[R Leonard]

Seems that no one ever wrote it down. Pilot at the time was Dick Crommelin. He was waiting for take off clearance when a SB2C came straight up behind him (they were supposed to zig-zag or have a minder sitting on the wing because the pilot can't see over the cowl if he goes in a straight line in a taxi-way), long story short, the prop of the S2BC proceeded to shred the A6M2, finally stopping just short of the cockpit. Dick Crommelin walked away without a scratch, but old 4593 was totaled. Crommelin and my father were classmates at USNA and shared a cabin aboard USS Yorktown (CV-5) when their squadron VF-42 was aboard from June 41 thru the bitter end at Midway, June 1942. Dick, though, was later killed in a mid-air collision off Hokkaido on 15 July 1945 as skipper of VF-88. Chris Cagle, the XO, moved up to CO; Johnny Adams, another VF-42 vet, moved up from FO to XO . . . Adams had been my father's wingman at Midway.