Cdr Levern "Lee" Elbridge Forkner

[keith A]

Cheers George, "Up the Navy" as we used to say many years ago in Portsmouth (I was a Royal Marine) when in a boozer with the Pongo's (Army). Actually the words were a bit more...pungent and aggressive but "Pongo" started it. My interest however is mostly in the characters of VF-45 and by extension those connected with James B. Cain and the "Bridges of Toko-Ri", and again by extension "The men of the Fighting Lady". But again my limited information, which has been building a lot from you pair and others (the late and very great Frank B Olynyk among them)

Forkner's replacement, as you probably know, was Knokey who'd flown the FM-1 off USS Mission Bay in the ETO 1943-44.

My next post will clarify...