V Division: The Aviation Detachment

The V Division belonged to the Gunnery Department, and its Aviation Detachment consisted of 23 men: 3 officers and 20 enlisted men. The enlisted rates included aviation aerographer's mate, aviation machinist's mate, aviation metalsmith, aviation ordnanceman, aviation radioman, and a photographer and storekeeper. Two men flew in a plane, a pilot and a passenger who served as radioman and gunner. Captain Tracy Wilder, USN, Retired, recalled that the senior aviator, Lt. "Dipsy" Dowdle, was a colorful and salty flier who, during a stop at Pearl Harbor on the way to the Pacific in October 1944, was ordered grounded while in Hawaii after buzzing the airfield and challenging fighter pilots to a dogfight. Wilder also recalled that Dowdle's battle station was at the catapult in case the Kingfishers had to be launched, and that during one Japanese air attack, after a Japanese torpedo bomber missed with its weapon and flew low over the fantail, Dowdle asked for a Thompson sub-machine gun to take to his battle station. Robert Cashman, an Aviation Machinist's Mate, recalled that the aviation radioman usually occupied the rear seat as his battle station, and that certain V Division members who drew flight pay had to fly at least four hours each month until that requirement was rescinded in July or August 1942; afterward, the rear seat man, who was both radioman and gunner on the .30 caliber machine gun, flew with the plane to which he was assigned.

North Carolina · United States