A P-51 Ditched

The date was 1 July 1945 and our crew was on its third fighter navigational mission from Iwo Jima to the Japanese mainland. The target was in the area of Hamamatsu. Departure was exciting with 3 B-29's escorting fifty (50) P-51s to inflict damage to airfields in the area and other targets of opportunity.

Our passenger was a P-51 pilot whose roll was to communicate between the bombers and the fighter aircraft. An hour or so into the flight, we learned that a P-51 flight leader was experiencing an engine malfunction and one B-29 aborted to escort the plane to back to Iwo Jima. The remaining 3-hour flight to the rendezvous location passed without further incidents. Then the P-51s were off on their own.

Crew members passed their waiting time relaxing, opening lunch bags for a snack or napping. From the blister windows you could see the Pacific Ocean for 140 miles or more. The weather that day turned out to be very cooperative. As the fighters returned the targets, the B-29's headed south. We could now settle in for the four-hour trip back to Iwo.

Our skipper, Captain James Welch, came on the intercom and said that a P-51 pilot had ditched and were going back to help air-sea rescue locate the downed pilot. The question was how far back? Lt. Ed Reed, better know as Magellan, received data to work up a time, rate and distance problem. After that time expired, Captain Welch initiated a square search maneuver. After a number of squares had been completed and we were heading south, I could see the in the distance a shimmering of light reflected off the ocean (it could have been from a mirror which was included in a survival vest which everyone wore under their Mae West). I immediately got on the intercom and asked our pilot, Lt. Larsen, to look out under the right wing about two or three miles.