Bits-O-History

Tominator

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Tominator Monster Buck

Tominator

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Excuse the long post, but i thought some of you would enjoy this, especially the veterans.

yesterday, the history teacher that has the room next to mine had his annual speakers come and talk to his history class. when Doug does his unit on WWII, he rounds up a bunch of WWII vets and has them speak to the classes. In years past he's had as many as 6 or 7. This year, only 3 made it.

I took notes on their presentations, and here's one of their stories:

Phil Von Vil (yep, that's his real name)

--Joined the marines in 1943 at the age of 17

--There was a need for pilots, so he took a test to see if he would qualify--he did, barely almost flunking out of flight school numerous times.

--He trained in a 400 HP trainer

--Graduated flight school in Pensacola and was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant

--Was sent to San Fran where he was assigned to the carrier Bennett. Phil was part of Task Force 86 and was given a F4U-1D Corsair. The Corsair had a 2000HP engine that had so much torque it could actually “stand the propeller still and flip the aircraft if you mashed the throttle” ooo.gif. It carried 2400 rounds of .50 cal ammo that weighed 1000lbs. He could also carry 2, 500lb napalm bombs and 8 hi-velocity, armor piercing rockets which “were highly effective.” wink.gif . The plane carried 500 gals of gas which could keep him airborne for 10 hours. The corsair unloaded and empty weighed 9,000 lbs. They weren’t supposed to fly over 10,000 lbs, but commonly flew at 12,000 lbs.

On May 20, 1945 he was flying a napalm, close support mission on the island of Okinawa. They commonly dropped napalm on the caves of the island in and effort to suffocate the enemy occupants of the caves. On the 20th, Phil dove in on a cave, released his last napalm bomb and started to climb away. At that very instant, a shell from a rail gun exploded under his plane which essentially blew away his left wing tip and sent 2 pieces of shrapnel into the under pinnings of the plane. One piece of shrapnel went into the engine. The other piece went threw the engine cowling, up through the cockpit taking off Phil’s right kneecap. The shrapnel continued on, ricocheting off the canopy and down into Phil’s right temple superficially. crazy.gif so now he’s trying to fly this aircraft with one leg and blood streaming down his head and out his leg. He managed to take off his belt, tie a tourniquet around his leg, and hold pressure on it with one hand. When this didn’t work, he took out his survival knife and looped it through his belt and used it to twist the tourniquet tight. The story actually gets worse because after 15 minutes of flying like that, he approaches the carrier and realizes one of his landing gears has been shot away. So he puts the landing gear back up, goes on the final approach and seconds before he lands, his engine seizes because of loss of oil. The engine throws a piston out the left side of the engine, and finally, Phil belly lands on the carrier, safe.

Could you imagine? Talk about hero.

Two funny quotes Phil shared during the question and answer period.

Someone asked if he shot any planes down, and he said “I had 3 ½ confirmed kills.” And the kid followed up with “how did you get the ½?” and Phil says, “well, it was a kamikazee bomber, I came up and shot off his left wing, while a pal of mine shot off his right wing, so we both got him. They were kamikazees—they just wanted to die for their country, so I just helped them out.” grin.gif (now that's funny right there....)

Another kid asked him about the japanese flag he had along with the japanese money on his plaque. And Phil says “well, I toured one of our POW camps and saw this on one of the prisoners, and heck, he wasn’t going to use it, so I took it.” grin.gif

What a character

Story number 2 of Mr. Marv Ramey, who was in the 12th Infantry on June 6, 1944 and participated in that “Day of Days” tomorrow.

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Ohiobucks Monster Buck

Ohiobucks

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Re: Bits-O-History

Very interesting. Love to talk to those guys who are eager to tell their story.

My wife's grandpa just told us a story about his tour on the ground over there, evidentally his group took cover in an old hospital while some bombs were being dropped one night. When the morning came, they emerged among the destruction and devistation. The only buildings left standing were the hospitals and churches.

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oo_buck 10-Pointer

oo_buck

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Re: Bits-O-History

[ QUOTE ]

Awesome story Chris, I'm a WWII history buff, it amazes me. I actually build model airplanes from the WWII era, I know, I know, it's the only nerdy thing I do. The Corsair is hands down my favorite plane, I would have loved to have been there for that

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey, ever heard of "Aces High"? Great free downloadable combat sim, from WWII. You should try it some time....

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