Don McPherson

     Service Branch: U.S. Navy

       Rank at Separation: Ensign

       Combat Action: WWII Pacific

       Home Town: Adams

       Military Specialty: Naval Aviator

       Unit:   USS Essex, VF-83, Wonder 5 Flight

       Decorations, Citations, and Awards: - Naval Combat Aviator Wings, Distinguished Flying Cross w/ 2 Stars; Navy Air Medal w/ 3 Stars; Asia/Pacific Campaign Medal; American Campaign Medal; Philippine Liberation Medal; Presidential Unit Citation; WWII Victory Medal; WWII Occupation Medal; National Defense Service Medal; Navy Commendation Medal; Combat Service Commendation Medal

                               

 

Gravity – an inescapable force of Nature – Newton’s apple – what goes up…must come down – “Gs.” Fighter pilots must be constantly aware of the three primary effects of gravity while in flight: aerodynamically, lift must exceed gravity; for adequate fuel flow, the fuel pump must never lose prime to gravity (this is especially true in single-engine aircraft); and physiologically, pilots must never lose consciousness due to excessive gravitational force resulting from rigorous, high-speed flight maneuvers. On Ensign Don McPherson’s first combat sortie, he found himself dealing with the adverse consequences of all three, simultaneously.

 

Don’s unit, VF-83’s Wonder 5, a flight of four Grumman F6F-5 Hellcats had taken off from the U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier Essex in pre-dawn darkness, tasked with a strafing and rocket attack on the Nittagahara Airfield on the Japanese island of Kyushu. They arrived at the target at daybreak, encountering no airborne enemy aircraft. Wonder 5 Leader rolled the flight into a steep dive, and each pilot selected a target for the attack run. Don’s was a large twin engine bomber on the runway. Don fired his rockets and held his dive until he saw his target explode. The dive had been so steep and so long that the excessive G-Forces of the abrupt pull-out caused the fuel pump to lose prime which, in turn, caused the Hellcat’s engine to stall. Don had to act quickly or the same gravity that drained the fuel out of the fuel pump would drain the blood out of his brain. The loss of thrust from the stalled engine would put the airfoil into a stall, thereby losing the lift vs. gravity duel. Gravity would have struck him out on three straight pitches, and the resulting crash would have ruined his first day at his new job. Damn those Laws of Aerodynamics!

Well, obviously, Don was able to avert disaster. He forced fuel into the injectors with the auxiliary pump and restarted the Hellcat’s engine. Just as he was breathing a sigh of relief…WHAM!! His plane was hit by Triple-A. No, not the auto club…Anti-Aircraft Artillery. This Fighter-Pilot gig was turning out to be hard work! The shell had gone completely through the fuselage, barely missing the cockpit, and severing the control cables to the tail section’s horizontal stabilizers. With some fancy trim-tab manipulation, Don was able to reach the Essex, land safely, and live to fight another day…

 

…and fight on, he did…for many more days. For the next 2½ months VF-83 bombed and strafed fortified enemy positions on the island of Okinawa in preparation for an all-out assault by the U.S. Marines. While returning from one of these sorties, Don spotted two Japanese Val dive bombers, which he shot down, splashing one and incinerating the other. The Okinawa invasion D-Day was Easter Sunday, April 1st, 1945. For the next 82 days of combat in the Pacific Theater’s bloodiest battle, Wonder 5 along with the rest of VF-83 flew Close Air Support, bombing and strafing to aid the Marines as they fought their way from one end of the island to the other. U.S. Navy warships were bombarding the island from all sides and were vulnerable to Kamikaze attacks. On May 4th, 1945, Carrier Air Groups from the Essex and two other carriers launched in a full-scale effort to repel over 100 of the Divine Wind suicide bombers. Don downed three, bringing his total number of aerial combat kills to FIVE and qualifying him as an aerial combat ACE.

 
On September 2nd, 1945, Wonder 5 Flight flew their final mission of WWII – CAP (Combat Air Patrol) in the skies above the USS Missouri while Ministers from the Empire of Japan signed and United States Army General Douglas MacArthur accepted their complete and unconditional surrender.


Don still lives on his farm near Adams. After the war, he farmed and delivered mail for the U.S. Postal Service, retiring after 30 years.