Hey, Joe .... 07 is Rog Hedrick's #.
No Exec was closer to his Commanding Officer than Roger Hedrick was to Tom Blackburn, and no other XO shot up his CO's aircraft.
Together, the two officers made VF-17, the famed "Jolly Rogers," operate as a cohesive team. Hedrick completed flight school in 1936, as part of the Navy's Aviation Cadet program, which supplemented the Navy's thin ranks of naval aviators in the late 1930's. The two men first worked together at the Miami Naval Aviation training school in 1941, and when Blackburn organized VF-17 in December of 1942, he promptly selected Hedrick as his Executive Officer. He served with the "Jolly Rogers" squadron for its whole combat career.
Originally they had planned and trained to be a carrier-based squadron, working with Chance-Vought to iron out the problems with the Corsair's bouncy landing gear, poor visibility, and other 'minor' issues. While VF-17 did qualify for carrier operations with the F4Us, the Navy high command decided to deploy them on land, where they could take advantage of the Marines' logistical support and spare parts. They set up their base at Ondongo, meaning "Place of Death," on New Georgia in the mid-Solomons on October 27, 1943. This was just in time for the landings at Torokina, near Empress Augusta Bay on Bougainville.
Hedrick flew his first combat mission and scored his first kill on November 1. He took up VF-17's fourth flight of eight planes, to provide top cover for the landings. Before reaching Torokina, sharp-eyed Hedrick spotted several specks, 'bogies', where no Allied planes were reported. As his radio was out, he rocked his wings to signal the attack, but no others in his flight spotted the Japs. He closed in on the Jap leader, got within range, aimed for the Zero's wing root, and flamed it. The remaining Zeros scattered and headed for the deck. Now Hedrick's flight mates dived after them, but the Japanese pilots' well-executed vertical scissors maneuvers kept the Corsairs at bay.
On November 8, Hedrick led VF-17's third mission of the day, an eight-plane flight on CAP over Empress Augusta Bay. Two planes aborted early, leaving six circling over the area for about an hour, when the command ship radioed "Bogies!" They swung southwest in a full-power climb. In minutes, he spotted about two dozen Zeros, covering fifteen Vals. He promptly gave chase with his 4-plane division, ordering two to provide high cover. Hedrick was astonished to see the more numerous Zeros respond to his attack by going into a defensive Lufbery circle, while the Vals retired to the north. With his initial altitude energy advantage, he planned to 'boom-and-zoom' the Lufbery, making repeated firing runs. During the ensuing dogfight the three 2-plane sections kept their integrity.
Hedrick and his wingman, Mills Schanuel, blasted the Japs on their first firing run; Hedrick's went into a cloud, Schanuel's flamed. They chased some Zeros northward, and became briefly separated during a series of head-on battles. Hedrick shot up several Zeros, and saw them streaming "big buckets" of fuel, but no flamers. The pair soon joined up and returned safely.
The 2nd section, Anderson and Chasnoff, opened up on a Hamp, and broke up the Lufbery on their first run. The pair stayed together for six more passes, but with no more hits. They also were pulled north, only to be bounced by several Zeros. Chasnoff's tail was badly chewed up, but these two also made it back to Ondongo.
Cordray and Cunningham stayed at 29,000 feet high cover until another group of Zeros went by, then they dived into the fray below. By then the Lufbery circles had broken up, and Zeros were all over. Cunningham got a flamer, which they followed down long enough to confirm the kill. Then they headed home, arriving just after Hedrick.
While the official records only credited the flight with two kills (one each to Schanuel and Cunningham) and five 'damaged', the battle removed Hedrick's remaining skepticism about the Corsair. This had been the first real test of the F4U in a maximum combat situation, and it made a believer out of Hedrick. He had experienced first-hand how the Corsair outclassed the Zero in all fighting qualities except maneuverability.
Three days later VF-17 went up to fly cover on a carrier Task Group attacking Rabaul. After the carriers launched their strike planes, Hedrick's flight landed on Essex, while Blackburn's landed on Bunker Hill. Taking off again in the afternoon, they got involved in a confusing dogfight with many Japanese. Hedrick suddenly noticed a plane coming out of a cloud, crossing in front of him. He fired a deflection shot, but ceased firing immediately when he recognized his target as a Corsair. The victimized pilot turned out to be the CO, Tom Blackburn, who described the event in his book, The Jolly Rogers:
Anguish and concern written all over his face Rog Hedrick pulled up beside me to the left. After closely inspecting Big Hog, Rog shook his head and passed a questioning thumbs-up signal - was I okay? To my right Mills Schanuel did much the same, as I rapidly actuated various controls and scanned the gauges to check for damage. All apparently was okay.
On landing back at Ondongo, Blackburn's only complaint was that Hedrick was a lousy shot. Hedrick also managed to down an enemy plane this day.
November 17 - While on CAP over Empress Augusta Bay, Hedrick's eight-plane flight downed 10 Jap planes (1 for Hedrick personally), but at the cost of Brad Barker, who just disappeared during the dogfighting.
Escorting some SBD's on a Rabaul raid on Jan. 26, 1944, Hedrick downed a Zero just as it was setting up to hit the dive bombers.
He led the first Roving High Cover (RHC) mission for the Jolly Rogers on Jan. 28. Leading six planes at 32,000, he spotted a dozen Zeros about to attack the standard bomber/fighter escort group. On his first three passes most of his guns jammed. After Paul Cordray cleared his tail, he got all six guns working and dived onto a lone Zero at low altitude. He flamed it, the pilot bailed out, and Hedrick strafed the chute. (I thought we wore the white hats. - SS) Cordray then dived onto a second Zero and sent it down. Hedrick's third RHC pair also scored. Four kills for the RHC team and a thoroughly disorganized Japanese defense.
He shot down one on Jan. 30 and three on February 18, making nine that he scored with VF-17, which broke up in April, 1944.
Roger Hedrick later commanded VF-84 on Bunker Hill. Their primary mission was to stop the kamikazes. He destroyed a Zero and 2 Franks on February 25, 1945, to bring his final score to 12 confirmed and 4 damaged. But on May 11, 1945, a kamikaze got through, hitting the carrier right below the island, killing most of the pilots in the ready room. Hedrick survived, but that was the end of Bunker Hill's combat tour. Another Navy Squadron, also based on Bunker Hill, was numbered VF-17, but it was a wholly new outfit, unrelated to Blackburn, Hedrick, Kepford, et al.
After the war, Hedrick stayed in the Navy, rising to the rank of Rear Admiral.
Sources:
Tom Blackburn and Eric Hammel, The Jolly Rogers, Pocket Books, 1989
Mark Styling, Corsair Aces of World War 2, Osprey Publishing, 1995
History of the Jolly Rogers web site, somewhat slow-to-load
