My father, Philip S. Porter Jr., was a career Navy man, and served in World War II. I do not have complete or detailed information on his life in the Navy, and I recently decided I should fill in this picture as much as I can. This page contains virtually everything I've been able to find out. It's an overview of his history in the Navy, beginning with his first enlistment and ending with his last assignment before the end of the war. This picture is a synthesis of information I've dug up from a number of sources, including primarily:- His "little green book", i.e. Continuous Service Certificate.
- Two interviews he gave (2007 and 2011).
- My and my siblings' recollections of things he told us while he was alive.
- Official and unofficial records of the histories of his squadron, air group, and carriers, especially Location of U.S. Naval Aircraft in World War II.
- The book Helldiver Squadron: The Story of Carrier Bombing Squadron 17 with Task Force 58, a contemporary narrative account of Carrier Air Group 17 while on the USS Bunker Hill.
I think of his time in the Navy, broadly, as comprising four epochs:
- His first enlistment, before the war, when he worked with PBY flying boats;
- When he was with a dive bomber squadron on the Bunker Hill - 1943;
- When he was with a dive bomber squadron on the Hornet - 1945 (first half);
- The post-war period, when he was an officer.
My dad enlisted in the Navy on 1937.10.05. He was 21 at the time. His first assignment was on the old USS Langley. This ship had been the Navy's
first aircraft carrier, but by 1938 it had been converted to seaplane tender. He
was on it about 3 months, and then he was given an opportunity to volunteer for aviation. He was sent up to Sand Point Naval Air Station in Seattle, Washington, to Patrol Wing 4, squadron VP-45 [1], who were using PBYs. My dad was very fond of this plane. At some point while he was with this squadron, it was sent to Alaska on some kind of temporary duty. This squadron was transferred to Patrol Wing 1 in San Diego, getting redesignated as
VP-14. Then they were transferred to Patrol Wing 2 at Kaneohe Bay, resulting in a redesignation to VP-26. [2] Shortly after that, all the squadrons were
renumbered, and his was given the VP-14 designation. Not long after that, on 1941.10.25, his four-year tour was up, he was out; he headed back to the States. Six weeks later, Pearl Harbor was attacked.
[1] Not to be confused with other squadrons designated VP-45 at other times.
[2] In those days, Fleet Air Wing squadrons were given designations whose first digit corresponded to the Wing; so VP-14 was necessarily a Patrol Wing 1 squadron; and its move to Patrol Wing 2 necessitated a redesignation. Carrier Air Group squadron designations did not have this rule, as far as I am aware.
My dad re-enlisted on 1942.01.24. Because it had been less than 90 days, he was able to resume his prior rank and rating: Radioman 1st Class (RM1c). He was assigned to VP-13 in San Diego; their job was to patrol the Pacific coast for enemy submarines. (They were using the PB2Y.) Then he was sent to Radio Materiel School, the advanced electronics school for technicians; this was at Bellevue in DC.
After ten months, he graduated, and was "made chief": he got the rating of Aviation Chief Radio Technician (ACRT) on 1943.02.27.
He was subsequently assigned to the recently established Bombing squadron 17 (VB-17), part of Carrier Air Group 17 (CAG-17). This Air Group had been formed at the beginning of 1943, earmarked for the brand new USS Bunker Hill (CV-17). The new Air Group consisted of four squadrons:
At the time my dad transferred in, the Air Group was training with its carrier in Norfolk.
On 1943.09.08, the ship and its Air Group left Norfolk, passed through the Panama Canal, and, on 09.26, arrived at San Diego, where they may have gained additional personnel. (Note: sources say the Bunker Hill's home base was Alameda Naval Air Station, but it does not seem to have made a stop there on its way out to the action.)
From 2 to 6 October, they sailed out to Hawaii (shuttling about a thousand military passengers along with them - including VF-18, a fighting squadron using standard F6F Hellcats). While en route to
Hawaii, CV-17 got the word that the Navy decided to replace VF-17 with VF-18
in the Bunker Hill's air group; they apparently didn't want to base Corsairs on carriers for
logistical reasons. VF-17 with its Corsairs would be transported to the south Pacific
where they would be land-based. For the remainder of Bunker Hill's first tour in the Pacific, its Air Group's fighting squadron was VF-18.
On about 1943.10.19, the Bunker Hill with VB-17 and the rest of CAG-17 left Pearl Harbor, headed for the combat area in the south Pacific. They crossed the equator on 1943.10.26. They harbored at Espiritu Santo on/by 1943.11.05.
Once in the combat area in the south Pacific, CV-17 and its air group were
put right to work. On November 11, they participated in the attack on Rabaul, a heavily fortified area in eastern Papua New Guinea. VF-17 with their Corsairs, now land based, did combat air patrol duty over the task group while
CAG-17 was off attacking Rabaul. They intercepted an incoming air
attack force; they shot down some planes but didn't arrest the attack. The carrier had a
new defensive weapon: 5-inch guns firing shells with "influence" fuzes, i.e.
proximity fuzes based on acoustic doppler. It was very effective.
On November 20, they participated in the invasion of Tarawa, about halfway between Hawaii and Papua New Guinea. They saw numerous other actions as well, right up until March of 1944. At that time, the Bunker Hill returned to Pearl Harbor, where it parted ways with CAG-17.
(The Bunker Hill immediately took on a new air group, CVG-8, consisting of VF-8, VT-8, etc. After just one month, the ship was back in the combat zone. CVG-8 had been displaced from its prior station on the USS Intrepid due to heavy damage to that carrier in 1944.02. This CVG-8 was established in 1943 specifically for the Intrepid, and is not the same as the original air group belong to USS Hornet (CV-8).)
The CAG-17 returned to Alameda, where its status was changed to "reforming".* The air group's status changed to "reformed" on 1944.04.18. [*Note that this "reforming" did not mean that all of its former members remained in the group. In fact, several of the group's veteran members (pilots, at least) formed the nucleus of a new air group, CAG-84, which was stationed on the Bunker Hill at some point during its second Pacific tour.]
During this timeframe (April 5 being one specific date that I know of), my dad was in hospital in San Diego due to a "bad knee". He says he got 30 days R&R. (See further discussion below)
Early November '44: Back to duty "with my same old squadron, VB-17, who was retraining, re-forming, getting new people," at Alameda.The Air Group was back in Hawaii by December 5, on its way out to to the combat area in the western Pacific. By mid February 1945, the Air Group was on Guam for a few days (transported by CVE), where they witnessed air strips being built for the B-29s which would later bomb Japan. The Air Group then went out to Ulithi, where it took its new station aboard the USS Hornet (CV-12), replacing Carrier Air Group 11. (Ulithi is less than 400 nautical miles from Guam.) The Hornet immediately departed Ulithi for combat operations, particularly attacks on industrial targets in mainland Japan.
According
to Location of U.S. Naval Aircraft, World War II,
CVG-17 replaced CVG-11 on the Hornet some time between 1945.02.14 and 19.
Of particular note is that CVG-17 was still on Guam as of 1945.02.13. The Hornet had departed Ulithi for combat operations on 1945.02.10. It is therefore likely that the change of air group occurred at sea, with the incoming and outgoing squadrons transported by CVE. CVG-17 was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for service while attached to CV-12 Hornet, with a given date range of 1945.02.16 to 1945.06.10.
On 1944.12.15, while his squadron was in Hawaii on its way back out to the combat area, my dad was appointed Ensign (Temporary). However, due to (what I believe were ordinary) communication delays, his command "didn't receive
that news until some time in February." (His service record "green book" lists a date of 1945.03.05.) He subsequently got orders transferring him to
shore duty. That was the custom, he said: if you were enlisted and you got a commission, you went
from land to sea or sea to land. This was to get you away from the guys you had
just been serving with. He left the Hornet and was transported back to the States aboard the USS Lexington (CV-16), and had some R&R. The Lexington was in Pearl Harbor on 1945.03.17 and .24, and was in Seattle on 1945.03.31.
In the two or three weeks that he was with CAG-17 on the Hornet in early 1945, they saw some serious action. According to my dad, they went to the Sea of Japan, where CAG-17 delivered the first strikes on Honshu on February 17 (though probably slightly earlier than this), and again on March 3. They attacked the Nakajima Musashino aircraft plant and destroyed it. According to some reports, this plant had been producing half of all
aircraft engines in Japan. This bombing raid was preceded by the
fighters shooting down all the planes and strafing the ones on the
ground. (This target had been
previously attacked numerous times by Army B-29 bombers without ever
causing significant destruction.) According to official documents, the Hornet supported the Iwo Jima invasion on Feb. 19-20.
Some time after he left the Hornet, it was badly damaged in a powerful typhoon.
Back in the states, my dad received orders on 1945.05.02 to report to Whidbey Island. After a few months, he was sent to the Naval Academy as a trainer (training squadron). A few months after that, he was transferred to the Bureau of Aeronautics in DC. That is where he was when the war ended, on 1945.08.15.
My dad retired from the Navy in 1961, and retired altogether in 1981. He passed away in 2013.
