Chapter one
It only a few months after Pearl Harbor I had just finished training the day after Pearl Harbor I was aboard the USS enterprise headed toward the Marshall Islands to destroy a Japanese military base on the island. It was my first mission it was late evening the day before the raid I was eating supper in the mess hall along with my friends Freddie we called him Fred for short and Lewis he grew up in Brooklyn the youngest of seven. Then you had Thomas he was Fred’s gunner his brother lost a foot at Pearl Harbor after that you had Neil he was Lewis’s gunner his father died in ww1 left him and his brothers alone. After Kirk he was my gunner he grew up just south of Dallas Texas bouncing from orphanage to orphanage. That night it was steak sandwiches along with rum, milk, grapefruit, and oranges. The next morning after PT the petty officer 2 class yelled,” flights 3-1 to the mission room!” We ran to the mission room and took our seats the petty officer said,” men our mission is to attack the air field on the island 3 squadron your job is to attack the fuel dumps 2 your job is to hit the ammo dump while 1 your job is to hit the hangers.” After the briefing we ran to the locker rooms and got ready and got in our planes dauntless dive bombers from there I powered up the engines and waited for go head the order was flight leader me Fred Lewis once he was in the air we followed him up and circled waiting for the rest to get up. Once everyone was up we followed the flight leader to the air field it was just like they taught us start from 20,000 feet
