Lifeguard Duties

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Red Devil

After all this time of taking boats out, I was in USS Stingray out of Brisbane and got a lifeguard duty, first ever. I was told to patrol in the bays north of Guadacanal. Only thing is I was a week early!! So I cruised and found a few junks etc, couple of ships. Then aircraft, at midnight, began zooming all around me.

I had to wait for first light to do any saving pilots, could not see pilot even when alongside the orange smoke. I managed to pick up 8 pilots, got shelled when I went too near a harbour, and jap planes were all around, not one attacked me?

Then got a message to proceed north west to Solomons and to be there by December 7th - this was on August 7th!!!! Very funny, I went home .........

If one of 'em was George Bush Sr. I hope you threw him back!( Just Kidding) A different version of events: the Rescue aboard USS Finback: : And some insightful commentary from a fellow pilot...http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x994545 In defense, it was Bush's second shoot down and he'd already ditched once. Perhaps his critic is a Democrat! Bush senior has always expressed regret and wondered if he'd done all possible to get his gunner and radioman out of the aircraft from which he alone escaped. The other crewmen, with whom he ditched, spoke very highly of him and his carrier squadron mates likewise. His continuation to the bomb drop after initially being hit on the second mission where he bailed out speaks to his intrepidness-and medal- in combat at the tender age of 20 something with one 'Sully' under his belt! Bush spent a month aboard the Finback assisting in the rescue of other pilots after his own rescue!. "I thought being rescued by the submarine was the end of my problem,"Bush said. "I didn't realize that I would have to spend the duration of the sub's 30 remaining days on board.''
The following day, Finback retrieved Lieutenant Junior Grade James Beckman, a fighter pilot on USS Enterprise who was shot down over HaHa Jima.
"We put Bush and the other four men to work as lookouts," Spratlin said. "Four hours on, eight hours off.''
As lookouts, they helped make sure that enemy planes and submarines didn't sneak up on Finback during daylight or at night. The submarine did much of its patrolling on the surface in the daytime and always at night because that was when Finback recharged its batteries.
"Bush and the other aviators really got into the submarine experience," Spratlin remarked. "Every time an enemy plane would force us down, they'd curse it just like we did."
Bush said that the most beautiful time for standing watch was between 2400 and 0400. "I'll never forget the beauty of the Pacific -- the flying fish, the stark wonder of the sea, the waves breaking across the bow," he remarked.
The 30 days aboard Finback weren't all beautiful, however. Some of the more dramatic moments included being depth charged and bombed by enemy ships and planes.
"I thought I was scared at times flying into combat, but in a submarine you couldn't do anything, except sit there," he said. ''The submariners were saying that it must be scary to be shot at by antiaircraft fire and I was saying to myself, 'Listen brother, it is not really as bad as what you go through. The tension, adrenaline and the fear factor were about the same (getting shot at by antiaircraft fire as opposed to being depthcharged). When we were getting depth charged, the submariners did not seem overly concerned, but the other pilots and I didn't like it a bit. There was a certain helpless feeling when the depth charges went off that I didn't experience when flying my plane against AA.''
Besides being bombed and depth-charged, Bush was aboard when Finback sank two enemy freighters which were trying to get supplies into Iwo Jima a few months before U.S. forces invaded it. By war's end, Finback had received 13 battle stars and had sunk 59,383 tons of enemy shipping...and changed the course of history??!!
A month after picking up Bush, Finback discharged her five passengers at Midway. Afterwards, the aviators were taken to Hawaii." IMHO--Obviously some rescue duty does not overly impede sinking tonnage and gaining battle stars! And there should be a mod for putting rescued aviators to work!