The "Catus" Air Force

[Brooke]

Excellent stories.  Thanks for the posts, guys. 

One book I'm reading now has a lot of good information on the Cactus Air Force days from the point of view of the Avenger pilots there (VT-8).  VT-8 was the torpedo squadron that lost all but one person in the Midway attack.  The book covers the activities of the squadron from its formation forward.  It's a good one:

A Dawn Like Thunder, by Mrazek.

[earl1937]

While in high school I worked for a man that was an armament chief on the P-400s on Guadalcanal.  He was in the advance party of four men for his squadron.  The first night on the island a Jap snuck into their tent and cut the throats of two of his tent mates.

After the squadron was established on the island he volunteered as a gunner on one of the B-17s flying out of there and was shot down and had to bail out of the Fortress. While under his parachute the Jap fighter strafed him putting 4 MG rounds into one of his legs.  The crew got into a raft and spent 56 hours in the water before being rescued by a PBY.

Good post! That's the kind of stuff we need to keep posting so the younger guys will know something about what The Americans and allies had to do to win the war. From what I am understanding about history being taught in high schools and collage, they are not getting the true picture of what America is all about and the price of freedom! 

[Zacherof]

Almost forgot, one day he was in a jeep at the end of the runway watching Wildcats land after a dogfight overhead.  As one 'Cat turned final its machine guns started firing (some kind of malfunction) hitting his jeep.

What. That's crazy!!!!
One lucky guy.

[Puma44]

Good post! That's the kind of stuff we need to keep posting so the younger guys will know something about what The Americans and allies had to do to win the war. From what I am understanding about history being taught in high schools and collage, they are not getting the true picture of what America is all about and the price of freedom! 

Shack lead!   Spot on Earl!

[kvuo75]

Good post! That's the kind of stuff we need to keep posting so the younger guys will know something about what The Americans and allies had to do to win the war. From what I am understanding about history being taught in high schools and collage, they are not getting the true picture of what America is all about and the price of freedom!  

Last I checked, all of our armed service branches are filled by youth.

They must just be a bunch of punks with no respect for their elders, etc. etc. etc.

[Zacherof]

Last I checked, all of our armed service branches are filled by youth.

They must just be a bunch of punks with no respect for their elders, etc. etc. etc.

If any of my friends have questions about ww2 they all flock to me due to their lack of wanton to know about history

[Puma44]

Last I checked, all of our armed service branches are filled by youth.

They must just be a bunch of punks with no respect for their elders, etc. etc. etc.

You missed Earl's point about what history is being taught in high schools and colleges. 

[earl1937]

Last I checked, all of our armed service branches are filled by youth.

They must just be a bunch of punks with no respect for their elders, etc. etc. etc.

That is your words, not mine! I was simply refereeing to the amount of actual history, that has been re-written, sometimes by people who weren't even there, that has been taught to our young people and the effect which it has on them in shaping their attitude towards maintaining the United States for what it is, The greatest country on this earth. There are factions and people in this country today who try to imply that we are "the bad guys", and what is going on around the world is our fault! I submit to you that if the U.S. did not aid some of these, countries, countless people would starve and wind up being run by a dictator, which has happened more than once. I reject and resent your statement that I implied that the armed services was filled with a bunch of punks,(your words), and had no respect for their elders!

[Puma44]

Well put, Earl.   .   

[Bino]

Two of my favorite books on the Guadalcanal campaign:

Guadalcanal by Richard B. Frank

The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign by John B. Lundstrom

[Saxman]

Always liked this one:

The Cactus Air Force by Thomas Miller.

[Brooke]

On the Guadalcanal campaign as a whole, I very much enjoyed "Neptune's Inferno," by Hornfischer.  An awesome book, right up there in quality with his other awesome books ("Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors" and "Ship of Ghosts").