OK Rich. Picking your brains again after I found remarks on '39 classmates in books on VMF-214 and elsewhere. Exactly how many of USNA '39 entered flight training in WW2 or after? The classes you highlight have forty-four out of forty-five names in just three groups! No doubt a few washed out but it will be interesting to find out how many of "Duke" Duncan's classmates went on to interesting careers. Also how many played soccer with him, like Karl Border (KIFA 1942).
I assume as the war developed and Naval Aviation grew that many who'd thought it an adventure and not a game-changer pre-December 1941 looked on the successes and decided to opt for a new speciality. Needless to say I am now going through the published records to find out the careers of these forty-four... and the hundred or more I hope you are about to identify
Just an aside but I am reading "The Twilight Warriors" by Robert Gandt which is excellent but I was a bit astounded when he quoted (without comment) a Japanese Naval officer decrying the American fleet air assaults as following a Japanese idea brilliantly executed at Pearl Harbor. As a Brit I feel the Mers-El-Kebir, Taranto and the sinking of the Bismarck (not counting the RAF raids on Zeppelin sheds in 1918 from HMS Furious) showed how carrier aircraft could contribute to naval victories over and above just scouting for battleships. Notably the Japanese had already been appropriating British fleet carrier aircraft designs in the 1920s. Bloody cheek I call it
best regards
Keith
20th August 2023, 17:52
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