You know, I just ran across this post... I had no idea 68KO was gone.
I did a senario a couple years back, may have been Midway, and I was CO for a TBM squad. At the time we had no Kate so used the TBM as a substitute. 68KO was in my group, we had I think 10 pilots so I broke us up into 2 groups and 68KO was in my small group. We made a couple of practice sessions where I showed everyone how to line up the CV coming in from a 90 degree angle and the propper distance to release the fish. I knew the fish worked just fine and that with the right technique we could pull off sinking a CV, after our practice sessions 68KO was a believer too.
On the day of the senario we took off on our mission looking for our target and about 30 minutes into the event we ran across about a dozen F4F's that we had an altitude advantage on. I made the decision to attack the F4F's and we dove on them. We downed 4 or 5 of the 12 as the rest ran for the deck, not a bad start for 5 TBM's still loaded with fish!(also there was much whining on the event BBS afterwards because the Kate doesn't have forward firing guns) We continued on with our mission and eventually did locate the CV. We dropped from about 15k to the deck, and lined up for our runs nose to tail when were jumped by another group of F4F's. I forget who the tail end Charlie in our group was but they got whacked real quick but turned into them giving the rest of us time to drop our fish. My torp missed but 68KO's hit, we them headed for home while being chased by F4F's. I eventually had to ditch with a pilot wound but 68KO made it back.
I'm so very sorry for your loss guys, I'm half a world away and lose track of the days because I feel like I'm living in the movie "Ground Hog Day". Just thought I'd share my recollection of 68KO with you.
I forget which squad 68KO was apart of then, was it SOG's or... can't remember but he introduced me to his squad that I ended up joining for some time.
That's how people we loved are still with us, remembering them through the times shared.
