Original subtitles

is

>> [screaming]

>> Give me something. The damn THING IS

HERE.

>> I HAVE TO PULL the relief.

>> I can't. I COULD BE THE BEST. IT'S WING

DOWN. PULL THE RELEASE.

>> I AM. GIVE ME SOMETHING.

>> I can't get the rear BOMB DOORS TO

CLOSE. THE PLAQUE MUST HAVE DAMAGED THE

PNEUMATIC. WE'LL HAVE TO CLOSE IT BY

HAND.

NOTHING. No movement.

Nothing.

Black Booar.

>> What about the bomb wife?

>> Yeah, we can strap it to THE DOORS AND

WINCH THEM UP like Macauskll's crew.

Piti

status. Electrical fire. How bad? Bad.

Real bad.

Bombader to tail gunner. Right. We've

just extinguished a fire in the radar

compartment. Heavy black damage to the

electrical system. Be advised. Over. Go

right back there.

Right. Please respond. Over.

Get every available fire extinguisher

back here. Understood.

>> Go, go, go.

Chip in a phone nonfunctional. Captain

ship's radio still transmitting and

receiving, but I don't know for how

long.

>> Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is mash

note. This is mash note. This is mash

note. Over. Mayday, mayday, mayday. This

is mash note. This is mash note. This is

mash note. Transmitting for fix. We will

be Davy Jones. Davy Jones. Over.

>> Captain, all radio facilities are out.

We have a channel, VHF only. Again. A

channel. VHF only. Copy start. Switching

to H channel BHF. Mayday, mayday,

mayday. Wing, this is Drag Lady. This is

Dragon Lady. This is Dragon Lady 277.

Respond. Over.

>> Copy Dragon Lady. Go ahead. Over.

>> We are heavily damaged from flack.

Electrical fire in our tail section.

Inform playmate of our condition.

>> Copy Dragon Lady. Damage due to flack.

Electrical fire aft. Informing playmate.

Over.

>> Roger. Wing. Shutting down power until

this fire is under control.

>> Copy Dragon Lady.

Ouch.

GIVE. CUT POWER.

>> COPY. CUTTING POWER.

>> RIGHT.

Find a place AND GET YOURSELF SECURE.

CAPTAIN, THE FIRE'S under control. It'll

stay out as long as the power stays off.

>> Fighting us. Everything on this ship is

electrical.

>> That show blast under the cockpit has

everything shorting out on us.

>> Sparking wire started it.

>> We need power back to get us home.

>> The wiring has got to be shredded.

>> Gibbs. Sir,

>> I NEED POWER BACK. CAN YOU GIVE IT TO

ME?

>> Stand by, Captain.

Power restored, Captain.

>> Fire. Everything is ON FIRE.

SAY AGAIN. SAY AGAIN.

>> EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE.

>> CAPTAIN, the fire's resumed. We use all

the extinguishers.

>> Wing, this is dragon lady. We are

preparing to ditch. Radio position and

nodes. What's our position?

>> I'm working on it.

>> BTN. Lieutenant.

>> Wing. This is Drag Lady. This is Dragon

Lady. This is

>> my air speed indicator. It's

nonunctional.

>> Air speed is 270 mph.

>> It's 270. This is drag lady. 277.

Respond over. LIEUTENANT, OUR POSITION,

PLEASE.

>> COPY.

>> THIS IS Dragon Lady. Respond over.

>> Captain,

>> Captain, our position is

>> We are preparing to ditch.

>> Copy. Over.

>> Captain, all radio facilities are out.

Channel A VHF out. I can't get it back.

>> Copy. All radio facilities out.

>> We have to cut the power.

[music]

>> G. CUT POWER. COPY. Install dishing

braces. Open all escape exits and assume

ditching positions. Prepare to dash.

OPEN ALL ESCAPE EXITS. Assume ditching

positions.

[music]

>> Gibs on my command. I'm going to NEED

POWER BACK. COPY. Power back on your

command.

270 mph.

Descending at 3,000 ft per minute. Level

out at 500 ft. Prepare for 25° of flaps

when power is restored. Copy. 500 ft.

25° of flaps.

We're at 3,500 ft and descending.

1,000 ft.

900 ft.

800 ft.

700 ft.

600 ft.

[ __ ] STAND BY OUR POWER. STANDING BY.

550 ft. Get power. COPY. POWER RESTORED.

Captain [music]

>> [music]

>> Standby to cut engines two AND FOUR.

STANDING BY TO CUT ENGINES TWO AND FOUR.

>> 25° OF FLAP.

>> 25° OF FLAPS.

>> CUT ENGINES TWO AND FOUR.

>> ENGINES TWO AND FOUR.

300 ft. Do you see any snow down there,

Lieutenant? Negative. 200 ft. I'M GOING

TO PUT US DOWN INTO THE WIND. 110 mph.

100 ft.

>> Here we go.

>> No up. No up.

Everyone out.

I got you.

He's

hurt.

>> We got to even UP THESE BOAT BOYS. VERY

LLOYD.

>> What do we have? Sound off on Will Coxin

Gibbs present sir James

>> Lloyd Meshi

>> Cody tanky

>> Weaver

how you feeling Sergeant

>> still here cap

>> do we have any morphine?

>> Yes sir.

>> Get this man some morphine.

ANYBODY HAVE EYES ON PATI LARSON OR

RIGHT?

>> Right to cease. Prior to ditching,

captain.

>> You certain?

>> Absolutely certain.

>> James, sound that whistle. ALL EYES LOOK

SHARP.

YEAH. Do they know we're down? It'll be

okay. They'll be coming for us.

They'll be coming.

What the crew of the Dragon Lady did not

know was that on the island of Euima, a

22-year-old pilot and his crew would be

coming for them.

But that pilot, my great uncle, Royal A.

Stratton,

would never return home.

Many young enlisted men came [music]

from smalltown America,

places like Elwood City, Pennsylvania,

where our veterans are revered and

things still move a little slower,

where family reunions, oldtimey guessing

games, and favorite pastimes are still

alive and well.

For anyone who's lost a loved one in

war, the emptiness left behind can

resonate for generations.

For my family, it was World War II.

Many of us didn't know my great uncle,

just the name, Royal A. Stratton.

But the few still among us who did also

reside here in small town America.

I didn't know it then, but going home is

where my long journey began. Traveling

back through time,

1924.

I was born in Elwood on First Street.

I had three brothers,

three sisters.

and Ruth and Ada and me are the only

ones left.

Ry is my brother next to me, older.

Enjoy being around him. He's my close

friend. We only had one toy between us.

[laughter]

We had one sled, build a big bonfire and

sled ride all night with the whole gang.

His orders from dad was watch Adah cuz I

was the smallest one.

>> He got along with everybody. He was good

kid. Do anything for you.

>> I met Rorland school.

We were in the fifth grade together.

>> We went to a one room schoolhouse

about a quarter of a mile away.

>> He was nice. We'd go out and sit on our

our swing on the back porch and he'd

talk about everything.

>> He tried to date Kay.

>> I knew Royal before Mary Ellen knew

Royal.

>> My mother's maiden name was [music]

Timberman. So it was Mary Ellen

Timberman and he was dating my aunt Kay

at the time.

>> Well, I was going with another fella.

>> Marielle is her sister.

>> I said, "Would you like to meet her?" He

said, "Sure."

She kind of liked Royal, so she said,

"I'm going to have that guy." [laughter]

>> That was it.

>> So, she started dating him. They hit it

off and here we are.

My mom, she was a spitfire [music] one

time when my dad was supposed to pick

her up at 7:00 and he wasn't there and

she left. And he came about 10:00 after

7:00 and asked [music] where she was and

she says, "If you're not here at 7:00,

she's gone."

>> She wouldn't wait on him. From then on,

if he was going to be late, he'd call.

And my [music] grandpa, his dad, would

say, "I want to meet this girl that's

having you call her when you're going to

be late." He was never late again.

>> Well, he wanted to learn to fly. So, he

took lessons up at Newcastle Airport.

Learned to fly up there.

>> It was about 100 yards north of where

the present one is. The building is

still there.

>> He enjoyed flying. He He come natural to

him. It was a Travel Air 2000. It was a

biplane, two wings, open cockpits,

powered by a 90 horsepower OX5 engine.

>> He was very gifted [music] as a pilot

and I am so proud of him. Very, very

proud of him.

>> We all got along good in them days

in different times.

We were mored over at Pearl City Landing

that morning.

We were all awakened by the the bombs

going off

7:59

a.m.

That's when they hit

When they bombed Pearl Harbor and they

sunk the Arizona and they sunk those

other ships and those men were in

steaming oil on the sea dying, the

country rallied, but [music] the country

was different.

>> I was at a movie at the Tivoli in

Richmond, Indiana when they closed down

the screen and the owner came on stage

and told us that we had been bombed.

>> I think we realized at that time that we

were going to be in a long fight. I

[music] was studying for final exam.

President Roosevelt was on speaking

about

>> the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

>> Well, I didn't know anything about Pearl

Harbor and never heard of it.

>> 1941.

>> Went to school and when we got to civics

class, our teacher had brought in this

portable radio and we listened

spellbound.

>> A date which will live

in infamy.

>> Infamy, a word we'd never heard before.

Then he turned to the Congress and he

asked them to declare war and they did

>> with the unbounding determination

of our people.

We will gain the inevitable triumph. So

help us God.

Then we started looking where we could

enlist.

>> There was quite a inundation of uh

people showing up at recruiting stations

in the immediate [music] aftermath of

Pearl Harbor. I enlisted out of

Bingmpington, New York.

>> Royal was the only one that enlisted. My

other brother and I got drafted.

>> I signed all the papers and was sent to

Camp Blanding, Florida, which was an

infantry base. And I thank the good Lord

20 times a day that I didn't join the

infantry.

>> I wanted to get in the action.

>> Of course, we were just emerging from

the Great Depression.

>> America

in tragedy comes together. The

depression had a great leavenning

effect.

>> We were living in in a quite different

world. We had rationing, butter, [music]

milk, eggs, silk stockings.

>> Consequently, a lot of people began to

grow what they called a victory garden.

And estimated 40% of the vegetables

grown in America were grown in those

victory gardens. And there were these

drives. They needed rubber desperately.

They needed scrap metal.

>> And I saved tin foil and bundles and

gave it to the collectors. As a matter

of fact, some people began to give up, I

know Rita Aworth did, to give up the

bumpers on their cars to the scrap metal

people. Honest to God,

>> everybody shared in in the war effort.

My mother rolled bandages, worked for

the Red Cross in Oklahoma.

>> My great regret then was that I wasn't a

little bit older so I could actually

wear a uniform.

>> I wanted to do that, too. I wanted to

get involved. So [music] I convinced my

mother if I joined the Navy underage I

would not be sent overseas until I was

18. Now it was a lie you know but I was

desperate. I wanted so badly to get into

the service. It had to be fought. We

were fighting Hitler, Mussolini and

Tojo.

Entire world was at war.

>> These mad men had to be stopped. So you

sign on and you do what you can.

>> And so we had a nation that had a purity

[music] of purpose and that was to

eliminate evil in the world. My name is

John Ray Freeland C. Turpining Walter O

Shepard Milton Robins Mark Ishigol

Raymond Lee Oral Westerman John Misterly

>> Edward gets Lia Lman Hoffers Jerry Ellen

>> Ro Hollowman John Logan

>> I was in a 30man cadry they had sent us

to Kisherfield Mississippi to set up

quarters for a new squadron that's going

to be formed

and it turned out to be it was a fourth

emergency rescue squadron.

There were so many pilots were shot down

and they didn't know whether they

survived, whether they were in the water

for weeks.

>> The fourth emergency rescue squadron

[music]

was formed when the Navy decided that

they were spending too much time

rescuing Air Force pilots. So, the next

thing I knew, I had orders to go through

the advanced training school at

Pensacola, learning to fly the PBY.

>> We're talking about a consolidated

[music] PBY, which was a SE plane,

amphibious. It had landing gear you

could land on. It was built so that you

could land in water. Primarily, I would

say the thought was rescue in the open

sea. An airplane gets shot down,

whatever reason, you had to ditch. PBY

was one of the best airplanes for

landing and picking up people and

retrieving them.

>> The tanks, just the wings, had a little

over 2,000gallon capacity all told with

a couple of what they call Tokyo tanks

or auxiliary tanks under the wing. We

had one under each wing at 165 gallons a

piece. But anyway, that gave us about 20

hours flying time.

>> Our planes were built by Vickers in

Canada. The army designation of the

plane was a OA10A. OA standing for

observation amphibian, but it's the

classic PBY5A.

President Roosevelt, they had what they

referred to as reverse Lyn lease and

they were a carbon copy of the black

cats that our Navy had made history

with.

>> After we were graduated from Pensacola,

we were designated naval aviators. We

were then entitled to wear Navy wings

and airore [music] wings. We wore air

core wings all over our heart, navy

wings on the right side. After we were

sent to Beluxy, Mississippi, Kesler

Field, that's where we became a member

of a crew.

>> Most of us were pretty pleased that we

had a rescue [music] outfit that was to

save lives instead of taking lives. We

worked pretty hard, as hard as we could.

They quickly brought in enough personnel

so that we had 12 planes that would make

a squadron. And my pilot was Royal

Stratton. I knew Royal Stratton real

well. He was a dear good friend,

extremely excellent pilot. I can't say

enough about his [music] pilot ability

and a fine man

>> and he was tall for pilot. I think he

was about 6'4.

>> When I was by him, we looked like mutton

Jeff [laughter]

and then flew from there to Mlullen

Field in Sacramento, California. We went

over with white planes and they painted

them blue to match the water so planes

flying above us wouldn't be able to see

us. There was a Catalina and we named it

Prowling Puss and we had a Prowling Puss

on the side of the plane and he's

sitting druming his fingers. It was a

real good picture. We thought it was

>> my engineer. He came up with the name

Super Duck and he painted SuperDuck

on Superduck.

>> We called it the old lard assass. Took

off at 90 knots, flew at 90 knots, and

landed at 90 knots.

>> Well, he just showed up one day and had

the name on it. It was spelled P I S T O

F E. When we talked to Stratton, he told

us that that [music] was French for

flying ball. And he pronounced it peace

stove or something like that. It was a

play on words obviously,

>> but the way it was [music] spelled, it

looked like pissed off and everybody

appreciated that. We kind of made

history wherever we went and if we ended

up in the news in any way, they would

blot that out.

>> We waited there for our instructions

to go overseas.

John Garfield, a New York actor, all

excited about the Stage Door canteen,

told Betty Davis about it. It was made

up, of course, at Broadway stage actors,

entertaining GIs, American servicemen

[music]

about to embark for the venture of their

lives. And Betty instantly caught fire

and said, "This is the West Coast port

of embarcation and they're coming

flooding through here and they have

nowhere to go." So there has to be a

Hollywood [music] canteen. And indeed it

happened.

And they created this wonderful,

wonderful place where the soldiers who

were on their way overseas in the

Pacific could stop and be fed by, you

know, by movie stars and be danced with

movie stars, be entertained. [music] The

war was on and my mother one night she

came home and she said, "You're going to

sing at the Hollywood canteen." And I

got out on the stage and [music] I sang

and they stood up and applauded. And

what I realize is these young men, they

were so babyfaced and young and

courageous and they loved everything we

did for them. Everything.

>> We had the big [music] bands playing

there. One name band after another. Any

that was in town at the time [music]

would be happy to play for nothing to

our young military. And so there was

some pretty great dancing [music] done

on the most crowded of dance floors. I

got five hours Liberty every night and

and I [music] would hightail it right

over to the Hollywood canteen which was

incredible.

>> And I remember walking in one day and

there was the great gorgeous John

Garfield with his sleeves rolled up and

an apron on doing dishes and it was a

sight that I'll never forget as long as

I live. The boys [music] wanted proof

that they had been to the Hollywood

canteen so I signed everything. I had to

sign their best girls pictures. Imagine

what a privilege was for me to [music]

be part of that. The barn held about a

thousand gis and a number of hostesses

to welcome them.

>> And finally, one night they prepared for

the millionth man to come through those

doors. And he did. The place just

absolutely erupted when he walked

through the door. He didn't know he was

the millionth man.

>> By the time they closed in 45, they had

served 3 million servicemen. [music]

>> Many of them, of course, never came

back. So that was the last view they had

of America and kindness and [music]

people trying to help them.

My mom wanted to name me Royal and thank

God she didn't. Dad said no. If we ever

have a son, we'll name him Royal. So he

named me Vicki Elaine. He was gone a lot

when he was in the service and he was

home when I was born and then he left

when I was four days old and that's the

last we saw him.

>> Then we did get instructions to go

overseas. I had our aircraft blessed by

a priest before I ever left the states

but I'm not Catholic. I'm an

Episcopalian.

But I asked each man if they had any

objection to it and they said no sir.

And so the airplane was blessed and I

have St. Christopher metal on the wall

here that was glued to my instrument

panel. We took off different days in

[music] route to Hickham Airore Base in

Honolulu.

That was a long flight. We lost the

plane when we first went overseas.

Nobody knows what happened. It gets

awful dark as you keep going west and

there's lots of water under there. Our

first flight to get to where we were

going to serve, we had to make to

Hawaii.

But I remember we took off about 3:00 in

the morning in Sacramento, California.

And about halfway across, we got a radio

transmission. It is all in code, of

course. They told us to turn around and

go back

>> that there was a headwind going to hit

us. And we probably didn't have enough

gas to reach Honolulu.

>> They want us to return to

>> Dulan. How far are we from Hawaii?

>> 7.5 hours. said our current heading and

air speed if we maintain total flight

time will be just over 19 hours.

>> We've passed the halfway point.

>> What's happening?

>> They want us to turn around and go back

>> to Sacramento.

>> That doesn't make any sense.

>> Radar operator to engineer.

How long can we stay airborne with those

new Tokyo tanks? Over.

>> We got about 20 hours total flight time,

chief. Over.

Copy, doc.

>> Radio operator to pilot.

>> Pilot to radio operator. Go ahead,

>> Lieutenant. We've been instructed to

return to Sacramento. Over.

>> Copy. Instructed to return to

Sacramento. Over.

>> Return to Sacramento.

>> Sir,

>> I requested code verification.

Transmitting party was unable to verify.

Over.

>> Copy. Unable to verify.

>> Japanese dummy transmission.

Pilots or crew, according to my

calculations, we are past the halfway

point to [music] our destination.

Therefore, I will ask each of you to

vote, yay or nay, as to whether we

return to Sacramento.

Take a moment to [music] consider. Over.

>> Navigator to pilot. You flying by ear

again, Lieutenant?

>> Pilot to navigator first, Lieutenant.

And are my calculations incorrect? Over.

>> No, sir. Your calculations are correct.

Over. Navigator, please say again. Over.

>> Your calculations are correct.

>> Over.

>> Over.

>> Repeat.

>> And so we all voted, let's go ahead. And

when we did land at Holland Lulu, we

were in [music] the air 19 hours and 55

minutes as I remembered. And our flight

engineer later told me. He said we had

about

15 minutes flying time left.

So, but we were pleased we were there

>> from Wfield. We went to a little spot in

the ocean called Johnson Island.

>> Orders, we finally got them after two or

three weeks.

>> We [music] searched for General Harmon.

He was an Air Force general.

>> Most of the time when we were searching

for rafts, I was in the blister watching

for it because radar wouldn't pick it

up. And the radar on our plane was up

high, so you couldn't shoot down with

it. You had to shoot out.

>> I don't think they ever did know what

happened to that plane. We couldn't find

any evidence of it anywhere.

>> Even though we were all a bunch of young

guys, we suddenly became men.

>> We left there and headed west again.

From Johnson Island, we were sent

temporary duty to Wajain, any weak,

bikini, at finally to Saipan. When we

got to Saipan, officers and enlisted men

both lived in tents in the mud.

>> Wise guy me said, "Where's the hotel?"

And they said, "You're sleeping here."

>> From Saipan, we had four flights in the

squadron. A flight, B flight, C flight,

D flight.

>> Each were on one of the nearby islands,

plus the headquarter unit in Guam.

>> The B29, those were the super forts.

They started coming in. Those B29s had

enough bugs in them. plus a shot and

shell from the Japanese gunners.

>> It was the largest airplane to go into

production during World War II. Was a

beautiful airplane, flew beautifully.

One problem, the engines, they

overheated readily.

>> We were losing a lot of them at sea.

>> There were 20 crews in our squadron and

of each of the squadrons assembled on

Saipan. I must say that half of those

crews were lost during the time we were

bombing Japan. We'd go up to fly cover

for them about 3:30 in the morning as I

remember it. They had a long runway and

they were loaded to the hilt. They'd

come down that runway and build up as

much speed as they possibly could. And

right at the end of the runway was a

cliff and they shot over the cliff and

then they dropped. Once in a while they

would hit water and of course explode.

But most of them managed to but you

[music] could see their prop wash on the

water and then finally gain altitude and

take off make a straight beline for

Japan. It was horrifying because I don't

think many of them were over 5T over the

water when they took off and it was hair

raising to them. I'm sure

>> one of our jobs be ready for pickups in

case they did ditch.

>> So we had Saipan and the Marianas but

the planes just couldn't make it back.

Sometimes they would, but most of the

time they just couldn't make that total

run to Japan and back. The Japanese

aerial gunners were getting pretty good.

They had plenty of practice with these

super forts coming in and that's when we

attacked Evoima.

>> Why was Iujima important? Because it was

midway point from the main to Tokyo.

>> There were two things important about

Iuima. One, it was within range of Japan

for fighter aircraft. P47s and P-51s

could reach Japan and come back. And it

was an emergency landing ship for B29s

that carried 11 or 12 crew members. So

it was a place of rescue for the B29s.

>> 150 of us got shipped out at one time.

And I never forget it. The first

sergeant came out was giving us a pep

talk

and all of a sudden he stopped.

He [music] said, "You men are going to

make history."

And history we did.

[music]

During the battle, there was 36 planes

landed there. The first one was on the

13th day. That left 23.

It's almost two a day. And those 36

planes probably saved 360 lives because

there's minimum crew of 10.

>> So they attacked Euima [music] and

finally got it. My wing of our squadron

were assigned to Evil and we flew rescue

operations out of there.

>> The island itself was about 4 and 1/2

miles long and a mile and a half wide

and it was around 40,000 of us on the

island. Life on a Jim was miserable.

>> We had no fresh [music] water. They had

a distilled ship out on the ocean. We

drank distilled ocean water.

>> That extremely fine volcanic ash was

[music] always in the air.

>> Our only means of washing up going into

the ocean with clothes on and all

>> where our encampment was down right next

to Surabachi. There was two crews to a

tent, no floors. It was really kind of

nomadic conditions. We spent 6 months

living in the tents.

>> Me and Holiday, the flight engineer,

always slept in the plane. And Sam,

well, old Sam was a mechanic. He was a

good one. So they assigned him to our

plane. And so wherever we'd land, Sam

was always going around working on the

plane. Me and Holiday been up most of

the night playing poker somewhere. And

Sam, he'd get up while me and the flight

engineers trying to sleep. And he'd

start working on the plane. And he'd be

hammering. And that plane is just like a

drum. when you beat on the side, it

reverberates. And the flight engineer

told Sam says, "Sam, why don't you knock

that off? We can let that go some other

time." But old Sam wasn't that way. Sam

was conscientious. And Holiday, he said,

"Sam, damn it. I give you a direct order

to go back to bed." I couldn't stand it.

I laughed. Oh, Doc Holiday, the Western

gunman. That was one of his relatives.

[laughter]

Well, I always doubted that, but I

couldn't argue with him. He He was

always good for a laugh. [laughter]

We got eight new B17s and it was on

Aujima until the war ended. I was the

radio operator on Bulge and Bessie. We

would go and on standby offshore so that

if [music] a crippled plane come back,

we had to boat on the B17. We could drop

a boat or give assistant and call a

submarine or a rescue ship in to assist

them.

>> A lot of airplanes have ditched because

[music] mechanical problems. A lot of

them have made it too. Kind of luck

plays a big part of that.

My combat experiences began on March

7th, 1945 when our squadron landed P-51s

on Ewima. We knew that there were

Dumbos, [music] PBY flown by the Army

Airore and the Navy on the way to Japan.

The next group were the destroyers on

top of the ocean and the next group were

the submarines. And yes, we knew that

they were out there. We had code wars

for them. We named them [music]

something and we used them.

>> My father was Hyram Cassidy. He was a

submarine commander in the Pacific and

he took command of the Tyrone. When the

Tyrone was commissioned, Hyram was put

in charge of the whole lifeguard rescue

operation in the South Pacific. When the

pilots were coming back from a mission,

if they had been hit and couldn't get

the planes back to base, then they would

coordinate where they were going to

ditch the plane and the sub would come

up as close as they could to them and

then rescue the pilots and and the crew.

This work was uh very dangerous because

they were operating in enemy waters.

Vsquare 10 was the plane we flew

overseas and it's got a name abroad with

11 Yanks. You know, flying missions is

kind of a harrowing experience. There's

1,500 to,700 miles between Saipan and

the target area of Japan. And as far as

we knew, there's nothing between us but

open ocean. We were on our way to the

target when the propeller ran away. Ran

at high speed and we were not able to

control it. So we headed for the island

of Agraan just before we got there. Fire

broke out on the engine. And when fire

broke out, we bailed out. We were at

[music] 3,000 ft at 3:00 in the morning

over the wide Pacific Ocean. But at

least within an island visible to us,

I'm sure we were all hanging in our

parachutes when the plane exploded,

crashed into the island of Anra. Well

after daylight, a PBY flying boat flew

over. Little did I know that they had

been alerted and they came to search for

us.

>> The B29 scattered itself across about a

third of the way up. We circled in

close. I never once felt that we were

all lost, but I was extremely thankful

when I saw the PBY flying over. 12 of us

bailed out. Unfortunately, only 11 were

picked up.

We got this call that a naval TBM had

been down and was in the sea to the east

of Peloo. Very difficult to find them

because the seas were extremely rough.

The swells were 8 to 10 ft. We found

them, dropped a smoke bomb, and I called

each member of the crew on the intercom

to the man. They said, "Let's go,

skipper." But we got alongside of them,

and two of my crewmen, they got a rope

to the life raft and we were able to

pull them up to the aircraft and between

all the men on the crew, they were able

to get the three men in the blister of

the aircraft.

You start to take off run. I hollered

floats up, come back on the wheel just a

little bit and we were airborne.

We were very lucky and I don't mind

telling him. I'm not an over religious

man, but God was with us.

>> My name is Doug West. I'm the son of

Clyde Allen West. He was a captain and

pilot of the B29 bomber called Dragon

Lady. It was actually his final mission

and he was flying Dragon Lady on a

bombing mission over Japan. I'm Steven

Wilcox and I'm the son of Rodri Gail

Wilcox. My dad was flying as co-pilot on

the Dragon Lady when she went down. In

1945, [music]

General Lameé of the 73rd Bomb Wing and

all of the 20th Air Force decreed

[music] that incendiary raids should be

carried out to successfully stop the

production of war material. [music] So,

incendiary bombing was carried out. It

was not a small thing to [music] prep

one of those planes for a mission like

that. It would start 6 to8 hours before

the mission and those missions were 15

to 18 hours long. That particular

mission that was a Yokohama. They were

flying off Northfield Tennium. That was

the same airfield that the Inola Gay and

the 509 set up. [music]

>> On their way back they encountered flack

and it damaged the plane. The shell that

damaged them the most exploded right

under the cockpit and it started

electrical fires in the airplane and the

airplane was also hit in other places.

So they were pretty badly limping. The

plane was an electronic airplane and it

was dependent on the [music] internal

navigation, radar and electronic

controls. And if the electronic system

went out, then you couldn't control the

aircraft. They kept turning off the

electrical system and it was able to get

the fire to stop. But then whenever they

tried to turn it back on again, the fire

started again.

>> The tail gunner apparently burned alive

because of the fire,

>> right?

>> Everybody else is trying to put the

fires out. It's chaos. You have no

situational awareness outside the

aircraft. And you don't know if you're

going to be called on to parachute or

whether or not the pilot's going to put

her down.

>> So he decided to [music] ditch the

airplane.

>> You can feel your stomach goes right up

in your throat. I mean, you can feel the

planes going down like a stone.

>> Descending at 3,000 ft per minute.

>> That's a really rapid descent. It would

be very close to feeling as if you're in

freef fall. The noise and the vibration

[music] are just tremendous. They're

absolutely deafening. And you feel this

through your whole body. You want to put

her down tail first, smoothly, hit the

water, and [music] you've got to keep

her level.

When the plane crashed, several of the

crewmen were swept out. Two were lost

and never recovered. At that point,

because the ship was sinking, they had

to get onto their life rafts. They

weren't able to radio anybody, their

location, because the electrical

equipment had been out.

>> They could count on the fact that

somebody was going to be looking for

them. They just didn't know how much

information the rescuers would have

about them because their communications

had been cut off. So they were out there

floating in the middle of the ocean

probably thinking that this could be the

end that they didn't know whether they

were going to be rescued killed by a

Japanese submarine or zeros that may

have seen them and come [music] in.

>> You're at zero elevation and everything

is above you. You know you the Queen

Mary could be a 100 yards away and if

you weren't on the top of one of the

swells you'd never see it. So it was a

scary thing because you just don't know

how long you're going to be.

>> How's Weaver? We're out of morphine.

>> She nosed over too quick. Cap

>> couldn't get to the provisions.

>> James, any food or water in that thing?

>> Negative, Captain.

>> How long do these rafts stay afloat?

>> They'll hold for a good long while,

Veshi. Don't you worry. Won't be on

Tinion long before these rafts give way.

Sam.

Sam.

Sam. Rise and shine, boys.

>> Sam, why don't you knock that off till

another time?

[music]

>> You boys up all night playing poker

again?

>> Samuel Zuck, I'm giving you a direct

order.

>> Stop working.

>> My cousin would never put up with this.

You know, last time you told that story,

Doc Holiday was your uncle. Don't start

with me, Chief.

The

>> operations officer. He got notice from

whomever that this was down or that was

down, and he's the one that came and

notified us that you're on go.

>> Sam, Lieutenant's on his way. We're

going up. Emergency search and rescue.

Can you put that back on?

>> Zula, B29 ditched. Last known position.

Go ahead and plot the course. They're in

the water. We're against the clock.

>> Roger that.

>> We got to get those props turned

through.

>> Sam

Zuck, you breaking my plane?

No sir.

>> You still looking for a change of

scenery?

>> Yes, sir.

>> When you're done there, come aboard.

>> Yes, sir.

Thank you, sir.

Radio check. Radio check.

>> Tower check.

>> Radio.

>> Copy.

>> Navigator check.

>> Rainer operator. Copy.

>> Doc, let's get this thing running. Start

on engine number one.

>> Engineer to pilot. Copy. Start on engine

number one.

Start on [music] engine two.

>> Engineer a pilot. Copy. Start on engine

number two.

Walnut, this is Dumbo number one

requesting clearance for takeoff on

Maple. Emergency rescue over.

>> Copy Dumbo, you're currently number one

and cleared for takeoff. Maple over.

>> Copy, tower.

Pilots, your crew, prepare for takeoff.

>> [music]

>> Navigator to pilot. We've reached our

last known position. Over.

>> Pilot to navigator. Copy. Very nice

work, Zulkan. Over.

>> Going to do an expanded square search.

>> They're out here somewhere.

>> Lieutenant, we're well within fighter

range.

>> We're going to have to keep moving when

we find them.

>> If we find them.

>> We're not leaving without them,

Lieutenant.

>> It's very difficult to find people in a

small boat in the ocean. It's just a big

ocean out there and a lot of room. And

if you make a pass going east to west

and turn around and come back the other

way, how close were you? Because you

can't come back a mile off or two miles

off. There were Japanese subs in the

area and the crew members that he was

trying to rescue would not be surviving

by nightfall.

>> Captain, what is it? Sparks.

>> Cap, you hear it?

I think you're hearing things, Cody.

>> No,

>> no, I know that sound.

>> It's a twin engine

synchronized.

>> One of ours.

>> That's not funny. You know, you should

keep your mouth shut if you don't know

what you're talking about. Yo, why don't

you shut the hell up? I know what the

hell I heard. All right. It's a twin

engine. Probably a

false hope is worse than NO HOPE.

>> YOU BETTER NOT BE AFRAID.

>> WE DON'T KNOW WHERE WE ARE. I DON'T KNOW

WHERE WE ARE.

I DON'T exactly

>> engineer to pilot. I've got eyes on nine

Davy Jones and two good years. Repeat,

nine Davy Jones, two good years.

>> Copy, doc. We've seen them coming around

for another pass. What is the condition

of the crew? Over.

>> One appears to be critical. The other

satisfactory. Over.

>> One man was pretty badly injured.

>> How far does that Navy lifeguard sub?

>> ETA at playmate. 3 hours at maximum

speed.

>> So Stratton decided to land and pick

them up. Get them back to the nearest

hospital as fast as we could.

>> Pilots and crew prepare for water

landing. Floats down. Floats down.

>> Copy. Floats down. Floats down. Over.

He made an open sea landing which

[music] was prohibited. It was just too

dangerous.

>> He thought of others before he thought

of himself.

>> We pulled up to the raft. He was afraid

to kill the engine because we had to get

out of there as quick as it could. And

so the plane was always moving forward.

The life raft would floating back under

the plane when we'd come up. The tail of

the plane be way out of the water and

then come down slap. Well, it beating

those guy to death in the raft. And so I

had to lean out as far as I could over

the blister and pull the raft forward

against the motion of the plane. They're

>> flying right over. Hurry.

Oh, boy. Go.

>> Hold up. Take my head.

>> Keep an eye out. I'm worried about

zeros.

Watch your leg.

>> Go. Go.

holiday.

You're next.

>> I can't leave him.

>> We're not leaving anyone. Let's go.

>> We're not leaving you. You hear me?

Then we got down to the injured guy in

the raft. You never saw such a pitiful

look on a guy's face in your life. He

thought we was going to go off and leave

him.

>> What's your name, Arvin?

>> Weaver. My name's Weaver.

>> All right, Weaver. I'm Loki. I need you

to work with me for a minute. Can you do

that for me, Weaver?

>> I can't move. You have to leave me.

We're not going to leave you. Go. You

listen to me. We are all going home. Do

you understand me?

>> I thought he had a broken back way he

was acting. I knew if we brought him

over the blister of that plane, we'd

kill him.

But the pilot was screaming at us. We

were in Japanese waters.

>> Logan,

>> sending ducks, so he [music] wanted us

to get off as quick as he could.

>> Logan.

Oh, thank you.

[music]

Heat.

[music]

Heat.

[music]

>> [music]

>> The plane had the extra weight that we

had just taken aboard and the plane

dived and it hit the base of the next

swell and that swell broke up over the

plane and it ripped the lift prop loose.

Stratton pulled the throttle quick

enough to keep the other prop from

taking us over and down. He had to pull

it before the propeller hit him.

Probably a hundth of a second there

[music] between this total disaster and

was coming out safe. It's unbelievable.

I was in the back taking care of the

injured people we had taken aboard. The

rest of the guys were busy sharpening

pencils and sticking them through the

rivet holes in the plane cuz we were

shipping water fast. The co-pilot told

me, "Lieutenant Stratton was seriously

injured and go forth, take care of him."

Our flight surgeon had gone on a trip

with another plane. They never returned.

So this day, they named me the flight

surgeon.

One tip of a blade came through the

cockpit and hit the pilot just above the

ear. Stretch from just over his left ear

to the right eye. I looked at it very

closely because he would always debrief

us when we'd get back from something

like this. I took his head in my hands

the best I could from the co-pilot seat.

I had to stop the bleeding, but the only

way to do it was to put pressure on

those blood lines that runs up just in

front of your ear on each temple. So, I

shut down the arteries and the veins at

the temple. Now, whether I did any good

or not, I don't know.

You look out and far as you could see

there was these soils coming at you.

I got the feeling that I was in the

middle of eternity.

That's all there was and all there ever

had been was that great empty space out

there with those swells coming at you.

And in the meantime, the radio man had

been very busy searching for help. And

he got in touch with a submarine, the

USS Tiger. And I think it took them an

hour or maybe a little more to reach our

destination, which they did.

And so the problem came then to transfer

Lieutenant Stratton from the plane to

the sub. And they rigged up some kind of

a sling and they carried him to the

blisters in the back.

>> [music]

>> Stuart,

you go home now.

>> I can't. I I have to make sure I get

>> I outrank you, son.

They're going to ask a lot of questions

about today.

You just tell them it was a direct

order, but I stayed with the ship.

You go with our skipper now. Get him

safely across.

Just head to the back.

[music]

They transport the pilot from the plane

to the sub in a sling of some kind.

Then the front of the sub pulled up to

the plane wing. The nose of the sub was,

I'm going to say about two or three feet

beyond the end of the wing. To get on

the sub, we all climbed out of one of

the windows of the plane and made our

way out on the wing. As the swells came

by, we'd go up and down. One moment the

sub would be below us and the next

moment it rise up above us and then back

down.

Well, we walked out on the end of the

plane wing and when the sub would start

coming up, we jump on it. You had to

time it just right. They'd go up and

come back down and the next guy jump.

All those men on the plane made that

transfer safely. No incident whatsoever.

They'd already taken the wounded guy.

Thank goodness we found out later he

didn't have a broken back. Come to find

out he had a whole bunch of flesh gouged

out of one thigh. They got [music] him

straightened around pretty well.

Being I'd been taking care of Lieutenant

Stratton. I was next to the last man off

the plane. The last man was Captain

Zulan, our navigator, but we all made it

safe and sound with no problem. The put,

it was just a little engine. It was

pumping water so diligently, it was

still chattering away when we all got

off and pulled away. It rose to its

finest hour in the time we needed it.

So the subcommander unmembered his deck

gun and blew our plane out of the water.

would have sank it. Then tongue and

cheek he added it to his tonnage that he

was supposed to sink.

When we lost it, we felt the loss pretty

strongly. He was our old lady, so to

speak. Course we had a double loss

there. You know, we lost the plane

Stratton, too. We thought Tron is as

good a pilot as we could have. We

thought he was as good a pilot as there

was in the organization.

Sometime during the night, Stratton had

died. I don't see how he lived as long

as he did. I felt like I was inadequate.

and the sub physician. He said there

wasn't a thing you could do about it. He

said that had happened on the steps of

John's Hopkins Hospital. It would all

been the same.

>> It's obvious now that nothing I could

have done could have saved Stratton.

They buried him at sea next morning. I

was too sick to go.

>> They surfaced. It would have been a a

formal burial at sea. Captain Cassidy,

the captain of the Tigron, he would read

the burial service and then the body

will be slid over the side of the ship

with a crew at attention.

>> Hyram took [music] things on the boat

personally. It was done with dignity,

respect, and love.

>> The sub picked [music] up a total of

about 33 plane crew plus the B29 crew we

picked up, plus another B29 crew and a

small medium bomber and one fighter

pilot. I believe I think they had 33 men

on the sub and some of us were sleeping

on the torpedo. Uh that was a record.

That was the most pilots and air crew

rescued by any lifeguard submarine. And

the sub put them ashore on Euima on June

the 1st. And there's a picture of them

on the deck of the Tyrone when she

pulled into Euima. And there was a

famous radio transmission that Cassidy

had sent after he had left his lifeguard

station to um commander-in-chief

submarines and said Tyrone has saved the

air force and is returning to Euima with

28 zooies. We come back from a mission

one time and there was a large group of

people around a tent. One of the

survivors was telling us what had

happened. I got to talk to John Logan

who was a member of that crew who

witnessed all that horrendous stuff. No

good.

No good.

>> We're transferred to Euima in [music]

May of 1945.

We learned that we're replacing a crew

that their service [music] had been

lost. And this crew was headed by

Lieutenant Royal Stratton and was killed

in that operation.

I want to get down where the action was

and I got the opportunity to volunteer

as a [music] co-pilot in the fourth

emergency rescue squad. And I didn't

want to be a co-pilot, but that's the

way it all worked out. In the long view

of things, probably was the best thing

that ever happened to me.

>> [laughter]

>> So I was assigned to Captain

Richardson's crew and that very hour I

was on a plane headed for Euima. I

noticed that he had me sit in the pilot

seat. Well, I didn't realize it at the

time, but later I found out the reason I

flew in the pilot seat is because when

the prop comes off of that motor, it

comes and kills the pilot. So Bud and I

became great friends later on after the

war. And I never ceased to remind him of

that fact. and he always blushed up and

said, "Well, uh, you were last in."

It was the 3rd of July, 1945.

I always remember it because I say I got

my fireworks a day early. [laughter]

I never forget that day. It was

It was uh, it wasn't good at all.

>> I was a squadron leader on a mission

over Chichima. Richard Shropel, Dick

Shropel from Rididgewood, New Jersey,

was my wingman. And I gave a waggle and

we all strung out in a string formation.

Turned our airplanes over, went down and

dropped 500 lb bombs on the Japanese

landing strip on Chichima and they were

shooting at me first, but they hit Dick

Shropel and he got up and bailed out.

Got into a oneman life raft, got out to

sea a little bit. [music] We called for

a Dumbo. There was anti-aircraft on both

sides where he went into this bay. Well,

he was down inside the bay in his little

dinghy and we got the boat down to him

and the Japanese were all firing at him

and firing at us.

>> We were called there, but by the time we

got there and other B7 had dropped his

boat, we could see flashes from the

shore.

>> An Army PBY landed with a flight surgeon

in it. Of course, I was a co-pilot, but

that was the first time I'd ever landed

in the PBY. I had no experience to tell

you the truth. I thought we were

sinking.

>> He saw the rescue boat that was dropped

by a B7.

>> The only thing that I regret, we didn't

get the guy, and that of course haunts

me.

>> He had been killed. And the squadron

that replaced my squadron were ordered

to use rockets to sink that rescue

lifeboat with Dick Shropo's body in it.

so that the commanding officer of

Chichima wouldn't have another liver to

eat of what she was accused of doing

after the war.

>> It was a bad day. We were just fortunate

that we got out of there and back to Evo

without any more problems. We had some

holes in the plane, but they didn't

happen to hit anything vital that

knocked us down or we'd have been right

down there with him.

July the 30th, [music]

1945, the ship was sunk. I first went

aboard in February 1942. My name is

Lihaer. I was seaman first class and I

served aboard the USS Indianapolis. My

station was [music] the last one on the

back of the ship. The 8- in guns back.

That's where I went in to be a gunner's

mate. They took us over to Hunter's

Point. This huge big crate was sitting

on the dock. So, we loaded it aboard

ship and put a marine guard on the door.

One of the best kept missions of World

War II was the USS Indianapolis carrying

the atomic bomb to the island of Tinium

to be loaded on the Anola gate.

>> Well, we had no idea what it was or

anything like that. MacArthur was over

there for a while and they thought maybe

it was a load of toilet paper or

something to take to MacArthur.

>> Even on the side pan, we didn't know

anything about the mission. [music]

>> We went to Guam and we took on

ammunition and supplies and things. We

left out and the captain requested

escort and they turned him down. So we

were by ourselves out in the Philippine

Sea. And that evening I had just got off

watch at 12:00. When the first torpedo

hit, it blew off our bow. And then when

the second torpedo hit, it hit in our

high octane gasoline in one of our

powder rooms where we kept our powder

for our ammunition. And it exploded and

set fire all through the front of the

ship. It was about 12 minutes after

midnight when we got hit. And I went in

the water and I didn't see anybody until

about six o'clock the next morning.

There was thousands and thousands of

sharks just milling around [music] in

barracuda. We could see them and they

were picking guys that was off by

themselves. They were just taking them

real quick. There's no sound out there

but just a little maybe chopping of a

wave or something like that. But then of

course there was guys talking and crying

and praying. We were out there for 5

days. So, we just kept hanging on

saying, "Well, maybe somebody would spot

us or anything." No water, no food.

>> The Navy didn't report the USS

Indianapolis missing until 3 days later.

>> The fourth day, Wilbur Quinn and his

crew based on Tinan. They were out to

spot submarines. They had put an antenna

on the back of the plane and it broke

off. So, they went back in and picked up

another one and came back out again. It

started acting up. So Wilbur Quinn, he

went back half and he said, "Let me take

a look at this." They had the Bombay

doors open. He looked down and he saw a

oil slick, which was us, and he spotted

the heads bobbing up and down. We were

splashing and everything. And he said,

"There's men in the water." So he

radioed back in. Lieutenant Adrien Marx,

his crew was standing by. So he and his

crew jumped in the PBY and flew in and

he saw sharks. So he made an open sea

landing and he bounced a couple of times

and popped holes in the plane and they

plugged him up and started taxing around

and started picking up survivors just

one at a time. We were at a flight D. As

a flight leader, I was able to dispatch

all three of our airplanes. Lieutenant

Richard C. Alorn [music]

went to the northwest. My aircraft went

west and Lieutenant Willie Eman's went

to the southwest. Lieutenant Alhorn

found [music] them. He landed and the

survivors been in the water without

rafts. He threw him rafts full of water

and canned food or rations rather.

>> Some of them ended up in rubber rafts

floundering and I swam out and grabbed

it and swam to our airplane.

>> The surface craft reached them a little

bit just before dark. The Navy PBM

landed and gave him more water, more

rafts. [music] I was picked up probably

about 8:00 from the PBY and that's when

they sent a boat over to pick us up from

the USS Cecil Loyal. They gave us a

soup, a sandwich. [music] It was good.

That was our first meal. I don't even

know what it was. Probably shark.

[laughter]

Almost 1,200 men aboard ship and there

was only 317 of us that survived.

We didn't know anything about the atomic

bomb. It was a well-kept secret. We

didn't even know what the mission was.

But they called the mission and we took

off 5:00 in the morning. And we had

number one station which is right off

the coast of Japan. It was a beautiful

day. It was clear blue sky, maybe a

cloud here and there once in a while.

Smooth sailing. And we was going along

there and all of a sudden George, radio

operator, sat across from me. He looked

out the window and he see this cloud

coming up and he said, "What the hell

was that?" And I stood up and looked out

the top hatch and he could see this

cloud getting bigger and bigger and

bigger. We didn't see the flash cuz I

don't think we were that close. I do

recall we felt the shock of it blowing

out. It just come over the radio a short

time later that it was what they call

the atomic bomb. It was horrendous.

We didn't know at the time how many

thousands of people they had killed, but

it was just something I was not very

proud of.

We had a mission to the number one

station. There were three men downed

right in the center of Tokyo Bay. So I

immediately start my descent. Finally,

we got through the flack. I spotted the

three survivors. We made a full stall

landing, but I overshot them by about a

half a mile. Had to turn around, taxi

back to them, had a destroyer come out.

They were firing 5 in shells at us. They

were coming closer, every shell.

Finally, one dropped in between the

starboard wing and the aft tail section.

Knocked my medical technician off his

feet, told him to close the hatches, get

ready to take off. When the windshield

cleared up, I could see I was headed

straight for that destroyer. I yelled,

"Pull up the float so I could start a

turn." Even though I was on the water, I

finally got airborne and I went right

across the bow of that destroyer.

On August 15th at about 10:00 in the

morning, we got the notice that the

Japanese [music] had surrendered.

>> I have received this afternoon a message

from the Japanese government in reply to

the message forwarded to that government

by the Secretary of State on August

11th.

I deem this reply a full acceptance of

the pots dam declaration

which specifies the unconditional

surrender of Japan. Cease fire was to be

12 noon. When it arrived station it was

circling four destroyers. They said they

picking up bogeies on their radar

screen. No sooner said that the sky

turned black with all the anti-aircraft

firing all four ships. There was a

kamicazi attack. Five zeros are coming

in. Four of them went after the

destroyers. One picked me out to ram us.

He was flying through the flack waving

his wings just so he [music] could ram

me head on. He got to about maybe 50

yards. I could see the pilot as clearly

as I'm looking at you. I thought, sure,

th this was the end of my life. Just at

that point, one of the shells from the

destroyer must have hit the bomb this

kamicazi was flying with just blew up in

a huge ball of flame. I didn't even see

the wreckage. That was my most

frightening [music] experience, more so

than landing in Tokyo Bay.

>> I was up at Japan when Anahosi came on

and said for all pilots to return to

base that the war was over and the

Japanese had surrendered. And then one

of the worst 6 hours in my life of

flying. My father had taken me to see

the movie [music] All Quiet on the

Western Front where the guy gets plugged

the last day of the war. [music] And I

thought, "Oh [ __ ] this is going to

happen. We're going to get lost.

Something bad's going to happen." And

that's the way I thought all the way

back to evil. Near the end of the war,

we lost one aircraft with seven guys

shut down. It hit us pretty bad,

particularly when just hours away from

the end of the war.

>> The last plane shot down on World War II

was a PBY4th Emergency Rescue Squadron

in Tokyo Bay.

We got a mission to fly a courier to the

battleship Missouri.

>> The courier was carrying the surrender

documents. I was co-pilot on that

flight. Charles Oats was the pilot. The

courier and I decided to play cribage on

the way. I could see the outline of the

document [music] binders in his mail

bag. The courier wouldn't let go of that

bag the entire flight. Obviously, for

good reason.

We are gathered here

representatives

of the major waring powers

to conclude

a solemn agreement

whereby peace may be restored.

The issues

involving

divergent ideals and ideologies

have been determined on the battlefields

of the world.

I announce it my firm purpose in the

tradition of the countries I repres.

represent

to proceed in the discharge of my

responsibilities

with justice and tolerance while taking

all necessary dispositions to ensure

that the terms of surrender are fully

promptly and faithfully complied with.

>> We didn't dream of anybody getting

killed. [music]

We were friends.

When you lose a friend, you lose a part

of yourself.

We had built a theater on Saipan where

we could watch movies at night and named

it the Stratton Memorial Theater, which

proved what the gentleman of the

squadron felt about Royal.

>> Unfortunately, [music] he lost his life.

But it's because of that that I'm here

today. My family is here. Several

generations of family are here because

of of the efforts of Stratton and his

crew. [music] So words escape me as to

the gratitude I have for the gentleman.

>> Understanding the dynamic of the young

soldier. The hero is born just from

circumstance. He's pushed into a

circumstance. It's the [music] decision

he makes at that moment that makes him

the hero. And some of them don't survive

those decisions. [music] I'm here. I was

born in 52. I was born way after this

event. So, [music]

I'm lucky to be here and I'm lucky that

the legacy goes on and that these things

are documented and we remember.

>> You know, when somebody is taken away

from you so young, that's the way you

remember them forever. You don't see

them getting old and cranky and losing

their hair and, you [snorts] know, he

was always 22 [music] in her mind.

It's hard to imagine the reverberations

[music] of of somebody, you know, a very

beloved family member, a community

member, a friend [music]

that um is not here anymore. My son was

killed in Iraq in April of 2004. [music]

The Cindy Shan that existed on April 3rd

didn't exist on April 4th. It was a

totally different person. We got the

knock on the door and the the army came

to tell us that Casey [music] was

killed. I fell on the floor screaming

for I don't know how long until my head

hurt, until my heart hurt. And when I

got up, I was a different person. How

could I not be sorry?

One of [music] my limbs was amputated.

>> What is hard is to see how my mom

reacted.

She never got over the death of my dad

ever. You You mention his name, she

started crying. So it was something that

I never really wanted to get to [music]

because it just tore her up too much.

She loved him till the day she died.

I [music] like that old saying that says

a person never dies until the last

person [music]

that remembers that person dies. So I

don't think Casey's ever going to die.

He's his story and our story is written

up in history books and um has made

[music] that that Casey is actually

immortal.

It's Congress's

responsibility and our honor to call

attention to those who have uh given me

service to our country and certainly um

the Congress recognize the importance of

those who have served in World War II.

uh we've honored them with [music] a

special memorial and we know that those

who served are uh [music] in some ways

uh many of them are starting to answer

their last call to duty and we want to

take every opportunity to be able to

come forward for those individuals of

served and pay them special recognition

rise in honor of World War II rescue

[music] pilot first lieutenant Royal

Stratton who died May 29th 1945 After

being mortally wounded while saving nine

crew members, Madan B29 Royal hailed

from Elwood City, Pennsylvania. His love

of flying led to his enlistment in the

Army Airore, where he excelled to become

one of the few pilots to wear both army

and navy wings. Royal joined the fourth

emergency rescue squadron with his crew

of six and fly off Eoima and police

flight path searching for B29 bombers in

jeopardy.

Generations have [music] passed since

the members of the fourth Emergency

Rescue Squadron set foot on these

shores.

It doesn't seem that long ago that they

started out on their journey

and faced an entire world at war.

This remote island of Euima is the last

place on Earth a pilot from Pennsylvania

and many others would set foot. And it's

this hallowed ground that I've chosen as

the last stop on my journey as well.

Here at top Mount Serbachi, I'm alone

with the memory of those brave

individuals who forever set aside

everything they could have been in the

name of freedom.

And they changed the world.

Many of us didn't know my great uncle,

just the name, Royal A. Stratton.

He was one among millions.

But he was ours.

I think back fondly about all the roads

I've taken on this long journey,

reaching back through time.

But in all my travels, I've found none

so cherished

as the road that leads us home.

>> Floats up.

>> We're going home.

[music]

When we look into the eyes, creator's

eyes look back to you.

Through those eyes, we see the light.

Amazing grace dispels

[music and singing] the night.

And here

we are

united [singing]

as one.

And now

we stand

in truth and [music and singing] love.

We are We are one family.

[music] We are We are one tribe united.

Your pain becomes my pain.

Your joy becomes my [singing and music]

greatest joy. For we

we are one family.

[music]

It's been a good life [music] that we've

had. We've had positive experiences.

We've had a positive attitude. What

legacy do we want to leave behind? You

know, we want to leave a legacy of peace

and harmony all over the world.

>> I just wanted to do my part. I tried my

best to do everything they asked of me

[music]

and uh I got through.

>> We're out there to save lives [music]

rather than take lives.

>> Felt great knowing that we were part of

a group trying to rescue survivors.

[music] You can't imagine the feeling

that you have inside as you and these

men [music] saved those lives.

>> Everyone took pride in what they did and

it's a real happy feeling.

>> I was just pleased that that's what I'd

been [music] chosen to do.

>> Love had a terrific life. I wouldn't

trade anybody for mine. Well, you don't

salute without your hat.

>> Best years of your life. You don't

realize it till

they're over.

[music]

>> [music]

>> Hallelujah.

[music]

Hallelujah.

[music]

Hallelujah. [music]

>> [music]