This is the second skin that Perdue requested for a Coral Sea event.
From February 1942 this Wildcat numbered F-5 was the personal aircraft of Lt Noel Gayler of VF-3 who scored four kills in it. At this time VF-3 were based on the USS Lexington while the carrier's normal squadron VF-2 were in Hawaii converting from the Buffalo to the Wildcat. In April VF-2 were reinstated as the Lexington's fighter squadron who received a large number of VF-3's aircraft and pilots to make up their numbers, including Noel Gayler and F-5. Gayler received a new aircraft numbered F-13 while his old one was assigned to another ex-VF-3 pilot, Lt Albert Vorse.
Sailing to the South Pacific USS Lexington together with USS Yorktown engaged the Japanese carriers Zuikaku and Shokaku on May 8th in the climax to the Battle of the Coral Sea. That morning Lt Vorse shot down two Zeroes while escorting a strike on the Japanese carriers, then destroyed two flying boats on his way back. Later he downed a couple of Val dive bombers who had just attacked the Lexington. That evening Vorse and Gayler were both evacuated from the critically-damaged USS Lexington before it sank, but F-5 went down with the ship. Nearly 76 years later both the wreck of the Lexington and F-5 were discovered on the sea bed by an expedition led by Paul Allen. F-5 still carried its VF-3 badges and Gayler's name and four kill markings.
