Thanks everyone
Pardon the following ramble. It is long, and some of it redundant if you read the acknowledgments page, but I think it noteworthy.
The construction of that site has been, well, wierd. When I was a kid in the 70's, I was a huge WWII airwar buff. I don't know how much time and money I spent on books, models and anything else having to do with the war, but it was a lot. Some kids like Pokemon, some like dinosaurs, I liked WWII aircraft. I even drug my parents to the Confederate Air Show in Harlingen, Texas a couple of years.
I knew all of the Aces and legends. I could recount a timeline of the battle of Midway, its significance and of the story of torpedo squadron 8. But I never knew that I had a relative in that squadron.
Bob Wood is my step brother and a retired navy commander. When my mother married his father a couple years ago, he thought he recalled that there was a Woodson in torpedo squadron 8 that died at Midway. He then, without telling my family, went and investigated to see if we were related. When he found out that was the case, he then set out gathering the story of Jeff's carreer in the Navy and of the USS Woodson. About a year ago Bob presented us with that information and the photos contained on the Legacy page. I read it all and was floored, not only at his kindness, but that I had never known of my great uncle and his story.
So I decided to create that memorial to Jeff. But the site was lacking because I had no photos of him. I figured I would just have to put it up as is, but was looking around for other photos and found one of my great uncle at a web site. The photo was one of a group taken from a movie of the crews of VT-8, and was prefaced with the following excerpts of a correspondance with Mark Horan, the fellow who made them available, explaining their origins:
RADM Mitscher, captain of USS HORNET was fascinated by the possibilities presented to the navy by photographs and movies. By his order, virtually every flight operation on board ship was filmed or photographed, as were all of the pilots. After Midway, Mitscher, for the reasons I could reiterate, felt personally responsible for the loss of Waldron and all but one of his men. He discovered that CDR John Ford (of Hollywood movie fame) had been on Midway Island filming the battle from the pilots of VB-8 that landed there to refuel on 4 June. When Task Force 16 returned to Pearl Harbor, Mitscher and Ford talked. As a result of their conversation, much of the movie footage taken on board HORNET during the battle was supplied to Ford to use in his movie, "The Battle of Midway." At the same time, Ford made a special memorial movie, "Torpedo Squadron 8," for the 30 families of the members of VT-8 who flew on 4 June. Only 30 copies of this movie were made, and all were sent to the families by the navy. This 56 year old copy was loaned to me by John Waldron's daughter. She saw it once, in 1955, the year I was born. It had never been shown in public.When I wrote to Mark asking for permission to use the photo, he not only granted it, he sent me back 4 others containing images of Jeff.
What continues to rattle in my head (no its not a pea) is the sheer improbability of the convergence of circumstances that led to that site. There are probably a million variables that have come into play since my great uncle was caught on film in the summer of 1942 and subsequently shot down. Some are: RADM Mitscher having the forsight to recognize the power and usefulness of film, his and the Navy's consideration of how much those images might mean to the squad members families, John Waldron's daughter loaning a copy of the film to Mark Horan, Mark letting someone else use the images on the web, Bob remembering there was a Woodson in the battle of Midway and his thoughfulness to investigate it, and my decision to make that site. If any of these variables had played out differently, I would have never known of the man or his story. This may sound corny, but I feel like there was a reason all of that fell into my lap.
Anyway, thank you all for taking the time to visit the site. Reading your responses has made the effort even more worthwhile. <S>!
Gordo
