Darrell Castle continues with part two of A Hero's Journey leading into Memorial Day.

Transcription / Notes

A HERO’S JOURNEY—PART TWO

Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. Today is Friday May 24, 2019 the Friday before Memorial Day, just a three day weekend for most people but for us a chance to pause and remember. To that end we continue with part two of our Hero’s Journey to honor some of those who fought World War Two, and made that hero’s journey.

 The early days of World War Two were desperate times for the naval and marine aviators trying to defend their ships from attack in the pacific. The only fighter aircraft they had for the first 15 months or so of the war was the F4F Wildcat which was vastly inferior to its main opponent the Japanese zero. The Wildcat did not have automatically retractable landing so the gear had to be manually retracted by the pilot turning a crank in the cockpit that operated a set of wheels and pulleys. It was less agile, less maneuverable, and slower than the Zero which all added up to a lot of dead American pilots.

The pilots used to joke about the Wildcat that it was so bad that when they launched from the deck of the Carrier the aircraft should immediately be reported as missing. One man named Jimmy Thach, decided that he would do something to change that. Lt. Com. Thach said that even though the aircraft was inferior to its Japanese counterpart, the men who flew them were not. He picked two other flyers from the squadron he commanded, and invited them to a training session in his quarters.

He took a few matchsticks and laid out for the other two pilots his tactical method. That method of changing tactics to accommodate the aircraft’s strengths and weaknesses redefined American fighter tactics and saved countless American lives as well as protected their ships from destruction. His theory was that since their aircraft were inferior to the enemy’s aircraft tactics had to change to even the score. His tactical change became known as the Thach weave whereby two Wildcats would weave back and forth in a kind of figure eight fashion thus making it almost impossible for a Zero to get on a Wildcat’s tail without exposing itself to attack from the other Wildcat.

The three of them went up and practiced the maneuver over and over until they had it down, and then they taught it to the rest of the squadron, and to the other squadrons on their ship, the USS Lexington. Jimmy Thach went on to become the best known tactician in the navy. He also developed what became known as the big blue blanket, to help protect ships from kamikaze attack later in the war.

Jimmy Thach was born in Pine Bluff Arkansas just across the river from where I live now. He did about everything a good hero can do during his journey. Throughout his forty years in the navy he was a theoretical innovator and a tactical genius. In the last year of the War he was a task force operations officer, and during the Korean War he was an aircraft carrier commander. During the cold war he contributed greatly to the navy’s anti-submarine warfare efforts.  There is still an award for excellence named for him at the navy’s anti-submarine school.

He was also a great fighter pilot credited with many enemy aircraft, including six in one day. He served on the staff of Vice Admiral John McCain, that’s the senator’s father, and was aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay for the Japanese surrender. He was eventually promoted to four star rank and commanded the US naval operations in Europe. He retired from the navy in 1967 with 40 years of service.  He died on April 15, 1981 four days before his 76th birthday thus completing his journey.

One of those men sitting at Jimmy Thach’s table to learn about the Thach weave was Edward “ Butch” O’Hare. You might recognize that name if you’ve ever flown into Chicago because O’Hare airport is named for Butch O’Hare although he was not from Chicago and never liv...