THREE  MEN  ADRIFT  FOR  34-DAYS

IN  A  8-FOOT  RUBBER  LIFE  RAFT

In early January 1942, USS ENTERPRISE departed Pearl Harbor, protecting convoys reinforcing Samoa.  On January 16, 1942, a Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bomber of VT-6, piloted by Enlisted Naval Aviation Pilot (NAP) ACMM Harold Frederick Dixon, departed ENTERPRISE on an anti-submarine patrol.  At that time navigation was not yet precise, radio silence had to be maintained and planes sometimes had difficulty finding the way back.  Such was the case of ACMM Dixon and his crew of two, the bombardier, Anthony J. Pastula, AOM2, and radioman, Gene D. Aldrich, RM3.  On completion of their patrol they became lost and were forced to make a water landing upon running out of fuel.  What followed is a remarkable tale of determination, endurance and will to survive as the trio spent 34-days adrift in an 8-foot rubber life raft before drifting ashore on a South Pacific island.

All three men survived the landing without injury but as Pastula passed the inflatable life raft to Dixon the plane sank within seconds taking with it the survival gear they had carefully assembled.  Fortunately they were able to save a 4’x8’ rubber raft but on inventorying what they had they discovered they had only a police whistle, pliers, pocketknife, can of rubber cement, patching material, a .45 pistol with three clips of ammunition, two life jackets and the damp clothes they wore.  The following morning a plane flew within half a mile but its pilots never saw the three castaways who frantically waved their arms and shirts.  The trio quickly turned their thoughts to staying alive.  Knowing that the islands to the west and north were occupied by the Japanese they were pleased when prevailing winds blew them to the east and south.  When unfavorable winds blew them in a wrong direction, they slowed their progress by deploying a makeshift sea anchor rigged out of a pneumatic life jacket and weighted down with the raft’s gas-inductor manifold. 

As the days wore on, water and food became their principal concern.  They were able to capture water from the occasional rain and their food consisted of the very occasional seabirds they were able to capture and the equally few fish they caught.  Their first fish was caught on the seventh day when a school of fish gathered near the raft.  Aldrich spent much of the day trying to snare one until finally, with a quick stab of the pocketknife, he speared a fish and flipped it aboard.  The trio scaled their victim and divided every ounce of edible flesh among them.  The same day Aldrich was able to use the .45 to shoot an albatross that alighted on the raft.  On the morning of the eighth day a school of sharks gathered around them.  Aldrich again went to work with the pocketknife and succeeded in striking a shark.  He had stuck it in its gills and successfully hauled aboard a four-foot thrashing shark.  They ate the liver first, then several sardines from the shark’s stomach before attacking the rest of the creature.  Soon their stomachs were full but they wouldn’t be full again for two weeks. 

Their thirty-third and thirty-fourth days brought high winds that run before a hurricane.  The heavy seas sent gallons of water into the raft, yet somehow the trio found the will to bail although they had little energy or hope of rescue.  They were all naked, badly sunburned and almost helpless beneath the unrelenting tropical sun.  In their weakened condition they occasionally hallucinated and as a wave from the rough sea crested and raised their raft, Aldrich calmly said “I see a beautiful field of corn.”  Dixon and Pastula did not react, discounting Aldrich’s words as babble.  Several minutes later the raft crested another wave and Aldrich exclaimed, “Sure enough, Chief – I see something green in the distance!”  That roused the others from their daze and they awoke to discover the weather was pushing them past an island and the rows of corn were in fact rows of palm trees lining a distant beach.  The trio spent several hours paddling with their hands at almost a 90-degree angle to the wind to insure they were blown ashore.  The high seas washed their raft over the surrounding reef and on reaching the island breaker line the raft was flipped as the trio was washed into the turbulent ocean.  All three fought against the waves and each was successful in struggling ashore on Pukapuka Atoll in the Cook Islands, a day before a hurricane struck the area which certainly would have meant sure death had they still been at sea.  Friendly island natives fed and clothed them, contacted American authorities and several days later a seaplane tender, the USS SWAN, carried the three men back to the fleet.

Following their epic experience, Pastula was promoted to AOM1 and he was married in 1942.   He then served a year at the Naval Air Station, North Island, in California, before being ordered to Pensacola, Florida, as an instructor in Recognition School.  On January 16, 1944, his first child was born and appropriately the boy was named Gene Anthony after his companion with whom he had formed a close and lifelong friendship.  Their friendship was strengthened in 1945 when Aldrich married Pastula’s sister.  Later Aldrich’s sister married Pastula’s brother.  Pastula left the Navy in June 1945 and began work as a Electronics Technician at NAS North Island from which he retired in 1973.  In 1978, Pastula and his wife traveled back to Pucapuca Atoll where he was greeted as a “returning hero” as the 1942 landing of the three men was an historical event for the island.  Pastula died on October 19, 1982.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)