.
27 JAN 1945
Hospital
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Bad back
Sick Bay
Short stay in Sick Bay
with bad back. Being 6 ft 2 and weighing 135 pounds invited
trouble when doing violent maneuvers in fighters.
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The Original Diary text is in this column
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The modern text to by Captain Wallace to explain
each entry This Column
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14 FEB 1945
Sent Bonnie Birthday Present. Went aboard USS Shangrila at Pearl
Harbor and made 2 langings in F4U.
20 FEB 1945
Big party- Valley Isle County Club
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many of these
great guys were killed . . .
Farewell Party
All pilots were invited
to a farewell party as we were going into the war zone next
day. Every one got drunk as hooty owls and one of them decided
to visit San Francisco. He took a jeep and three other crazy
pilots and headed out. When water was up to their necks
and the jeep crapped out, he lifted the hood and tried to
dry off the distributor cap — under water. Another
bunch of throttle jockeys piled into a jeep and headed back
to base. Upon arrival they discovered one was missing. He
had fallen out unnoticed. They had to drive back along the
road until they found him . . . sitting in the middle of
it. All too many of these great guys were killed in action.
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21 FEB 1945
Left Maui for Pearl Harbor on inter island steamer - Kailulu.
Went aboard CVE 16 - USS Nassau and headed for Guam at 1300 Feb
22.
( CVE USS NASAU #16, )
4 MARCH 1945
Arrived Naval Air Base at Guam 1609.
5 MARCH 1945
Found out I made LTJG on March 1. Met Frank Wallace (my cousin)
at Depro field and had lunch.
8 MARCH 1945
Left Guam aboard USS Long Island (what a tub) bound for Ulithi,
Island.
9 MARCH 1945
Arrived Ulithi 1215 - Never saw so many ships in all my life.
Looks like the entire Pacific Fleet is here.
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very primitive!
USS Long Island
USS Long Island — Note these conversions did
not include an island structure, They were conned
from a bridge located forward under the flight deck.
Photo Courtesy US
Naval Source |
| This was one of first aircraft
carriers and very primitive! It was used mostly for
transport of planes and personnel. |
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