Originally posted by Masherbrum
Shouldn't it read "Ondonga"? As in Ondonga, New Guinea? Just curious.
Bless you for being one of the few to give that even a first glance.
"Ondongo in the New Georgia group lies about midway up the Solomons chain. The Americans had started at Guadalcanal in August 1942, and were slowly working their way up the chain, toward the northernmost island, Bougainville, and the major Jap base at Rabaul. By late October 1943, the Americans had occupied New Georgia and were directly threatening Bougainville next."
"Ondongo, October - November, 1943
At 0730 on Oct. 27, Fighting-17 came over the coral strip at Ondongo, executed a perfect carrier-style break-up and approach, touched down at thirty-second intervals, and used up only 200 feet of runway. They thought they were showing off. The Army P-39 and New Zealand P-40 pilots thought they were nuts.
Ondongo, "Place of Death," was beautiful, bug-free (good), sniper-free (better), close to the enemy (best), but unfortunately devoid of women (very bad). The maintenance crew of Marine squadron VMF-215 adopted the Jolly Rogers from the beginning, and they got along famously for the whole tour. "
http://www.acepilots.com/usn_blackburn.html(I'm a VF-17 fan .... well ... obviously)