Father's Day Special Part II - Happy Father's Day, Vince!

A few days ago, I did a post on Georgia's father, Vince, in anticipation of Father's day.  I had all the best intentions to do a few posts between then and now, but, well, life intervened.  Today I got back to it.

That's Vince in the lower left.  I don't know where, the photo is unannotated.

Today, we'll cover Vince's participation in World War II

I gave a bit of misinformation in my last post, when I said that Vince enlisted in the Army air Corps after Pearl Harbor.  When Vince enlisted he was given this diary to write in, and he did, more or less faithfully.  According to the diary he actually enlisted on June 2, 1941, with a note on June 5 that says:

I'm really in the Army now.

At some point, Georgia and I intend to scan and record this diary.  For the most part, Vince's hand writing was very readable, a skill that tends to have been lost to many of us.  I suspect he went to Catholic school and listened to the nuns...

This entry from Dec. 7 1941 may be of some interest...

Vince became the crew chief for a fighter.  He appears to have been stationed in several places, including Fiji and Guadalcanal.



The scrapbook is full of photos, in various states of disrepair.  I have scanned a few with Georgia's permission.

I assume this one is one of the places he was stationed.  Fiji perhaps?

A photo of a P39 after a less than perfect landing.  The note on the back appears to be from his pilot:

May I hope I never do this to the best Crew chief a man pilot ever had.                     Lt. Robert L. Petit

Some landings were more successful than others...

June 30, 1943

P-39 burning in which Lt. Clark exploded with minor burns.

Piloting in WW was a tough business:

June 30, 1943.

This ship was burned do (sic) to an accident in which a P-38 flipped over on take off. Lt Fiddler was in this ship. He died of burns the same day

C.P. Coats plane

85 - Blacki

And while it was probably safer to stay on the ground, it was not really safe:

339 Sunk June 16, 1943 by Jap Dive bomber. This day we had our largest day raid. 94 Jap planes were shot down. This took place mainly over our field & not over the bay.

The last entry in the diary is on Feb 13, 1944:

Early this morning we were bombed and things  tear loose.  Bombs dropped within a quarter mile.  L.S.T at dock

 No more entries, although there's still more room.  Did he quit writing, or did he get sent home?  We don't know...

Another section lists his duty stations:

Hamilton Field, Calif. USA 1-11-42
San Francisco, Calif. USA, 1-12-42
Suva, Fiji Islands, 1-28-42
Mausouria, Fiji Islands, No date
Itani, Fiji Islands, 4-2-43
Lautoaka, Fiji Islands, No date
Boa, Fiji Islands, No data
Guadalcanal, Landed, 4-6-43
Munda, New Georgia, Solomons Islands 11-18-43
Ondonga Island, Solomons, 11-18-43

We do know, of course, that he did come home, married Kate McNaughton, and went on to have two daughters, Mary and Georgia.

More later when I get around to it.