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A World War II Veteran Remembers: Gordon
Anderson
As interviewed by Elsie Saar
Mr. Gordon Anderson, 79, of Kingston, New York,
was interviewed on March 30, 2004, by Elsie Saar, a volunteer at the
Pittsfield branch of the National Archives and Records Administration. This
is his story of his experiences in World War II.
I was born on February 23, 1925, in Syracuse,
New York, one of six children. My parents were Gustave Anderson and Ethel
MacIntosh. We moved a few times before settling in Hempstead, Long Island,
where my father had a very good job at Gimbels as a buyer and manager.
Gimbels was Macy’s competitor at the time. Because of the depression my
father lost his job, so we moved to Ulster County in New York where my
grandmother had an extra house. My father went to work for the Works
Progress Administration (WPA) as a laborer at nine dollars a week, quite a
comedown from sixty-five dollars a week at Gimbels. So I suppose I would be
a child of the Great Depression. After attending a one-room school in Olive
Bridge, New York, where the teacher taught all subjects for eight grades, I
went to high school in Kingston, New York.
After graduation I lived at my grandmother’s
winter home in Brooklyn, and worked for an insurance company before going
into the service.
I wanted to enlist when I turned seventeen, but
my mother made me wait a little while, so when I was almost eighteen, on
February 3, 1943, I enlisted at the Naval Recruiting Station in New York
City and began active service on February 18, 1943. Looking back I guess I
enlisted in order to have a better chance at selecting something that I
wanted to do, and maybe for some excitement also. Later the same year my
brother also enlisted in the navy.
I was sent to Sampson, New York, in the
Finger Lakes region of central New York for eight weeks of recruit training.
Upon completion of training there, I went to the Naval Air Technical
Training Center, in Memphis, Tennessee, for Aviation Radioman (ARM) school
for sixteen weeks. I remember that on arrival I saw a German POW train with
prisoners from the Afrika Corps. I could see some of them and recall feeling
sorry for them. Many were kids like me. From there, I went to the naval air
gunners’ school in Hollywood, Florida, for another six weeks, training in
the use of guns of the type that were used on different types of aircraft.
For example, the latest model torpedo bomber had a top turret with a single
.50 caliber gun and in the radioman’s compartment a single .30 caliber gun
with limited movement.
Then I went to air crewman school in Miami,
Florida, for eight weeks where I underwent operational flight training with
a number of pilots and air crews. The purpose of this training was to have
people work together as a team in the various aspects of naval air combat.
It included different methods in attacking targets using torpedoes or bombs.
For example, to effectively attack a ship with an aerial torpedo, the rule
was “low and slow”. We also trained in making simulated carrier landings
using the airfield for this purpose. While I was there I had the unhappy
task of escorting to his home in Virginia the body of a friend who had been
killed in an accident. Then I was detached to Memphis, Tennessee, for
further training in radar. After I returned to Miami, I was transferred to a
Carrier Aircraft Service Unit at Oceana, Virginia. There I worked on
radio/radar equipment while waiting for assignment to an active squadron.
In May 1944, I was assigned to Torpedo Bomber
Squadron 80, which was training at Oceana, Virginia,
and had been formed up earlier that year. I replaced a man who had been lost in an operational training accident. There
I met Art Brule, an aviation machinist mate who would be our turret gunner.
Our pilot was an Ensign Hill (I don’t recall his first name) who was
transferred shortly after. At the end of August, Art and I met Lt. Glendon
(Glen) Goodwin, a pilot who had prior combat experience (Battle of the Coral
Sea and also anti-submarine warfare duty in the Atlantic) and who had
previously held enlisted status as an Aviation Pilot. Glen, Art and I would
spend the next seven months together, four of which were in combat.
Torpedo Squadron 80 Insignia
On June 20, 1944 with our training completed,
we went aboard the carrier USS Ticonderoga (The Big “T”) at Norfolk,
Virginia. An aircraft carrier was made up of two groups of personnel; a crew
(ship’s company) that operated the ship, and the air group that was the
carrier’s offensive arm. A carrier air group (CAG) consisted of three
squadrons, the torpedo bomber squadron, the dive- bomber squadron, and the
fighter squadron.
A crew on a torpedo bomber consisted of three
men—the pilot, the radioman, and the gunner. The ship proceeded on a
shakedown cruise to Trinidad in the Caribbean and returned to Norfolk,
Virginia. On August 30 we departed from Norfolk and headed south again, this
time through the Panama Canal to San Diego, California, arriving on
September 14. Four days later we left port for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and
arrived on the 27th. The air group was based at Kaneohe Bay until October 18
when we left Pearl Harbor for Ulithi in the Caroline Islands. We anchored
there with the rest of the Task Group.
On November 5, 1944, before our first mission,
the chaplain spoke to us in the ready room as he would before all missions.
I still remember the verses he always closed with. They are verses nine and
ten from Psalms 139. Our mission on that first day was a torpedo attack on a
Japanese warship in Manila Bay and our plane was hit but not severely. The
next day we hit a tanker at Maraveles Harbor near Manila. On November 13 and
14 it was back to warehouses, docks, etc. on the Manila waterfront and the
naval base at Cavite. On November 25 the mission was a torpedo attack on
ship targets off eastern Luzon. Our plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire in
the port wing. On November 26 we flew an anti-sub patrol mission. The task
group then retired to Ulithi.
On December 1 we flew another anti-sub patrol
mission. On December 16 we struck the airfield at Laoag in the northern part
of Luzon. The last flight in December was a search mission on the 21st.
On January 3, 1945, we attacked airfields on Formosa (now Taiwan) and on the
7th we hit Laoag again. Then it was back to Clark Field in Luzon. On the 9th
the air group destroyed a large aluminum plant on Formosa. On January 12 the
squadron made a torpedo attack on a Japanese convoy near Cam Rahn Bay off
the coast of French Indochina (currently Viet Nam). Our torpedo hit one of
the ships. The air group sank or burned all the ships that day. On January
16, 1945, we attacked targets at Yulin Harbor on the island of Hainan off
the Chinese coast, and the plane was severely damaged. We considered
ourselves lucky to get back from that one. On January 21, 1945, the
Ticonderoga was hit by a couple of kamikaze (“divine wind”) pilots and put
out of action. The ship was able to get back under reduced steam to the
Ulithi anchorage where it was sent back to the states for extensive repair.
Air Group 80 was then transferred to the USS Hancock.
On February 11 we flew an anti-sub patrol mission. On February 17 we
attacked the naval air station and its airfield at Kirarazu, Japan. On the
first day of March we attacked targets on Amami-O-Shima, in the Ryukyus. It
was our last day of combat in the Western Pacific.
TBM Avenger of the
type used by Gordon
Since our tour was finished, the air group minus its planes was transferred
to the USS Copahee for transportation to Guam on March 12 and then to a
small British carrier, HMS Ranee, on March 19 for transportation back to
Pearl Harbor. After we arrived at Pearl Harbor on the 24th, we transferred
to a former passenger liner, the Matsonia for the trip back to the states.
We left Pearl Harbor on March 27 and arrived at San Francisco on April 7,
1945. After a brief stopover at Alameda, Calfornia, some of us were
transferred to Ream field a few miles from Tijuana, Mexico, where the air
group was to be reformed and retrained. Others went to other assignments.
After a few flights with different personnel, Art and I were assigned to Joe
Beery, a pilot who had previous combat experience in another air group. From
June 1945 into August 1945 we trained with the reformed air group in
preparation for another tour of combat. And that’s where I was when the atom
bomb was dropped in August and the Japanese surrendered. We had a few more
flights after that but nothing that we took seriously. The war was over. Our
last flight was on November 20, 1945, more of a pleasure flight if I
remember correctly.
Art Brule, Joe
Beery, and Gordon
I was then reassigned to San Pedro, California, for the purpose of escorting
personnel via train to their separation centers throughout the country. I
would have to wait my turn. On March 23, 1946, I was discharged at Lido
Beach, Long Island.
After my separation I went back to work at the insurance company. Then under
the GI bill, I attended a radio-technical school in New York City for about
a year. While I was there, I worked as a disk jockey for the Musicall
Corporation, which piped recorded music into restaurants, bars, etc. Then I
applied for a job with IBM. While I was waiting for a call from IBM, I
worked with a construction company that was reconstructing Route 28 between
Kingston, New York and Boiceville, New York. In February of 1948 I went to
work for IBM in Poughkeepsie, New York.
In 1951 I was called back into service. I had reenlisted in the inactive
reserve in 1947, and in early 1951 the President extended my reserve
commitment. I was stationed for almost a year at Patuxent River, Maryland, a
naval aircraft test center, where I worked in the radio shop. Fortunately I
was able to have my wife there also. While at Patuxent I met Glen Goodwin
who had remained in the service. Needless to say we enjoyed seeing each
other again.
On October 20-23, 1994, I attended the reunion of Air Group 80 that was held
in Pensacola, Florida. This was about 50 years after our first missions.
Unfortunately I was not able to locate either Glen Goodwin or Joe Beery
before the reunion. However I still keep in touch with my gunner, Art Brule,
who lives in Turner’s Falls, Massachusetts.
Because of my time in the service I am entitled to the following: Aircrew
insignia with three stars, Air Medal, American Campaign Ribbon,
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Ribbon with four battle stars, Philippine
Liberation Campaign Ribbon with two battle stars, Navy Unit Commendation
Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal, Victory Medal WWII, National Defense Medal
(Korean War), and the New York State Conspicuous Service Cross.
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