Veterans Flight – 2016 Pensacola Beach Air Show – The Final Mission
Update #12 – 22 June 2016
Only 23 days until Friday, 15 July’s first flight.
Pensacola Beach Air Show
While there is still no official announcement of when the Blue Angels will resume their 2016 air show schedule,
Pensacola residents were pleased to see them back in the air last week over downtown and the beach. It
appears a virtual certainty they will perform during the 2016 Pensacola Beach Air Show.
Veterans Flight sends a big “Thank You” to Pensacola International Airport’s “Interim” Director Dan Flynn.
Helicopters landing at Pensacola International are normally required to land on the west ramp near the airline
terminal and are not permitted to use either of the general aviation FBO’s on the east side of the airport.
For the past two years, Dan has authorized helicopters participating in Veterans Flight to operate from
Pensacola Aviation Center and is giving us permission again in 2016. Without Dan’s help, we would not have
many of the great photographs used in these updates and on our Face Book page. Although Dan’s current
official title is “Interim Director,” he has done a great job and we’re confident City Council will confirm his
appointment as (permanent) Airport Director at its meeting next Monday.
Helicopter Pilot: David McCartney – Pensacola, Florida
Wrong Brothers Flight Training Wing, LLC
We wouldn’t have the great photographs of Veterans Flights – 2014 & 2015 without the help of Wrong Brothers
Flight Training Wing, LLC, and helicopter pilot extraordinaire David McCartney.
David is a Pensacola native who graduated from Embry Riddle
Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida in 2012. He holds an
FAA commercial pilot certificate with airplane single and multiengine
land, instrument airplane, and rotorcraft-helicopter ratings. He has
logged more than 1,200 fixed and rotary wing flight hours.
The reason the City of Pensacola doesn’t normally allow helicopter
operations on the east side of the Pensacola International Airport is
because of noise complaints from a few residents of the Brittany Forge
subdivision who were surprised to learn homes they bought were next to an airport. For the past two years the
City of Pensacola has given Veterans Flight a special dispensation that allowed David to land Wrong Brothers’
Robinson R44 at Pensacola Aviation Center, and are allowing David and his helicopter back again for
Veterans Flight – 2016.
This view is typical of what David sees during the show. This photograph, and most of the photographs you
see in the updates and on Face Book, was taken by photographer Steven Stopler who also is flying with
Veterans Flight for the third year.
Veteran: Eugene “Red” James – Milton, Florida
Marine F4U-4 Corsair Pilot
The son of a minister, Eugene “Red” James grew up in rural Liberty, West Virginia. He was in high school
when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, but signed up for the Navy’s V-5 program in June 1942, shortly
after he graduated.
He was inducted into the Navy in October 1942 and sent to basic training in Atlanta. After completing basic he
went to primary flight training in Gross Ile, Michigan. He was then sent to NAS Pensacola where he received
his Wings of Gold and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Marines in late 1943.
His next duty station was NAS Jacksonville, where he trained to fly the Chance Vought
F4U Corsair. Red describes his first takeoff in a Corsair, “That is probably the biggest thrill
I’ve ever had in flying. When I threw that throttle home the first time that 2,000 horse power
engine threw me in the back seat. I hate to tell you this, but it was 5,000 feet before I
remembered to pull my landing gear up.”
“That aircraft was so good that I had to worry about other things. Of course you had to
respect it. There was a poem written in all of the (Corsairs) dash that I’d look at before I
flew.”
The Corsair is a powerful gal. She has 2,000 horses beneath her gown, and she
will take you into the blue. But if you don’t watch out, she will kill you.
After Jacksonville, Red went to MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina where he was assigned to fighter squadron
VMF-511, which later became the Marine’s first carrier based Corsair squadron. After more training at Cherry
Point, Red was sent to Mojave, California where he trained for carrier operations. After carrier qualification off
the coast of California, he was given leave before departing for the Pacific in April 1945.
Red first experienced combat in June 1945 when he was assigned as a replacement
pilot with VMF-311 at Chimu airfield on Okinawa. VMF-311, “Helles Belles,” had
been operating in the Pacific since October 1943 and was one of the first squadrons
to use the Corsair as a dive bomber flying close air support of Marine ground troops.
When Red arrived on Okinawa the battle for the island was in its final stage. When
the intense fighting ended in July 1945, American forces had suffered 49,151
casualties, which included approximately 12,500 killed. Japanese losses were
estimated at 110,000 killed, with only 7,400 captured.
After Okinawa was secured the Americans began preparation for the invasion of the
Japanese home islands. The battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa had been fierce, but
estimates of casualties Americans would suffer during an invasion of the Japanese
home islands exceeded one million men. Many Americans who survived the battles
for Iwo Jima and Okinawa did not expect to survive the invasion and believed their lives were saved when the
atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced the Japanese to surrender.
Red remained in the Marine Corps Reserve after World War II. He and his wife, Dorothy, were married in 1947
and soon had two children. Red’s job was selling insurance, and he continued flying Corsairs in the reserves.
Life was good until the Korean War started in June 1950. Red was recalled to active duty and assigned to the
VMA/F-312 “Checkerboarders.” He was soon flying Corsairs from the USS Badoeng Strait and the USS
Bataan. The Corsair’s mission in Korea was much like their mission in the Pacific – close air support for
Marines fighting on the ground.
Red’s last duty station was NAS Whiting Field in Milton, Florida where he taught young Navy and Marine pilots
to fly the Corsair. He and his wife Dorothy enjoyed the area, so when his service ended in 1954 they stayed in
Milton and he became a homebuilder. Active in the local community, he served as president of the Lions Club
and Navy League, was a Knights of Columbus Grand Knight, and was twice named Santa Rosa County’s Man
of the Year.
If you want to learn more about the Corsair and the men who flew them, this link is to the History Channel’s
production, “Whistling Death – The Corsair.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veBLPWiYoOU
Below is John Mollison’s drawing of the Corsair Red flew in Korea with VMF/A–312. The link will take you to
John’s on-line book with more of Red’s story. https://issuu.com/johnmollison/docs/marinered/1
*****
If you know a World War II pilot, please send me
their contact information so I can invite them to fly.