Chapter 1
1. Correspondence with Robert L. Hall, March 1977.
2. Ibid.
3. The usually quoted figure is 664, but Navy acceptance records show six fewer.
4. Richard Thruelsen, The Grumman Story (New York: Praeger, 1977), p. 53.
5. Robert A. Winston, Fighting Squadron (New York: Holiday House, 1964), p. 78.
6. Thomas G. Miller, The Cactus Air Force (New York: Harper and Row, 1969), p. 156.
7. Correspondence with Chester Leo Smith, December 1975.
8. Interview with W. Ralph Clark, April 1978.
9. Interview with Ken Jernstedt, June 1976.
10. Thruelsen, The Grumman Story, p. 206.
Chapter 2
1. Interview with Reuben H. Denoff, 12 February 1977.
2. “Air Group Nine Comes Home,” Life magazine, 1 May 1944, p. 92.
3. Interview with Alexander Vraciu, March 1977.
4. Oliver Jensen, Carrier War (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1945), p. 53.
5. Ibid.
6. Correspondence with William N. Leonard, 1976.
7. VF-12 action report, 5 November 1943.
8. Samuel Eliot Morison, A History of U.S. Navy Operations in W.W. II, Vol. VI (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1969), p. 333.
9. Denoff interview, 12 February 1977.
10. Raymond F. Toliver, Fighter Aces (New York: Macmillan, 1965), p. 158.
11. Ibid.
12. Correspondence with Bernard M. Strean, November 1976.
13. Ibid.
14. Papers of Robert M. Duncan.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Jensen, Carrier War, p. 80.
18. Ibid.
Chapter 3
1. Correspondence with Sam L. Silber, January 1976.
2. Correspondence with Edward M. Owen, February 1976.
3. Silber correspondence, 1976.
4. Conversation with E. A. Valencia, San Diego, June 1971.
5. Robert D. Loomis, Great American Fighter Pilots of W. W. II (New York: Random House, 1961), p. 135.
6. Owen correspondence.
7. Jensen, Carrier War, p. 119.
8. Interview with Armistead B. Smith, February 1977.
9. Correspondence with E. S. McCuskey, February 1977.
10. Correspondence with Francis M. Fleming, March 1975.
11. VF-32 action report. 29 April 1944.
Chapter 4
1. VF-2 action report, 11 June 1944.
2. David Wittels, “4-F Hero,” Saturday Evening Post, 14 April 1945.
3. VF-2 action report, 15 June 1944.
4. W. G. Land and A. O. Van Wyen, Naval Air Operations in the Marianas, 1944.
5. Thomas L. Morrissey, Odyssey of Fighting Two (Privately printed, 1945), p. 135.
6. VF-15 action report. 19 June 1944.
7. Correspondence with Fred A. Bardshar, 25 March 1977.
8. VF-2 action report, 19 June 1944.
9. Correspondence with David McCampbell, 1 November 1976.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Clark G. Reynolds, The Fast Carriers (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968), p. 193.
13. Air Group One action report, 20 June 1944.
14. J. Bryan and Philip Reed, Mission Beyond Darkness (New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1945), p. 84.
15. Telephone conversation with Bernard M. Strean, September 1976.
16. Ibid.
Chapter 5
1. Ian Cameron, Wings of the Morning (New York: Morrow, 1963), p. 16.
2. Fighter-Observation Squadron One history.
3. John G. Norris, “Hellcats over France,” Flying magazine, January 1945.
4. Morison, History, Vol. XI, p. 281.
Chapter 6
1. Morrissey, Odyssey, p. 190.
2. Ibid, p. 179.
3. VF-15 action report, 12 September 1944.
4. VF-15 action report, 13 September 1944.
5. Morrissey, Odyssey, p. 190.
6. Correspondence with Carl A. Brown, 18 July 1977.
7. Ibid.
8. Toliver, Fighter Aces, p. 191.
9. Ibid., p. 192.
10. Morrissey, Odyssey, p. 198.
11. VF-18 action report, 12 October 1944.
12. Interview with H. B. Moranville, 1976.
13. Interview with Charles R. Stimpson, March 1977.
14. VF-14 history.
15. VF-19 action report. 24 October 1944.
16. Brown correspondence, 18 July 1977.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Telephone conversation with John Fitzgerald, 21 June 1977.
20. Ibid.
21. Brown correspondence, 18 July 1977.
22. Ibid.
23. Correspondence with Fred A. Bardshar, 29 March 1977.
24. VF-15 action report, 24 October 1944.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
Chapter 7
1. VF-14 history.
2. Ibid.
3. VF-15 action report, 11 November 1944.
4. Correspondence with E. S. McCuskey, 14 July 1977.
5. Ibid.
6. Correspondence with W. N. Leonard, 10 January 1977.
7. Interview with Alexander Vraciu, March 1977.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Barrett Tillman, “A Sundowner’s Adventure,” AAHS Journal, Winter, 1975.
11. Correspondence with E. G. Fairfax, 10 December 1975.
12. Ibid.
13. Norman Polmar, Aircraft Carriers (New York: Doubleday, 1969), p. 422.
14. Correspondence with Robert E. Clements, 31 January 1976.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
Chapter 8
1. Turner F. Caldwell, “We Put the Flattops on the Night Shift,” Saturday Evening Post, 11 August 1945, p. 26.
2. Ibid.
3. Correspondence with William E. Henry, 8 January 1975.
4. Ibid.
5. Interview with William E. Henry, March 1976.
6. Correspondence with James S. Gray, 14 October 1976.
7. Henry correspondence, 8 January 1975.
8. Reynolds, Fast Carriers, p. 330.
9. VF(N)-90 history.
10. Interview with R. B. Porter, October 1976.
11. VMF(N)-533 action report, 22 June 1945.
12. Correspondence with Robert Baird, March 1976.
13. Ibid.
Chapter 9
1. Interview with James B. French, June 1976.
2. Morison, History, Vol. XIV, p. 22.
3. Private papers of Harris E. Mitchell.
4. VF-80 history.
5. Mitchell papers.
6. Ibid.
7. VF-80 history.
8. Interview with Reuben H. Denoff, February 1977.
9. Ibid.
10. Mitchell papers.
11. Ibid.
12. VF-29 history.
13. Ibid.
14. Toliver, Fighter Aces, p. 183.
15. VF-30 action report, 6 April 1945.
16. Reynolds, Fast Carriers, p. 341.
17. Mitchell papers.
18. Correspondence with W. N. Leonard, 14 December 1976.
Chapter 10
1. Denoff interview, 12 February 1977.
2. Correspondence with Chester Leo Smith, December 1975.
3. Correspondence with Fred A. Bardshar, 19 April 1977.
4. Fitzgerald phone interview, 21 June 1977.
5. R. L. Newhafer, “I’ll Remember,” Naval Aviation News, December 1976.
6. Ibid.
7. Polmar, Aircraft Carriers, p. 464.
8. Correspondence with Malcolm Cagle, 20 May 1977.