KILLED IN KAMIKAZI ATTACK
Men who fly airplanes often have a special relationship with others who fly with them. After a pilot has flown with a rear-seat man, he may suddenly realize their dependence on each other. The rear-seat gunner in a Douglas Dauntless dive bomber of World War II went into action backward as he rode with his back to his pilot, his gun in a position to protect them against attack from the rear. When the plane pulled up from a dive bombing run, the rear-seat man was the only one who could look backward and down to see whether a hit was scored. Rear-seat men rarely failed to rise to an emergency.
During a bombing mission against Kwajalein Atoll in early 1944, Ensign John Turner Gildea was a Dauntless pilot when his plane was severely damaged by heavy antiaircraft fire. His plane was struck by a shell which tore through the floor of the front cockpit. Gildea was badly wounded in the thigh and his metal seat was torn so jaggedly that he was unable to sit on it and he had to cling to the cockpit sides and hold himself up. Unable to fly in this position, he signaled his rear-seat gunner for help. Although the man had never flown a plane before, he had been instructed how to turn his seat around, insert a control stick in a socket and take over control. Quickly doing so before the plane went into a spin, his gunner managed to fly the plane about 45-minutes back to their carrier. Landing a plane on a carrier is a job for an expert and experienced pilot. Although Gildea had lost a dangerous amount of blood, he summoned enough strength to take the controls briefly and bring the plane down safely. The minute the plane hit the deck Gildea immediately cut the engine switch and slumped over unconscious. The whole episode was a fine example of Navy teamwork, of the rear-seat man doing a job above and beyond the call of duty.
Historical records reflect that sometime after this incident and Gildea had recovered from his injuries, he transitioned to become a fighter plane pilot. While assigned to Fighting Squadron 84, Gildea reportedly became an ace and was credited with shooting down 7 enemy aircraft. On the morning of May 11, 1945, the USS BUNKER HILL was about 70-miles off the coast of Okinawa. The pilots of VF-84 were gathered in the ready room awaiting instructions for the day. At 9:58a.m. the pilot of a Japanese kamikaze plane radioed to his home base, “I found the enemy vessels.” At 10:02a.m., as he hovered above BUNKER HILL hidden in a mass of clouds he spoke his last words, “Now, I am nose-diving into the ship.” His bomb penetrated the flight deck and exited from the side of the ship at gallery deck level before exploding in the ocean. Almost immediately, a second kamikaze plane plunged into its suicide dive. Flying through the antiaircraft fire, it dropped a bomb and crashed into the flight deck near the BUNKER HILL’s island. The bomb penetrated the flight deck and exploded in the pilot’s ready room. A total of 346 sailors and airmen aboard BUNKER HILL were killed, unfortunately including Lieutenant John Turner Gildea. He has been buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, Colorado, where his headstone carries the inscription: LT - US NAVY - WORLD WAR II.
Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)
