Of combat in the final months of WW2. His Squadron VF88 was attacking Tokyo Japan in July 1945, flying from the USS Yorktown. One of his fellow pilots was shot down and bailed out at low altitude.He landed in the water. My father said he circled back under fire to seeif he was OK. If OK, he could get into a small life raft and wait for a seaplane to pick him up. But the pilot was not OK, he was lying face down in the ocean. He was never seen again and listed as lost in action.

3 years after my father died, I finally had the time to look through his books and mementoes on WW2. In his keepsakes was a story of this incident and a name of the lost pilot. LTjg Melvin Chase. Then I found this picture. The second guy from the left is LTjg Chase. My father is on the far right.

The 20 year old story finally came home.