Page 39 - F-35B and USMC

The Integration of the F-35B into USMC Operations

They slept in six-man tents and ate the wretched powdered eggs that are mentioned in almost every pilot’s
memoirs. On guy had a gramophone that they played scratchy records on. They bathed in the Lunga River;
many grew beards rather than try to shave in cold water. They kept the beards neatly trimmed, not for
appearances, but to ensure their beards didn’t interfere with the close-fitting oxygen masks. ‘Washing
Machine Charlie’ and ‘Millimeter Mike’ harassed the field nightly, so some pilots tried to sleep in the daytime.
Down!

On November 7th Foss led seven F4Fs up the Slot to attack some IJN destroyers and a cruiser, covered by six
Rufe floatplane fighters. They dispatched five of the Rufes promptly and prepared to strafe the destroyers.
Joe climbed up to protect the others and got involved in a dogfight with a Pete, a two-man float biplane. He
shot down the slow-flying plane, but not before its rear gunner perforated the Wildcat’s engine with 7.7mm
machine gun fire.

Once again, Foss’ aircraft started sputtering on the way home. But his time, it didn’t make it. As the engine
died, he put it into the longest possible shallow dive, to get as close to home as he could.

As his plane went into the water off Malaita Island, Foss struggled with his parachute harness and his seat. He
went under with his plane, gulped salt water, and almost drowned before he freed himself and inflated his
Mae West. Exhausted and with the tide against him, he knew that he couldn’t swim to shore. While trying to
rest and re-gain his strength in his life raft, he spotted shark fins nearby. He sprinkled the chlorine powder
supplied for that purpose in his emergency pack and that seemed to help.

As darkness approached, he heard some searchers looking for him. They hauled him in and brought him to
Malaita’s Catholic mission. There were a number of Europeans and Australians, including two nuns who had
been there for forty years and had never seen an automobile. They fed him steak and eggs and invited him
stay for two weeks.

The next day a PBY Catalina, piloted by Maj. Jack Cram rescued him. On his return to Guadalcanal, he
learned that ‘Cactus’ had downed 15 Japanese planes in the previous day’s air battle. His own tally stood at
19. On the ninth, Admiral Bull Halsey pinned the Distinguished Flying Cross on him and two other pilots.

The Americans were bringing four transports full of infantry to Guadalcanal on November 12. The Japanese
sent 16 Betty bombers and 30 covering Zeroes after them, while the American Wildcats and Airacobras
defended.
Foss and his Wildcats were flying top cover CAP and dived headlong into the attackers, right down onto the
deck. As Barrett Tillman described it in Wildcat Aces of WWII: Ignoring the peril, Foss hauled into within 100
yards of the nearest bomber and aimed at the starboard engine, which spouted flame. The G4M tried a
water landing, caught a wingtip and tumbled into oblivion. Foss set his sight on another Betty when a Zero
intervened. The F4F nosed up briefly and fired a beautifully aimed snapshot which sent the A6M spearing into
the water. He then resumed the chase.

Foss caught up with the next Betty in line and made a deflection shot into its wingroot; the bomber flamed up
and then set down in the water. The massive dogfight continued, until Joe ran out of fuel and ammunition.
Between the fighters and the AA, the Americans destroyed almost all the bombers and many of the Zeros. No
U.S. ships were seriously damaged. But that night another naval surface battle raged in Ironbottom Sound.
Warships on both sides were sunk or damaged, including the IJN battleship Hiei which Marine bombers and

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