Joe McPhail

Joe McPhail
Born	10 October 1921 Grand Saline, Texas

Joe McPhail was a man born in Grand Saline, Texas, went through the depression, and became a US Marine Corps Aviation pilot during WWII and the Korean war. He first went overseas into VMF-441 in Wildcats, not doing much during that time. He then participated in VFMA-323, the Death Rattlers in the F4U-Corsair. He was then transferred to VMF-122 on Peleliu. After WWII ended he was called up into VMFA-214, the Black Sheep Squadron, during the Korean War.

After the war he flew executive flights for a gas transmission company in Houston. After retiring from reserve duty in 1981 and then from flying, he would attend flying events at airshows and other ceremonies.

Video link to the interview here: https://archive.org/details/img-2527_202310

Before birth

1910 - Birth of sister

In 1910 Joe's sister Claydie May McPhail was born.

1917 - Second older brother born

In 1917 Joe's other future brother Hugh was born.

Childhood

10 October 1921 Birth in Grand Saline

Joe McPhail was born to his parents Homer and Fanny McPhail on 10 October 1921 in the small town of Grand Saline, a place in Van Zandt County in East Texas, which sat on Highway 80 between Dallas and Shreveport, and had a population of around 1200. Joe was named without a middle name, so his full name was just Joe McPhail.

At that time, Joe's sister, who had been born in 1910, was already 11 at the time. Their mother worked in the house, no external job. His father was a Railroad Commissioner, and so had to travel a lot.

1921 to 1930 - Living in Grand Saline

Between when Joe was born and in 1937, him and his family lived in Grand Saline. In school he wasn't a very good student, not very good in the way that he didn't do well on grades, assignments, and such. He always had trouble remembering things in High School as well, was a bad test taker that sort of thing. It was because of these experiences that he personally wasn't very fond of school. Despite this he didn't get into much trouble in school, tried to be honest and doing what he thought was the right thing. He did have some friends at school however.

His dad on the other hand was a groceryman, and worked for a company in Grand Saline. At the time he also ran for the Van Zandt County Tax Assessor-Collector. He won, being the Tax Assessor-Collector for four years. The county seat was in Canton, and so that is where they moved.

1929 - Great Depression begins

In 1929 the Great Depression began. It hit the McPhails making things pretty tough for them. They didn't have a lot of money and would from now on make the ends meet. While their father was Tax Assessor-Collector, he owned a Chevrolet which had wheels on the fenders, kind of two extras of them. Him and his family wouldn't travel far in them, never went outside of Texas given the size of the state.

7 April 1930 - 1930 Census

On 7 April 1930, while Joe and his family were living on Spring Street in Grand Saline, information was put down on the census about them and their dwelling. It was noted that they did have a radio at their house at this time, and that their father was at this time the Tax Collector, and not a veteran. Both parents could read and write, and Fanny (their mother), was a housewife. Claydie was already 19 by this time but didn't have a job. Hugh was 12 at this time and attending school, while Joe was also attending school at the age of 8. Something to note is that Joe's name was put down as Joe B, despite the fact that according to him in the interview from 19 October 2023 and the register of his birth record on 9 October 1941, he said it was just Joe McPhail.

Another thing of note is that at the time a man by the name of Tom M. Hicks was living with them. It isn't exactly known who this Tom is, or what his relationship with the family was, but it states that he was a Boarder, meaning that he was lodging with the McPhail family.

1930 to 1935 - Moving to Canton

Between 1930 and 1935 the family moved to Canton for Homer's job as Tax Assessor-Collector, then moving back to Grand Saline.

1930 - Younger brother born

In 1930 Joe's younger brother Larry was born, 20 years since their older brother was born. This made a total of four children, one girl, and three boys.

When Joe was 9 years of age, he wasn't very much involved in any of the New Deal Programs initiated by FDR. He didn't really think about the war that was going on outside of the country either.

After that he had a grocery store and stayed in it for a while. This would have been within the time that they were in both Grand Saline and Tyler.

Even though his father was involved in political business, Joe himself then and going forward didn't have any particular political opinions.

1935 to 1937 - Moving back and living in Grand Saline

In 1935, which would have been around the time that Homer's four years were up as Tax Assessor-Collector, the McPhails moved back to Grand Saline.

Within this time period in the 30's Joe's brother Hugh got TB.

Christmases and other holidays for the McPhails

At the time of festivities the McPhails celebrated Christmas. For them the holiday was a pretty big deal for them. They got their tree from places that grew pine trees, and always got presents for the tree. Joe wished for guns, fishing equipment, things like that.

For the Fourth of July they didn't do much. They used some fireworks but that was just about it.

1937 - Moving to Tyler

In the year 1937, since Homer had a cousin who was pretty big into county politics, he decided to get into county business and go work for his cousin. Therefore that year the McPhails moved to Tyler, Texas. There Joe stayed and would remain there for the remainder of his time in high school and graduated from there at Tyler High, the only school in the city.

Moving from Grand Saline Joe did miss some friends that he had there

Joe had a brother and a sister, Hugh and Claydie.

Joe remembers that his father was a hard worker, and how he would kill the hog (that they presumably had) in the fall, to Joe it was good seeing the hog meat you got out of it. As for his mother, she was a home body, didn't do much else, cooked good food though. His siblings though were quite a bit older than he was and so Joe always looked up to them. Despite them being siblings they never bothered each other, never getting in any particular fights.

In Tyler at school Joe had some friends. One of which that it seemed he counted was his cousin Lloyd Ray who was also living in Tyler and a little younger than Joe was.

While in Tyler Joe liked to play sports, in particular or at least one of them being Baseball. He played as First Baseman and him and his team didn't really get far in competing against other ones, mainly just playing locally. He wasn't really good at it, but still enjoyed it. One of the main reasons that he played was because there wasn't much else to do around.

Another source of entertainment that they had there was fishing which Joe liked to do. The biggest thing he ever caught was an 11 lbs Black Bass in Tyler.

Joe never was someone to get into mischevious things and get in trouble.

Outside of school Joe had some neighbors and friends that he and his family would hang out with. There were these neighbors they were good friends with that they would play Baseball, fished and all that with, known by their name the Sheppards.

As for other entertainment, from Joe's perspective they didn't have a radio. The local newspaper that they had was the Tyler Morning Telegraph, and Joe at some point picked up the job of delivering this newspaper around to people, and he wasn't paid too much since it was during the times of the Great Depression. Joe even had the job (and maybe this was before in Grand Saline as well) to mow lawns.

Important to Joe's future, there was an airfield nearby where he lived, Tyler Pounds Field. There he started his experience watching planes and beginning his interest in them.

Adulthood

10 October 1939 - Turning 18 years old

On 10 October 1939, Joe would have turned 18 years old, becoming an adult.

Before June 1939 - Graduating from High School and moving to Corpus Christi

Before summer 1941, Joe graduated from High School, or Junior College, in 1939 in Tyler. His father had gone to work by this time as being a worker of the state, specifically a Railroad Commissioner, and so he was sent to be at Corpus Christi. After graduating High School therefore the family began moving to Corpus. After he graduated Joe went into Junior College, not to Del Mar College, but just to a junior college in Corpus (he would be asked if he went to Del Mar when he says he went to college in Corpus). While in Junior College Joe, because Naval Air Station Corpus Christi was nearby, he saw many different guys in uniform in and around town. It was that and probably some other reasons that convinced him that he wanted to be a pilot.

Although apparently it was in Tyler that Joe received, whether it was now or later on, at Tyler Pounds Regional Airport, his Private Flying License.

Between June 1939 and June 1941 - Completing sixty hours of college

Between graduating from High School in 1939 and Summer 1941, Joe would have completed sixty hours worth of college.

1940 - Death of Joe's father

In the year 1940, at the age of 53 years, Joe's father passed away. He had cancer but Joe and others think that they had Tuberculosis (TB), but then they didn't really know much about Cancer.

7 May 1940 - 1940 US Census

On 7 May a member from the US Census Bureau came by the residence of Joe and others to record them. He was lodging on 321 Ayers Street, Corpus Christi, which was under the ownership of John Charles Gray whose wife was Fannie Bessie Birdwell.

June to July 1941 - Spending time in Civilian Pilot Training

The summer after Joe graduated from junior college, Joe and his cousin Ray decided to enroll into a government sponsored program called Civilian Pilot Training, called and abbreviated as CPT by Joe. They were specifically enrolled into the one in Tyler at Tyler Pounds Regional Airport. CPT was a government program that Joe enjoyed because he got exposed to planes for the first time and they got to fly for about thirty to fourty hours that summer in which he would then receive his Private Pilot License. He would fly Piper J-3 Cubs, which were tail draggers. The plane was pretty primitive, you had to spin the prop to start it, like an old automobile. It didn't have any breaks, and so Joe and the other pilots would taxi back up and park up kind of on a hill. At CPT Joe had an instructor named Frinefruk (which was his last name). He also had a friend he either knew or met there at CPT named John Ralphus.

During that time he really got hooked into flying and so wanting to continue, knew that he wanted to be an aviator and liked to fly. He knew that his only chance to fly was by going into the service and being on active duty. It was after he was done with CPT in Tyler he went down to Corpus to Flight School. Whether it was here where he was climbing to 40,000 ft or some other time, Joe thought that doing that kind of thing was fun and plus you get to see what all you see.

At first decided to go into the Navy at the time to be a Navy pilot, because Naval Air Station Corpus Christi (NAS Corpus Christi) was nearby. Having seen all the guys in uniform back since high school also contributed to his thinking that joining the Navy would be for him, and was anxious to get in and be a pilot. He had also asked if he could be a fighter pilot. However he discovered that in 1941 the Navy required that you be 20 years of age as well as have sixty hours of college. He did indeed have already the sixty hours of college, but wasn't 20 yet. That would require him to wait for his birthday that year of 10 October 1941.

9 October 1941 - Probate Court Record of Joe's birth gets registered

On 9 October the Joe's birth certificate/record was filed and registered. It noted the following about his birth:

• Born in Grand Saline, Van Zandt county, Texas
• Full name was Joe McPhail
• Male
• Born 10 October 1921
• Legitimate child of both father and mother
• Father was Homer Flavous McPhail, resident of Grand Saline, Texas at time, white, 33 at time of brith, born in Van Zandt County, Texas, working for Magnolia Petroleum Company at time.
• Mother was Fanny May Terry, resident of Grand Saline at time, white, 28 years old, born in Van Zandt county, Texas, and currently working as a Housewife.
• Both parents had 3 children including this birth.
• Signed by A. D. McPhail in Grand Saline.

On Affadavit A, it was signed by A. D. McPhail, verifying that it was of Joe McPhail, sworn and subscribed to him 9 October 1941.Enoch G. Fletcher signed his name on it.

The second one was signed by Dr. V. B. Cozby verifying the same, also signed by Fletcher in Van Zandt.

Finally it was noted that the birth certificate of Joe McPhail was submitted to the court, signed by the County Judge L. F. Sanders, in Van Zandt county, 9 October 1941, with the clerk Leon Cox signing on the same day in Van Zandt County.

10 October 1941 - Turning 20 years old

On 10 October Joe finally turned 20 years old and so was now able to join the Navy's V-5 program. Because he volunteered to join up, Joe never received a draft number. Joe's mother didn't resist when he enlisted, wasn't upset about it. It wasn't because he was the oldest brother .

18 October 1941 - Official join date of the US Military

On 18 October 1941, eight days after turning 20, Joe was sworn into the Navy in downtown at Allen Building, Dallas, at Naval Air Station Dallas. There he became a Weekend Warrior. John Ralphus and some other guys would also follow Joe from CPT into NAS Dallas. At this time Joe and John were together quite a bit and good friends. It is assumed that after some time he left Dallas and went back home.

Joe was the only one in his family at the time that was in any military service. Since his brother Hugh had TB so he didn't need to go into the service. Since his father had already passed away, he didn't know about his service. His mother however did know, and was supportive, although anxious, telling him to fly low and slow.

Before or during 4 December 1941 - Being called up to NAS Dallas again

Sometime before or during 4 December, Joe was called up to come back up to NAS Dallas. The language used in the sources here aren't totally clear, was he called up on exactly 4 December or was he called to be at NAS Dallas by 4 December?

4 December 1941 - Commissioning and arrival to NAS Dallas

On Thursday 4 December 1941 Joe was commissioned into active service in the Marine Corps would have arrived to NAS Dallas to start Flight School. There was another air field owned by the military, Hensley Field, but that was on the USAAF's side. Joe guesses that there was even Ling-Temco-Vought there as well. It is presumed that John Ralphus also joined NAS Dallas on this date or around this date. When he was there he was a Seaman Second Class. His pay at this time in Dallas was $36 a month.

But then as Aviation cadet he would make 75 dollars, he had money he couldn't really buy or even spend on much around, no place to spend it.

At this time there was no indication or sign that could be seen of an imminent war with the United States. Neither Joe nor anyone else believed something was going to happen. Although looking at the war situation in Europe and such, he thought that at some point they would enter the war. Although he liked to fly so much that it didn't worry him at all, In fact Joe was kind of looking forward to it.

7 December 1941 - News of the attack on Pearl Harbor

Around 1200

Around noon on Sunday 7 December 1941, three days after Joe had just arrived for flight school at NAS Dallas, Joe and the other people at the base heard the news about the attack on Pearl Harbor on radio, as on this Sunday they didn't have much else to do. Upon hearing the news Joe thought to himself:

Well, got myself in a mess here

Specifically he was thinking about getting in in time for war. Despite this, Joe knew that he had to stay in to get the job done. Most people didn't even know where Pearl Harbor was. In any case, due to the fear of any saboteurs and things like that, Joe and the others were ordered to start patrolling the perimeter from then on around the Air Station. Despite being given this role, they weren't given any bullets. All they were doing were walking the fence line patrolling, without a mean to defend themselves. However nothing bad really happened in Dallas.

After 7 December 1941

After Pear Harbor, Joe remained at NAS Dallas for only a short period of time. In any case, the base continued to maintain security, as they were afraid that the Japanese Americans would rise up against them. As such they stayed busy at the base. There were two Marine Sergeants who had an influence on McPhail, who thought that they were taking care of the aviation cadets.

During this time, as a result of the war, there were quite a few airplanes transferring from the east coast to the west coast. Nearly all of these planes were coming through Dallas. Joe and others were out there pushing planes around and helping refuel them and to get them all ready. From his perspective it was pretty exciting to see some first-line planes, although in reality these planes, like the Wildcats, weren't actually all that impressive. He also saw observational planes that he thought looked real weird when they came through. These things increased the intensity of not only his training, but that of others as well, as they were trying to get the cadets ready. During this time, the Navy lowered their requirements of being 20 years of age and 60 hours of college, what Joe was required to do, in order to get more high school graduates.

NAS Dallas, for the men that were there along with Joe, called it "E Base" or "Elimination Base", due to the fact that the people above them wanted to see if you could fly before sending them to NAS Corpus Christi. During this time they were testing the cadets' capabilities as a pilot. Unlike Joe, there weren't many cadets that participated in CPT, and so Joe had a rung up there above almost everyone else, so it was pretty easy for him.

For the flying part, Joe and the others weren't flying Piper Cubs like at CPT, but instead N3Ns which were built by the Naval Aircraft Factory, which didn't make too many planes. N3Ns were older models that were steel fabric biplanes with open twin cockpit trainer biplanes as well as tail draggers. They apparently called it a "Yellow Peril." Joe thought that they were good planes and pretty easy to fly. He could do acrobatics with it, loops, rolls, things like that. They had big wings, and a stick instead of a wheel for control. They were apparently not actually using it for training. .

The most complicated maneuver that Joe had ever done was such: You would wheel the plane up to the top in the air, then roll over at the top of the loop, and pull a lot of G's in the process.

During this time of training there weren't really any incidents, Joe himself didn't have any accidents. Others did have accidents. There were some guys that had ground loop.

As for life there, to Joe it was pretty regular. As a reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor everyone was anxious to get overseas, including Joe. They did have a dislike for the Japanese people, they kind of thought that they did Pearl Harbor and that it was wrong for them to have done it. During the war the Japanese-Americans were interned. For Joe and others it wasn't really a big deal, they had them in camps and so him and others never did get involved with them .

After he started flying, getting his four hours in, Joe got a $18 raise from his $36 a month, to $54, a 50% increase in salary.

1 April 1942 - Leaving NAS Dallas and going to Corpus Christi

On 1 April 1942 Joe left NAS Dallas. Him and the other trainees there had around 30 to 40 hours of flight specifically at that place for four months.

When Joe was transferred to Corpus for more training, he was made an Aviation Cadet from a Seaman Second Class. Upon advancing after leaving Dallas, the cadet had to determine what they were going to do. At the time the Marine Corps was only getting about 10% of the cadets. Since Joe wanted to fly fighters he felt that he would have a better chance getting into in joining the Marine Corps than he could the Navy. He was afraid that they would put him into a PT Boat (says P-boat) or something like that. He also figured that the other services had transport and patrol planes that he didn't want to fly, instead of fighters that he wanted to fly.

In Corpus, he started flying Stearman planes, which he thought were big and strong, but still basically the same thing as the N3Ns. Fabric biplane. He flew a lot of different kinds of planes then. A flying day for the generally consisted of first going to grad school for half a day, and then fly half a day. But they had a syllabus they would go through, start out elementary things, then do more complicated things. Joe liked doing Acrobatics, seeing it as fun for him. He thought the experience at Corpus was pretty interesting in of itself.

Joe was pretty much confident in his capability in getting through his training. Although the one thing despite that was getting those check rides and you'd always worry about them. While in Corpus he did get one down in a check ride. He told Joe:

Well, you weren't doing the acrobatic maneuvers right

So another instructor took Joe up and showed him how to do the maneuvers right and so then there wasn't a problem.

As an Aviation Cadet at Corpus he would now make $75, and despite now having money, he couldn't really buy much of anything as there wasn't much stuff or places around to spend it.

He would fly the Stearmans at Broadfield, then move on to flying Cabinets and SNVs, Vultee vibrators. The SNV was a fixed-geared trainer with two seats. Eventually he got to fly a Vought OS2U Kingfisher, a first line observational plane, which the Navy even had on cruisers, in which they would catapult them off of cruisers and battleships and recover them with a sled like thing to then reel it in. In the OS2U he even got to do some water landings. They also had landing planks too, fixed landing gear/wheels, but Joe thought it was pretty neat. One time Joe in the Kingfisher climbed all the way to 9,000ft in altitude. He thought to himself:

Boy is this something!

After being in the Kingfisher he went through instruments school. At that time he decided that he wanted to fly fighters. Unfortunately, everyone wanted to fly fighters. He was told that the Marine Corps was the best place to go for that, and believed it, especially of the fact that the Marine Corps didn't have as many scout planes as the Navy did. He figured that that was the cheapest way to get into fighters, let them pay for it. That is why he chose to switch over into the Marine Corps. Before Kingsville, Joe had somehow met with Richard Charles Mangrum, famous aviator from Guadalcanal, who was the head of the Marine detachment. He asked Joe:

Why did you join the Marine Corps?

Joe responded:

I wanted to fly fighters

Mangrum then told him:

Well, you stand a good chance

So Joe did, that is why he went to Kingsville to do his advanced. By the time that he made the decision to go into the Marines Joe had maybe already 150 hours of training, 225 when he got his wings.

April 1942 - Doolittle raid

It was probably at this time that Joe heard about the Doolittle raid, in which Jimmy Doolittle, flying a B-25 crashed in China.

2 October 1942 - Getting his wings

On 2 October 1942, after ten months of training, Joe finished his training and got his wings . This was the time that he officially transferred from the Navy to the Marine Corps, all it being was a paper transfer, no formality of anything like that. As such he went to Opa-Lacka Air Station in Miami, Florida for what they called Pre-operationals training. There they flew what the Navy called SNJs, North American trainer, and what the USAAF called AT-6s, which had a hood over the pilot's head. He had, however, flown these in Kingsville during fighter training.

While working on the SNJs, they were learning about instrument training, which Joe found kind of tough. Although he thought that it was good training as it would get you out of a lot of trouble (from any tricky situation).

Even up until this point there were quite a few guys that didn't make it in training.

At Opa-Locka they conducted Field Carrier Landing Practice, abbreviated as FCLP, as if going aboard carriers. It was a different kind of landing than they were used to. They did fly other planes, the N2. Joe got to fly what they were calling the F2A, known as the Brewster Buffalo, which was at the time a first-line fighter. He thought it was kind of a weird plane. It didn't have a hydraulic system, and as such there were six to seven ways to get the landing gear down. One of such ways was to use the pair of dykes on board to cut the cable, which was the last resort, if the crank wasn't working.

December 1942 - Going to San Diego, California

In December, Joe and John were transferred to NAS North Island, San Diego, California to wait to go overseas. At this time though Joe and the others were not yet in a squadron at all. This was more of a what was called a replacement draft. There John, being his good friend, was Joe's roommate at the place they were staying. The whole West Coast was locked down. Joe and others would go into town, be tourists, and to Joe it was pretty. To him he thought that everybody was ready to be behind the war effort, especially in the West Coast. In San Diego there were blackouts, as well as guards posted around the city. Joe and others (within his unit) had to have ID cards to get in and out of the base. At the time they never heard of the Battle of Los Angeles.

While there at North Island they were training to get in some time in planes. There there were even some Piper Cubs that they got to fly.

- 4:00 They had problems with the first the "oly O's" had aall air ratio and it hit bounce and the british solved that problem thats the reason the Marine Corps got them the Navy didn't want to they were having trouble.

I was at North Island in San Diego in December 42, and they were bouncing the Corsair there field carrier landing, they were having so much trouble they were saying we don't want them. And they got the Hellcat the Navy did and so but the guy, friend of mine guy in the Navy and he flew both of them and he said you know the Corsair was abetter flying airplane, but if I was going to be shot at I rather be in a hellcat.

16 January 1943 - Going overseas

Finally Joe and John were able to go overseas on 16 January 1943, the first destination, the town of Pago Pago, American Samoa, deep in the Pacific, where they would join Marine Fighter Squadron 441 (VMF-441), which was operating Grumman F4F Wildcats in which Joe would fly in. While en route, Joe and the others being shipped were on the cruise line Matsonia. There were probably about 50 aviators on board, but only 10 of them (probably including him) that were going into 441.

26 January 1943 - Joining up the squadron

On 26 January Joe would have at this time joined VMF-441 on American Samoa. He got to Pago Pago as indicated, and would have joined the squadron where they were at Tafuna. On this day 8 other pilots and 139 enlisted men joined the squadron. It also received 18 F4F-4s and gave 7 of its F4F-3s to VMF-111, which was west of American Samoa on British Samoa. There was also another squadron on Samoa, VMFA-242, a dive bomber squadron.

The CO of the squadron was a Captain named Walter Meyer. The executive officer was a man named William Lightfoot Gaffney (spelled in full), who was older than the CO. Gaffney was normally in the reserve, at least Joe thought he was, while Meyer was regular time. Walter did eventually make Major.

The squadron at some point was called the "Blackjacks", however Joe never saw or heard it being used while he was there.

The Wildcat was a plane which had only about a 1000 Horsepower with its Pratt Whitney 1830 Engine. The plane also didn't have a hydraulic system, you had to crank the gear (which was already pretty narrow) up and crank it to get it down. You had to charge the guns with a cable that ran out to the guns in the wings. As such he thought it was a pretty primitive plane. You also didn't have a starter, having to fire a shotgun shell with the starter switch which then rotated the prop. The wings had to be manually unlock them to get them to fold back parallel to the fuselage. This was done to store them so that they wouldn't be taking up too much room. The breech was in the right wheel well, and it would spin the prop around. Most of the time this would start it but sometimes it would take several shells.

Joe and others used to laugh, as when someone would take off the first time in a Wildcat, the pilot would have their right hand on the stick and the left on the throttle. As soon as they would take off, they would switch from their right hand to the crank for the gear, and the left on the stick. Therefore you would see a guy, he'd been ranking up the gear and the stick would move back with each crank. Joe thought it looked kind of like a porpoise after take-off. Eventually though the pilots would get used to it. The Wildcat was big in Guadalcanal until they replaced in in 1943. Joe really thought that the Wildcat, despite its problems, could be tough on the ground, especially if you were caught in a crosswind.

26 January 1943 to March 1944 - Being overseas

For the next 13 to 14 months, the job of 441 then and from then on forward was to help keep Japanese off of different islands in the area in the Pacific, to keep them from penetrating further south. They had already gone to the Marshall and Gilbert Islands, the Philippines, among others. Despite this, they didn't get in any action, and so Joe and the job of others was to continue training and of course some patrolling, this time in the F4F-4 Wildcats. Joe had gone overseas with one of his friends, John Ralphus, who was also part of 441.

Joe and the other members of the squadron formed a good bond, were good friends with one another, all doing the same thing. One of the officers that was in 441 Squadron was a guy by the name of Rared Shaeffer, who was a Texan. There were some pictures that had been taken of the squadron during their time overseas.

Once while he was taking off from Samoa, the wind wasn't down the runway, and it got away from Joe and he scraped the Flight Officer's Wildcat's wing. Joe was afraid that they weren't going to let him fly again, but they still let him. This was possibly also due to the narrow landing gear but possibly not.

While they were overseas, the food that they got, in Joe's opinion, wasn't all that great. There was a lot of what they were calling mutton, from Australia and New Zealand. Joe didn't think it was very good. They also had a lot of beans and stuff like that. Naturally they didn't have any vegetables, milk, or anything like that. There wasn't anything fresh as they were in a remote. place. But being young men they could put up with a lot.

Joe did often get letters and packages from home during this time. His brother worked for the Tyler Morning Telegraph paper, hunt and pecked on the typewriter. There was V-Mail that was used for corresponding with him. To Joe most of his letters had been censored, although they really hadn't. He was either scratching out thoughts or misspelled or something. His mother on the other hand would always send him, and he always liked to get those.

22 March 1943 - Men transferred to Funafuti

While they were on Samoa, there was a contingent of the squadron that was sent up to the island of Funafuti, a group of small islands surrounding a volcano-like island. The island was 700 miles south of Tarawa which was being currently occupied by the Japanese. At that time Joe and others were Second Lieutenants. They didn't have much time or anything, so for the time being they weren't able to get up to Funafuti.

27 March 1943 - Boland and Spanjer intercept 2 Japanese planes

One of their jobs while overseas was to conduct reconnaissance of any Japanese ships that they could find, specifically they would patrol up a series of islands leading to Tarawa. However they never found any. The job of the 441 was to beat the Japanese to those islands. There was one guy, named William P Boland, who shot down two planes while on patrol up there, happening to see them. One of the planes was a Nell. They were scouting down those islands themselves. Joe thinks they did this to see if the Americans were preparing them. At some point later in the war some American planes shot down Admiral Yamamoto.

It may have been at this time or around this time, when Joe did his first 25 missions he got the Distinguished Flying Cross.

15 April 1943 - More of the squadron goes to Funafuti

Eventually Joe and the rest of the squadron were transferred to the island of Funafuti, Because of the distance (700 miles from Tarawa) they realized that the Wildcats couldn't really reach Tarawa and come back, and so in the air at that time Joe didn't see any Japanese planes. In fact, the Wildcats couldn't even go 300 miles up and back. It would have been a one way mission attempting to do so, and so they never tried, and so never encountered or got entagled with a Japanese plane. Despite this they were technically still in combat. With all this they were kind of disappointed they weren't getting into any action, as meanwhile everyone else was out in engagements.

Joe and others would on average fly every other day. The reason was because there were only around 40 people in the squadron, and only around 20 to 24 airplanes most of the time.

On Funafuti there were some natives that Joe met. He thought that they were friendly, not hostile in any way. The Japanese didn't have any plans to go that far (700 miles) south of Tarawa, nothing planned to do down there.

On Funafuti on base there were films relating to propaganda, music, among other things. There were movies, entertainment of people telling jokes and all that. Joe didn't really have a particular song that he liked. There were quite a few that he went to on Funafuti.

At some point Joe had asked someone what the depth of the ocean was, thinking that he could maybe just walk on it.

Joe blacked out from pulling too many G's at one point during this time overseas. It happened during flight in mid air, but thankfully he was high enough to regain consciousness.

22 April 1943 - Funafuti is bombed

The Japanese sometimes bombed them almost every moonlit night on Funafuti. They would come from Tarawa but also the Marshalls and Kwajalein. The first time for Joe it was kind of scary, as there wasn't much they could do, other than getting into a foxhole and just had to tolerate it until it was over. The squadron didn't have any anti-air guns and so weren't able to compete with the Japanese who would come down to bomb them at night. Fortunately no one was harmed as far as Joe knew. His plane however did get destroyed and so they had to send in a new one, he never would really try to have any personal connection or relationship to his planes. Whenever they came in and destroyed the Wildcat, they would have to repair them and get them in the air.

23 April 1943 - Funafuti warned for an impending bombing

On that note Joe did conduct what technically could be called night missions. A lot of the times that the Japanese would come and bomb at night the men of 441 would be required to put the planes up in the air in order to prevent them from being bombed and destroyed. Since they didn't have any night mission equipment they were told to go to a certain island within the Funafuti group until the raid is over and then come back home.

23 June 1943 - Joe crashes into the sea

There was one memorable time that Joe had in the Wildcat in 441. One of the things that they practiced on was by having someone towing a banner for someone to fire upon. In order to get the sleet in the air, the reserve fuel tanks were dropped to lighten the load. On this day Joe was towing the banner for someone else (out of the division of planes that were flying) and the person fired on it while on flight. Having done this Joe and everyone else got lost and missed the island (assuming because he didn't have the extra fuel to get back). Funafuti wasn't a big island, but they were finally able to get in touch with radar when he was 80 miles past, were given bearings, and so they knew they were coming in and so started sending out planes to look for Joe. Joe knew they weren't going to make it back, but everyone else could, and so they turned around to head in that direction, and were able to get within 20 miles of the island before Joe's plane ran out of fuel. After that he had to make an emergency landing in the water while the others would make it back. The water was terrible and rough along with the rough weather, probably 15 ft waves, although it wasn't cold, but was warm. His plane stalled out and hit a wave. He had that shoulder harness on so tight that he couldn't breathe and his nose hit the Wildcat's gunsight right in front of it. He then unhooked everything, jumped into the water and inflated his Mae West. As soon as the plane hit the water there was an automatic one man life raft, which was about the full length of his arms, that came out behind the pilot and inflated. It had a lanyard/string on it connected to the plane, and when the plane, becoming unrecoverable, sank after 45 seconds of hitting the water, it flipped the raft upside down. He lost his fishhooks, paddles, and everything, but, despite having a hard time getting in it, he was able to get in and ride it. For an hour and a half, the planes, having gone in, landing, and refueled, came by but weren't able to see him. He finally put dye marker in the water every time that a plane passed by, unfortunately, on top of the fact that his raft was small making him hard to spot, the huge waves created a current that would turn the dye into a little green string or thin line in the big Pacific. It didn't help either how small his raft was compared to the vast area around. Going back to his question he pondered to someone if he could walk on the ocean floor, it was in reality about 1,200 feet away from him.

For three long hours he was in the Pacific ocean. He didn't even know how he'd ever get to see land again. Eventually a plane or multiple planes spotted him and pointed him out to a PT boat, which was sent out to pick him up. They found Joe, and he tried to get himself onto the boat, but had a hard time doing it, as Joe was down and they were up.

The last citation from the Houston Chronicle contradicts all the other sources in which it states that it took a day for him to be rescued which isn't true according to the Squadron history and Joe's interviews. The information obtained could have been misinterpreted when the article was written.

August 1943 - Guadalcanal, pay, and big picture of the war

They were still at this time disappointed that they weren't getting any action while everyone else was. It was at this time that in August 1943 the Guadalcanal Campaign began and they were sending planes over there.

During this time they also received news knowing what was going on in the big picture of the war. Joe even got himself a radio, a Hallicrafters made shortwave radio. Sometimes he could even pick up San Francisco with it. He found it interesting to kind of follow what was going on. Early when he went over there (Funafuti?), some of the guys went down to Guadalcanal. Joe knew several of them, and they were all anxious to hear what was going on down there. When Joe first arrived in Samoa he was being paid $220. In his opinion, he would pay $220 to fly those planes. One time he and others were in kind of a recreation room. They had a pool table and everything. They were messing around, young guys, and Joe or someone else said:

You know, if the Marine Corps knew it, we'd pay them to let us fly these airplanes

A guy, Art Neff, who'd been to Guadalcanal, responded:

You wait'll you get a few arrows in your ass and you'll think you're grossly underpaid

Or said:

I’ll tell you! You just wait until you get a few bullets in your ass. You'll see how much you'd pay for this privilege then!

Joe didn't respond to it. He later began to understand what Art was talking about, and realized that he had a job to do, a difficult and deadly one. However, he made a commitment that he had to follow.

28 September 1943 - 441 is transferred to Nanumea

The 441 eventually went up to Nanumea, only 500 miles from Tarawa. It was a pretty primitive island. At first when they landed there they didn't have any accommodations, everything being pretty open, and so they'd eat outside with the lack of a mess hall. Eventually though they got to building some stuff. On Nanumea there were some natives as well just like Funafuti.

Even from there there was no way for the Wildcat to go to Tarawa and back, it would be essentially a one-way mission. Therefore their mission remained to keep the Japanese from getting it.

November 1943 - Marines land of Tarawa

In November the US took back over the island of Tarawa. Despite the tough battle, the US prevailed in taking the island. It was the example of this battle and other future ones that made him believe that despite it being hard to take these islands, Joe thought that they could take anything.

February to March 1944 - End of first tour overseas

After staying with 441 for thirteen to fourteen months, only flying in the Wildcat, with around 40 combat missions, Joe went back to the mainland United States in February 1944. He came back with John and the two began instructing in a fighter training unit (squadron) in El Toro, California. At El Toro he stayed at a hotel called Laguna Beach Hotel which was just nearby the base. It was 12 miles from the base and so they had a bus to go from there and back. At the hotel they had a pool and other kinds of things like that, nice stuff for the time. He then went to Jacksonville, Florida and instructed there. At the time Joe was a Captain. One day, they and assuming others were in the ready room, and they were told that they needed two Captains to go overseas. Joe said:

Well, we're ready

He was indicating that him and John were both ready to go overseas. John felt the same way as Joe did and was ready to go too.

March 1944 - Becoming a Captain and going back home

In March 1944 Joe was promoted to the rank of Captain. At that time the squadron was scheduled for being rotated out of overseas service, and so he also was able to go back home after about a year. WHen they got back to California the squadron dispersed.

March 1944 to January 1945 - Instructing and training in the Corsair

Between the time that he came back and the time that he went back overseas, Joe went to go instructing in a training squadron in El Toro. For him it was good duty right there on the coast, always there being plenty of liberty action, freedom to do some stuff, by that time the restrictions in California having been alleviated. This was probably training of new pilots and such given his job.

In any case at this time was when Joe first got into the F4U Corsair. Instead of training in Wildcats they began training in the Corsairs. He thought it was a good airplane, to Joe preferrable to the Wildcat. Not as breakable as the Wildcat, and also the wings didn't fold parallel to the fuselage like the Wildcat but instead upwards. It had a lot more power, along with better speed, altitude, and everything else. While training in the plane they conducted live ordinance trainings. They practiced with Rockets, Napalm, .50 calibre guns, 1000lbs bombs, all what seemed to be pretty destructive.

Just before they went overseas again, Joe was in the same situation as just before he was being shipped overseas for the first time. Specifically he wasn't in an actual squadron but was in a replacement draft.

January 1945 - Going overseas a second time

In January 1945, Joe and John volunteered to go overseas for the second time. Unfortunately for the two good friends of Joe and John, they went into two separate squadrons. Despite this they would keep in touch with each other. Joe now went to a new Marine Fighter Squadron which was based in the New Hebrides, specifically an island called Espiritu Santo, 500 miles east of Guadalcanal. This squadron, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 323, known as the "Death Rattlers", which had 51 pilots, had been overseas already for four to five, to six months then, since around July to August 1944. They all knew that they were going to Okinawa.

While at Espiritu Santo they trained for 3 to 4 months.

For the Okinawa Campaign Joe and the rest of the squadron got Corsairs to fly. Compared to the Wildcat's Pratt Whitney R-1830 engine with only 1000 horsepower, the Corsair had 2000 Horsepower with its Pratt Whitney R-2800 engine, a lot more powerful, making a good flying plane in Joe's opinion. Unlike the Wildcat the Corsair had a hydraulic system, where you charged the guns, raised the wings, and even raised the gear hydraulically.

Since John and Joe were new to the squadron, they would not be able to fly the planes to Okinawa, or on the way there, unlike the more veteran members of the squadron. In any case they didn't have any more Corsairs for them. They had to take an LST to get there. They departed from Espiritu Santo, 500 miles east of Guadalcanal, en route to Okinawa.

It was while Joe was in the 323 the US Marines finally took Tarawa.

March to April 1945 - Trip overseas

The trip on the LST took 38 days, in some part around 2 weeks, about a month and a half. He must have thought what a heck of a way it was for an aviator to get into the war, as for him it was a long ride. Had he flown there, he would have only taken a couple days.

They first set out on the LST from Espiritu Santo to Guadalcanal, then to Ulithi, stopping there for about 3 to 4 days. While there, one of the other squadrons which was on LST-322 which got hit by a kamikaze while they were there, which burned up all their gear and everything so the two other squadrons had to share squadron gear and whatever else was needed with them. Then they sailed off onto Okinawa.

For him the experience on the LST wasn't all that good. The chow was kind of lousy. There were baked potatoes, black eyed peas, and would have been other things as well. For him it wasn't anything particularly spectacular. They had plenty of coffee though on there. At the time Joe was a smoker, just as everyone else was. He was also a drinker of alcohol, drank beer among other things. The heavy seas pitching on the LST made the experience worse as well.

1 April 1945 - The invasion of Okinawa

On 1 April, the US invasion of Okinawa began. The US forces didn't have much opposition. At this point the US was down to opposing a bunch of little islands in the Pacific. Joe was there while the invasion was happening. He thought that he saw the most amount of ships ever seen his his life. Other than that, they weren't able to get up to the beach, and so had to sit out there waiting to be able to land on the island.

6 April 1945 - Getting to the beach

On 6 April Joe's LST got to the beach of Okinawa. Unfortunately it would have to be a day until they could get ashore/.

7 April 1945 - Joe lands on Okinawa

After waiting for six to seven days to get onto the island, on 7 April Joe was finally able to get on the beach. Him and the others were glad to be getting off onto Okinawa. He saw that the landscape on Okinawa was barren with craters and such (just as in E. B. Sledge's memoir described). Everything that was set up there by the US military was seen by him as pretty primitive. There were still men working on the runways, the airplanes still hadn't shown up yet, and they were living in tents and ate out of their mess kits as there was no mess hall, just had to do it outside. The flies and everything were so bad. The airfield that their squadron squadron was based out of and flew out of was Kadena Air Base. From here the squadron planes would be supporting the ground troops when they could and also patrolling. There wasn't a single time that the squadron, at least Joe, was based out of a carrier.

12 April 1945 - Joe's first flight out of Okinawa

1330 - Takeoff and interception

On 12 April at 1330 Joe finally got into his Corsair and flew out of Okinawa. He was three out of three divisions with 14 planes in his squadron. Their mission then was to conduct Combat Air Patrol. Originally there was supposed to be 16 Corsairs however two of them had mechanical problems and so had to return to the airfield.

With an average 240 gallons of fuel in each plane, the Corsairs flew on, and during this Japanese planes were approaching North of them. Therefore the formation was split to chase the different Japanese planes. The first group was vectored by the Fighter Director of six planes led by Major Turner. The second set of six planes was vectored North to Motobu Penninsula, which was led by Capt. Cecot. Second section was led by Capt. McPhail, with his new wingman, 2nd Lt. Warren William Bestwick. The Fighter Director vectored them to Motobu, where it was reported that Japanese planes were at 18,000 ft.

1430 - Engagement over Motobu

At around 1430, the group arrived over Motobu. With the enemy planes reported at 18,000 ft, Capt. McPhail and the rest of the group likely climbed to 23,000 ft, or less likely 20,000 to 22,000 feet, and began circling up there looking for the planes. Finally the Fighter Director vectored the group North. There were some veteran members of the squadron that were saying that there were some Bogeys. Joe could only see some clouds and didn't see anything else. He then proceeded to look down real low below him and saw a blue colored airplane (or multiple Corsairs), chasing some brown airplane or airplanes. He said:

Well, I'm gonna go check him out.

Joe took his plane down with Bestwick on his wing around 2,000 feet, to 20,000ft or 19,000 ft, in which he now had four Zeros with brown and green camouflage in front of his eyes in a Wingtip Formation, flying abreast in two-two plane sections. He picked the Tail end Charlie and lit his guns at him from 400 yds away above and behind. The first bullets missed and the tracers flew past, notifying the Japanese pilots, who then started making small turns. He wasn't thinking of hurting anyone in that plane, but eventually he started hitting, and pieces started coming off from around the cockpit of the rear plane and the Zeke blew up in flames, passing under the rest of the 3 planes, which scattered. Just then Bestwick picked the second plane of the first section, firing a long burst and making it explode. However the Zeke pulled up and made it impossible for Bestwick to stay on his 6. McPhail then pressed on and passed his original victim, putting his stick at full throtle. He now thinks that there's three Japanese planes behind him and thinks:

Well gosh there's three zeros behind me I better get out of here.

He rolled his Corsair over and started down, reaching compressibility, in which his airframe couldn't take going faster down, but stayed resulting in his stick starting to jump around and the ailerons getting messed up. He finally pulled out at about 9,000 feet, and upon failing to see his wingman, said:

I was going home

Or:

I was going back to base

He then proceeded back to base. For Joe it was an exciting and interesting experience. He thought to himself:

Well this is what I have been looking for a long time.

It isn't confirmed whether this happened to Joe or not, however it was reported that the Corsair pilots on that mission did experience hydraulic problems. This was due to mechanics unable to work on the Corsairs, lack of time, poor operation conditions, and just havin g arrived to Kadena Airfield.

It was probably around this time of 12 April that it got announced to Joe and the other members that FDR passed away during his fourth term, a sad time for Joe and others as he was well thought of.

13 April 1945 - Second Flight out of Okinawa

The day after his first flight, on Joe's second flight out of Okinawa, they took off and there were a bunch of Japanese planes letting down from their altitude, therefore were coming down at a faster speed than Joe and the others were. He tried shooting them but didn't get any hits. He managed to get in behind one and tried to shoot him, however the pilot evaded him. Despite this most of the Japanese pilots at this time were inexperienced.

April to June 1945

3 May 1945

1215 - McPhail and another Corsair take off on CAP

At 1215 Capt. McPhail took off with another F4U-1D on Combat Air Patrol.

Given the fact that it was only McPhail and another pilot, and that Bestwick has been his wingman in previous missions, the other pilot was probably Lt. Bestwick.

1405 - McPhail returns from CAP

At 1405, with negative results, McPhail and the other Corsair return from CAP, pancaking.

4 May 1945 - Shooting down a Nate

0730 - Takeoff on Combat Air Patrol

On 4 May at 0730, 16 Corsairs took off from Kadena Airfield, 4 divisions of Corsairs total. One division was under Capt. Van Buskirk, the other under 1st Lt. Dillard, and another under 1st Lt. Ball. Then there was Capt. McPhail's division. These four Corsairs (all F4U-1Ds) included Capt. McPhail at the head, Lt. Bestwick as his wingman, and Lt. Ruhsam as head of second section and Lt. Wade. The mission of McPhail's division was to protect some ships on CAP from kamikaze attacks over Ie Shima. All of the pilots (including Joe) that were part of the mission were in the USMCR.

When Japanese planes were picked up within the area, each of the divisions were vectored to a different position, although with no specific altitudes on the enemy, therefore the enemy having to be spotted with lookout doctrine. Despite this, it was a bright morning sun throughout the scene, creating 15 miles of visibility.

Around 0830

It was around 0830 that the different divisions encountered the enemy. The division arrived near Ie Shima, proceeding to the picket ships, and on a mission like this they would normally sit and circle there for 3 hours between 20-30,000 ft. It was probably then when Joe spotted a lone Ki-27 Nate, a fix geared Japanese plane, which was flying at about 1,000 feet from the water, and was acting as a Kamikaze (which were coming from Japan and they were always on the lookout for them), for set course somewhere to never go back, and so Joe was going to make sure that he stayed down. Joe came in, the Nate completely oblivious it seemed to Joe's presence, and was shot down by Joe at its 6 o'clock above. The Nate, not going up in flames but exploding, just rolled over and went down into the ocean, there was no dogfight. That was Joe's second kill.

From this, having killed 2 and messed up 3 American planes, he would like to begin to say that he is a generic ace as a joke. The crashed plane in the ocean and the Wildcat with the messed up wing are clearly 2 of the 3 messed up planes, but it isn't known what the 3rd one is.

In any case, the group proceeded to climbing, to which then a Val started coming straight at them. Ruhsam, saying nothing, made a hard-right and got a few rounds at the Val, flew past it. The flight leader (probably Joe) told him that he had made good hits, and the Val burst into flames. They continued their ascent, reaching their point to overlook the area of responsibility when suddenly, Bestwick's engine ran roughly and was smoking, thick black smoke coming from the cowling etching, making a long black line behind the plane. It was Joe's responsibility to escort his wounded wingman to safety, and so him and Bestwick pulled off and headed to base, leaving Wade and Ruhsam.

At some point for some unknown reason Joe started coming back to the division without Bestwick. Maybe he mostly escorted him to base and decided to return. Either way he came back where Wade and Ruhsam were both in a heavy engagement with many Nates and Vals. However this time it was more cloudy. While Ruhsam was trying to get a Val from behind, Joe came over the radio saying he was back int eh original position and asked where they were. He couldn't see them with the clouds. He asked:

Where are you?

Wade and Ruhsam kept responding that they were over where the little clouds were, although Ruhsam was still engaging the Val. He kept asking:

Where are you?

Ruhsam replied something but all Joe could hear was his darn guns going off. But Ruhsam was saying:

I'm over here on the tail of this Jap!

Ruhsam and Wade downed and damaged many planes before they headed home, with Joe not having engaged any.

1115 or 1151 - The 16 Corsairs return

At either 1115 or 1151 the planes would have returned. A report was made of all the engagements that happened that day with the squadron. In total the squadron made 24 ¾ kills that day. This might have been when Joe told Ruhsam that when he heard Ruhsam he could only hear the firing of his guns instead of his comment about being on the tail of the Val.

6 May 1945

1230 - McPhail's division on CAP

At 1230 Capt McPhail led 4 F4U-1Ds off the airfield into a Combat Air Patrol.

1545 - McPhail's division lands

At 1545, with negative results from Combat Air Patrol, the 4 Corsairs pancaked.

9 May 1945

1000 - 8 planes under McPhail take off

At 1000 hours 8 F4U-1Ds under the command of Capt. McPhail take off on Combat Air Patrol.

1245 - McPhail and his group comes back from CAP

At 1245 McPhail and his group of Corsairs pancake from their CAP with negative results.

12 May 1945

1730 - 4 Corsairs under Capt. McPhail take off on CAP

At 1730 4 F4U-1Ds, with an average of 395 fuel loaded, under the command of Capt. McPhail took off from Katena Airfield on Combat Air Patrol. These include the plane by Capt. McPhail. Two others included were 2nd Lt. Wade and 2nd Lt. Ruhsam, both USMCR. From evidence of past events (specifically like 12 April and 4 May) Capt. McPhail's wingman was probably Lt. Bestwick. That would add up to the 4 total pilots involved.

1930 - Engagement with two Dinahs

At 1930, 50 miles out, with no clouds, at twilight, and 2 miles of visibility, Ruhsam at 8000 ft spotted a Dinah (which was at 5,000 ft), which had brown camouflauge and the rising sun symbol, which was flying straight and level in an easterly direction toward a DD in the area (therefore the its objective was to attack shipping as observed). Ruhsam and Wade, part of the 4 plane dusk patrol, teamed up to shoot down and destroy a Dinah 40 miles Southwest of Katena Airfield. Ruhsam tallyhoed and peeled off toward the enemy, with Wade (his wingman) following him. The Dinah, which was still at its original altitude, nosed over, began jinking and started its run on the DD. Ruhsam then started firing bursts from 300 yds away, slightly above from 3 to 6 o'clock. Bursts of tracers were observed noticed hitting the Japanese plane as he pulled by. Wade proceeded to fire a few short bursts from 200 yds at the 5 o'clock after Ruhsam had overrun the Dinah on his first pass. Wade's tracers hit around the cockpit and fuselage, causing it to smoke and crash into the sea.

After this the flight then joined up and returned to base.

It isn't known exactly what McPhail and Bestwick (if Bestwick was there) were doing. They might have split off or something like that and were investigating something else.

2000 - McPhail's division pancakes and report is written

At 2000 hours McPhail and his division of 4 Corsairs pancakes at this time. The mission was notable enough that after this there was a report (report number 36) written up about the events of the day. In total it was noted that 1200 .50 cal rounds were used, 190 fuel on average consumed, 2.5 hours in the air, and 50 miles out and 50 miles back. There were also no other shots from AA or anything else encountered and also their equipment were functioning fine. Unfortunately the engagement was too short to form any comparisons in performance to own and enemy aircraft. It was also the last mission of VMF-323 of that day.

14 May 1945

0505 - CAP led by McPhail takes off

At 0505 on 14 May, 8 F4U-1Ds led by Capt. McPhail took off from the airfield on Combat Air Patrol.

0835 - Return of McPhail CAP

At 0835 the group of 8 Corsairs led by McPhail came back and pancaked. The results of their patrol were negative.

15 May 1945

1445 - 8 Corsairs take off led by McPhail on CAP

At 1445 8 F4U-1Ds led by Capt McPhail took off on Combat Air Patrol.

1850 - McPhail and his group returns

At 1850 McPhail and his group of F4U-1Ds returned and pancaked with negative results of their patrol.

17 May 1945

1445 - McPhail and his group takes off

At 1445 2 F4U-1Ds led by Capt. McPhail took off on Picket Ship Patrol.

It is assumed that the second person is Lt. Bestwick due to being his wingman in other missions.

1800 - McPhail returns

At 1800 McPhail and the other plane returns from Picket Ship Patrol with negative results, pancaking at this time.

18 May 1945

1323 - McPhail Picket Ship Patrol

At 1323 McPhail and another man in F4U-1Ds took off on Picket Ship Patrol.

Again it is assumed that his wingman was Lt. Bestwick just like from 17 May.

1605 - McPhail returns

At 1605 McPhail and the other plane return from Picket Ship Patrol pancaking, coming back with negative results.

20 May 1945

1730 - 4 Corsairs led by McPhail on CAP

At 1730 4 F4U-1Ds led by Capt. McPhail took off from the airfield on Combat Air Patrol.

1945 - Return of McPhail's division

At 1945 McPhail and the 3 other Corsairs returned from their CAP, pancaking and having negative results.

24 May 1945

0525 - 8 Corsairs led by McPhail go on CAP

At 0525 8 F4U-1Ds led by Capt. McPhail take off on Combat Air Patrol.

0846 - McPhail and his group returns from CAP

At 0845 McPhail and the other 7 Corsairs return from CAP, pancaking, and with negative results.

26 May 1945

1815 - 4 Corsairs led by McPhail on Scramble CAP

At 1815 hours a division of (4) F4U-1Ds led by Capt. McPhail were scrambled on Combat Air Patrol.

1915 - Return of McPhail's division

At 1915 McPhail and his division of Corsairs returned from scrambled CAP with negative results. They pancaked.

The squadron's kills

During the April, May, and June months, the squadron shot down a total of 124 (or 124.5) planes, being the most successful Marine Fighter Squadron. In total throughout the Okinawa campaign Joe had 100 combat missions, adding to his already 40 the first time, making 140. In total Joe shot down two planes during those missions, one a Zero, the other one a Nate. Joe had a lot of friends that were aces with five kills, but the chance was never given to him. Back then it wasn't easy to get a kill for a pilot. Joe thinks that the highest victory count in the squadron was 12 kills. He remembers a guy named "O'Keefe", Irish name, who shot down around 7 planes. There was always the guarantee that once you came back to base from a mission and reported your kills that they would add another marking on the side of your plane indicating a kill. For Joe there wasn't any kind of personal celebration that he got a kill each time.

The Squadron itself did loose some of its members (from being killed). For Joe and others they were sad to see them go.

During the time at Okinawa they had Forward Air Controllers on the ground, who were aviators directing artillery and airplanes. As such Joe was providing Close Air Support for the troops on the ground. While conducting these missions Joe and the other members of his squadron carried, 500 lbs bombs, Napalm, Rockets, .50 Calibre guns, 6-.50 Caliber guns, 2400 rounds. As such they were each able to do a lot of damage. They did so by talking to a Fighter Director on the ground instructing the pilot where to hit. If Joe scored a hit the Fighter Director would tell him that he did something good. He scored a hit probably about 3 times. It wasn't an easy task as you had to know where it was going. The Japanese on the ground did ever try to shoot him, what seemed to be a 20mm from generally open areas, however not once did he get hit. They did a lot of CAS on Okinawa, and Joe was happy to do it as he was able to help the guys on the ground, and thinks that that's what the Marine Corps needed, some support from the air.

It was through these ground support actions that Joe earned his second Distinguished Flying Cross. Throughout the time and before a lot of the times that they would give you Air Medals was every 5 missions that you conducted, and in total Joe was to receive 11 of them over the years.

In Joe's and others' mind, there was no doubt who was going to win the war. They knew that they were going to win and had confidence in themselves that they would achieve victory.

Joe did write letters home, mainly to his mother not his siblings, however there wasn't anything special in their contents. It was mostly just the average "How were you doing" sort of thing. He didn't know how long it took to get the letter home.

On another note there were some natives of Okinawa that Joe would have encountered.

The squadron's kills

During the April, May, and June months, the squadron shot down a total of 124 (or 124.5) planes, being the most successful Marine Fighter Squadron. In total throughout the Okinawa campaign Joe had 100 combat missions, adding to his already 40 the first time, making 140. In total Joe shot down two planes during those missions, one a Zero, the other one a Nate. Joe had a lot of friends that were aces with five kills, but the chance was never given to him. Back then it wasn't easy to get a kill for a pilot. Joe thinks that the highest victory count in the squadron was 12 kills. He remembers a guy named O'Keefe, Irish name, who shot down around 7 planes. There was always the guarantee that once you came back to base from a mission and reported your kills that they would add another marking on the side of your plane indicating a kill. For Joe there wasn't any kind of personal celebration that he got a kill each time.

The Squadron itself did loose some of its members (from being killed). For Joe and others they were sad to see them go.

During the time at Okinawa they had Forward Air Controllers on the ground, who were aviators directing artillery and airplanes. As such Joe was providing Close Air Support for the troops on the ground. While conducting these missions Joe and the other members of his squadron carried, 500 lbs bombs, Napalm, Rockets, .50 Calibre guns, 650 Caliber guns, 2400 rounds. As such they were each able to do a lot of damage. They did so by talking to a Fighter Director on the ground instructing the pilot where to hit. If Joe scored a hit the Fighter Director would tell him that he did something good. He scored a hit probably about 3 times. It wasn't an easy task as you had to know where it was going. The Japanese on the ground did ever try to shoot him, what seemed to be a 20mm from generally open areas, however not once did he get hit. They did a lot of CAS on Okinawa, and Joe was happy to do it as he was able to help the guys on the ground, and thinks that that's what the Marine Corps needed, some support from the air.

It was through these ground support actions that Joe earned his second Distinguished Flying Cross. Throughout the time and before a lot of the times that they would give you Air Medals was every 5 missions that you conducted, and in total Joe was to receive 11 of them over the years.

In Joe's and others' mind, there was no doubt who was going to win the war. They knew that they were going to win and had confidence in themselves that they would achieve victory.

Joe did write letters home, mainly to his mother not his siblings, however there wasn't anything special in their contents. It was mostly just the average "How were you doing" sort of thing. He didn't know how long it took to get the letter home.

On another note there were some natives of Okinawa that Joe would have encountered.

15 June 1945 - Leaving Okinawa and going to Peleliu

On 15 June Joe and presumably other members of the Death Rattlers left Okinawa. They were transferred to VMF-122 on the island of Peleliu from then on and would stay until the end of the war.

18 June 1945 - Arriving in Peleliu at VMF-122, Japanese attrocities, and life on Peleliu

On 18 June Joe and the others arrived in Peleliu to join VMF-122. Along with him joined Bestwick, Ruhsam, Wade, and Thacker from 323. Almost everyone that arrived for this assignment was part of the UMSCR.

At Peleliu they had Joe and the other members of the squadron flying in their Corsairs on missions not with bombs or other ordinance but as patrols. They were patrolling a specific island in the Palau island group, the island of Babelthuap. Since it was a big island they had to keep checking if they were trying to put together an invasion of Peleliu. They didn't know whether or not the Japanese were ever going to quit. There was still the fear that, despite having gone up the island chain, the Japanese were going to attack from one of the other islands that they were still occupying. There were still a bunch of them on Babelthuap, which is where the fear of it came from. Anguar was another island that the Japanese occupied which was just off of Peleliu, as the US never bothered to go ashore. Despite all this searching effort they never found any ships.

On that topic Joe did indeed hear about some of the atrocities that the Japanese had committed throughout the war. As such he did fear about getting captured, didn't want to, but luckily didn't become become a POW. He never heard any stories of being a POW from anyone he knew at the time since no one he knew was a POW.

There were some natives of Peleliu that Joe would have encountered or seen.

Just like on Funafuti there were films, music, and other kinds of entertainment. There were a few music things on Peleliu, not as many as on Funafuti.

3 July 1945 - Bombing west Ngatpang on Babelthuap

On 3 July Joe would conduct one of these kinds of missions at Babelthuap. On this day 12 F4U-1Ds were scheduled to take off to bomb West Ngatpang on Babelthuap. Capt. McPhail was participating along with Ruhsam, Wade, and Bestwick. There were also some other members of the squadron joining as well as Thacker and Feliton, and Capt. Scherer. Before the mission the pilots were briefed on what to do. They would have been told that by this time the installations and settlement that formed West Ngatpang had been reduced to rubble, but that the area was still reported to contain a different variety of supplies. On both sides of the road were concealed under the foliage supplies, which, according to information obtained from POWs, were looked after and presumably cherished by many units in the area being well known locally. The pilots would area bomb that district, which was located 2.5 miles inland from the West Coast, with a target area of 500x400 yds.

1000 - Takeoff

At 1000 all 12 Corsairs, each loaded with 2,500 lbs G.P bombs with .1 Nose .025 Tail fuze settings, fueled on average with 230, took off from Peleliu for their mission.

1025 - Arriving to target

After flying 60 miles for 25 minutes, the group arrived at West Ngatpang (which means they were going around 2.4 mi/min). It was clear visibility of 25 miles with 3/10 cumulus clouds at 4,500 ft. Approach was made from the west, the same way they planned to come out to permit a water landing if hit. Capt. McPhail and the rest of the planes dove at a 50° angle without a bomb sight. Everyone dropped their bombs at specific locations, with Ruhsam released at 1500 ft making a direct hit on AA position in TA 654 George, and McPhail dropping his at 2,500 ft landing in TA 654 Mike. All of their ordonances would have exploded. The pilots would have looked back and did believe that they had done considerable damage. However they observed the target area still being well covered, and didn't see secondary explosions.

Therefore except for the AA position being hit, other damage was undetermined.

The pilots did encounter only moderate 20-50mm AA, noting that the air was filled with 25-30 black puffs of medium calibre AA which detonated from 10-4,000ft, none of which was sufficient to cause concern.

In total 800 rounds of .50 cal were expended.

1100 - Return

At 1100 local time, the 12 Corsairs returned to base with no casualties or concerns. A report was then conducted of the mission.

6 August 1945 - First use of the atomic bomb

On 6 August 1945, the United States dropped their first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima in Japan. Everyone including Joe up until that point had been expecting to participate in the invasion of the home islands. They knew it was going to be tough trying to take those islands. Although at the time they didn't know of any special preparations. While on Peleliu, Joe heard about the news and they all knew about it. They were thinking that one might have been enough, but turned out not to be so. The bomb was explained in what Joe saw as a weird deal, coving so much ground. They weren't shocked about the size of the bomb, just were happy about it. Up until this point there was no kind of indication that the United States was building the atomic bomb, it was a special kept secret, a complete surprise to them. Although Joe and the rest of the squadron were getting kind of burnt out from the action. At the time they were stopping any ordinance from being dropped by the planes on Japan, but kept on flying some. Despite this, Joe knew that something was up. Despite the bomb there was no kind of residue or anything coming their way. Hearing about the atomic bomb made him realize the enormity of it. Everyone was happy that it happened, maybe this would end the war they thought.

9 August 1945 - Second use of the bomb

The Americans eventually dropped the second bomb.

10 August 1945 - Using Napalm on Babelthuap

0900

At 0900 in the "-10" time zone on Peleliu island, 4 F4U-1D Corsairs were scheduled to bomb the gardens of Babelthuap.

The Corsairs were led by Captain McPhail, with his old wingman of Lt. Bestwick, along with Lt. Ruhsam and Lt. Wade. Each plane carried 1 Napalm Tank with Double Fused E4-R1 Igniters.

Before the mission the 4 pilots were briefed to release over the gardens that were growing on Babelthuap.

The map references that they were to use were from the Special Air and Gunnery Target Map, specifically the one for the Palaus, scale 1:20,000.

At this time the planes took off and headed towards Babelthuap.

0930 - Reaching the gardens

At 0930 the four planes reached the target point over Babelthuap. The weather was observed to be 3/10 cumulus at 5000ft.

None of the planes used a bomb-sight and started their attack run on a level attack. The first plane hit the gardens at TA 699 U releasing at 50 ft going 240 kts. The second hit the garden at TA 663 W at 50ft going 220 Kts. The third hit the garden at TA 698 K at 50ft going 200 kts. Finally the fourth Corsair hit the garden at TA 717 R at 50ft going 220 kts.

One of the planes with Lt. Ruhsam reported starting a "good sized fire" while strafing the town of Ngardmau. By someone or multiple of the members of the group Machine Gun fire was noted originating from TW(688-127). The shots were meager and inaccurate, with no other AA fire being observed.

1000

At 1000 all the planes came back unscathed with no casualties. A report was compiled of the mission by Captain J. R. Fletcher and approved by Major Sapp.

13 August 1945 - Going to Ulithi

On this monday, 13 August, Joe and other officers of 122 were selected to be interchanged for Special Temporary Aviation Duty with MAG 45. The list of the relief detail was made:

Name	Rank	Serial #	Service
Blackmun, Arvid W.	Major	09419	USMC
Mc Phail, Joe	Capt.	014435	USMCR
Hackett, Howard W.	1stLt.	023757	USMCR
Pendleton, Charles F.	1stLt.	023771	USMCR
Ruhsam, John W.	1stLt.	038883	USMCR
Wade, Robert	1stLt.	030968	USMCR
Woodrow, John A.	1stLt.	028104	USMCR
Fisher, John E.	2ndLt.	037940	USMCR

This means that they would be on Ulithi for some time.

15 August 1945 - Soviet Invasion of Manchuria

The Soviet Union eventually invaded Japanese occupied Manchuria. Joe and the others were happy to the news that the Russians were joining in helping them out.

2 September 1945 - Surrender of Japan

On 2 September, the news spread out of that the Surrender of Japan was being signed on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, and so the war was ending. The people reacted by celebrating some on Peleliu, specifically by drinking and partying, a person drinking around a beer or two. It was a euphoric feeling, the war being 4 years old, but those 4 years having felt very long, a long way from home. It wasn't like on Okinawa where they claimed that there were even some guys who were injured celebrating firing guns, bullets going up and the shrapnel falling on them. The problem is is that, according to the VMF-122 War Diary for this month, Joe and other officers were gone to Ulithi, so maybe he was talking about celebrating n Ulithi.

In total throughout the course of the war, Joe flew 140 missions.

Throughout this entire war Joe had never come to admire any general he served under in particular, like the ones under MacCarthur did.

Now that the war was over, Joe was trying to get back home to the United States.

11 September 1945 - 8 of the squadron pilots on Ulithi come back

On this day 8 of the squadron pilots (so maybe Joe but possible he was one of the ones that stayed behind) who were sent on Special Temporary Aviation Duty with MAG 45 on 13 August of this year returned. The remainder were scheduled to return the next day.

12 September 1945 - The last 4 pilots on Special Temporary Aviation Duty come back

On 12 September the remaining 4 pilots (therefore if Joe stayed behind he would have come with this group) on Special Temporary Aviation Duty with MAG 45 returned on this day, securing that activity so far as VMF-122 is concerned.

15 September 1945 - Getting back home

On 15 September 151 personnel of VMF-122 who came ashore during the landing a year before left the squadron to go home to the US. It is assumed that Joe left with this group since there weren't any other groups of people leaving in that squadron for that month, and of the fact that Joe in interviews mentioned that the trip ended on 12 October and he left Peleliu a few weeks before, so it was sometime in September, therefore on this date.

In any case, the Corsairs remained at Peleliu, in which they would eventually bring them home on the carriers. Joe had hoped that he had enough points from the point system, but it seems that he didn't have enough to fly home (despite all his service in flight) so he had to sail home. He went from Peleliu to Guam, naturally wanting to fly home but wasn't able to. Therefore they set up there and waited around for about 2 to 3 weeks for a ship to get shipped back to the states, put the group on a ship, this time not an LST, but instead a troop transport. It was a two week trip, one which he felt was a pretty nice trip, not too bad.

Throughout his whole time in the Corsair during the war, just like the Wildcat, there wasn't any particular one that he had a bond do, as he never flew the same plane hardly.

12 October 1945 - Arriving back to San Diego

On 12 October, on Columbus Day, Joe arrived back to San Diego, California. When they arrived there, Joe saw that there was a big airship that said:

Welcome

on it. He thought it was neat that they had that. People were indeed celebrating when they got back. Other than that there wasn't much of a welcome home, the people there had settled down by then. Despite this people had been happy the war was over even back home, as in some cases it was tough for them too. They didn't have tires, gasoline, butter, or anything. Since the last time that he had been in San Diego, the place had changed a lot, as there wasn't any war, and to Joe it seemed that everyone was pretty happy that the war ended.

Having gotten back to San Diego Joe was just now hanging around and eventually got a ride with a guy in the car and drove all the way back home to either Corpus or Tyler.

October 1945 and after - Going back home to see family

After that Joe and the others went back home to see family. His father, having already passing away before American entry into the war, hadn't seen all that Joe had been up to. His mother though was still in Tyler. His sister that was born in 1910 didn't go into the service, and in Joe's eyes didn't think she went into the factories. His brother too didn't go into the service, but he didn't know what his two brothers were really up to. Since he only really corresponded with his mother he only really knew what she was up to. As it was, Tyler was just an old country town. The local people reacted to people like Joe by wanting to know what was happening overseas. Joe got to talk to the Boy Scouts and at Church. Despite going back home and such, Joe was actually still in the military.

He enjoyed having gone home. It was emotional, especially since he hadn't seen his mother since back before he had gone to Corpus. He had never gotten any kind of leave to go see her or anything like that. She had feared that he was going to get shot down, although Joe never told her about having landed in the water.

After having been out at sea Joe began missing flying.

Before August 1946 - Going to Cherry Point, NC, meeting wife, and stationed in Puerto Rico and coming back

After that Joe went to the East Coast, specifically to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point at Havelock, North Carolina.

It might have been here that he met his future wife. At the Marine Corps base he met Naomi, a tower operator, a Marine Master Sergeant. Joe, her, and a couple of other girls went on a trip up to Washington D.C., in which Joe and Naomi got to be good friends. Joe dated her a couple of times as well.

From there Joe got into an Infantry outfit that was bound to San Juan, Puerto Rico. In this outfit Joe was assigned as a Forward Air Controller, specifically because he was an aviator, and they wanted aviators to direct planes and artillery. Having heard they wanted aviators on the ground, he didn't want to go, as he wanted to be flying, but was made as a Forward Air Controller anyways.

Before getting there, they wanted Joe and others to take salt tablets due to it being hot and sweaty. He took a couple of them, and proceeded to throw up. He thought that maybe it was too much salt or something like that. They made landing in Puerto Rico and Joe had to go down the rope ladders and that kind of business.

They stayed in Puerto Rico for about a month, then went back to Cherry Point.

1 August 1946 - Getting off of Cherry Point and going back to Dallas with Naomi, getting married

On 1 August 1946 Joe was able to finally get off of the base at Cherry Point. That day he encountered the Dispersing Officer (also known as the paymaster), who told Joe:

You know if you go fly four hours, I'll give you flight pay

Joe, obviously wanting this flight pay, responded:

I'll be back

He went to get the four hours done, and came back to get his pay, around $120. Then he left Cherry Point. He went back to Dallas to go to school, and Naomi was able to get out of active duty and and go to Dallas as well, in which she began to work for Delta Airlines in their reservation system, which was in downtown Dallas, so the two were able to get together again. Eventually the two got married and she would begin to have kids. To Joe she would and had a pretty good career.

September 1946 - Enrollment into SMU

After getting of Cherry Point, Joe enrolled into Southern Methodist University in fall, September 1946, in Dallas, studying business and accounting. Whilst being in school he received some correspondances from the Marine Corps about flight pay. It seemed to him that they really wanted him back, as they put that he wasn't entitled to it. He decided to not give it back to them, thinking that he was gonna show them.

Sometime 1948 - Marriage

Sometime in 1948 Joe became married.

August 1948 - Finishing studies at SMU

In August 1948, Joe finished getting his Business BBA degree at SMU. Although he was still in the reserve at the time since after he had gotten back from service, although not active, when he thinks that he should have been but he wasn't, he wasn't going back into the Marines full time at the time. Therefore he had to find a job, and had a tough time at that, but was able to find a drilling company in Northwest Colorado. Being there, it was terribly cold, not a job really suited for his degree he had.

Fortunately Joe's family somehow knew this partner that owned one of the 32:32 partners?, and he said:

Well this accountant that was going to leave, and maybe you can go up there and everything work out.

Afterwards Joe went to work in Tyler, his mother still living there. At the Ford Dealership, with the help of a guy John Young, he got an office job there as an accountant. There, Joe did accounting, credit work, among other things. One day there was a guy named John Reeder, who worked for the dealership in Dallas, came into the dealership and told Joe:

You know, you ought to come get in the squadron. We need some guys

Joe Replied:

Okay, I'd like to do that

May 1950 - Getting into reserve squadron in Dallas

In May 1950, due to the conversation that he had with John Reeder, Joe got into a reserve squadron in Dallas (probably NAS Dallas), VMF-111, and so got to fly at this time. He got to fly for about 2 to 3 hours that weekend, and then the next time that the squadron went to Cherry Point, NC, on 2 weeks active duty, Joe couldn't get off and so didn't get to go.

23 June 1950 - Beginning of the Korean War

On 23 June 1950, the Korean War began. It was sometime after this that 111 squadron came back from Cherry Point, and so Joe was able to participate in it. He wasn't even expecting to really join up the full service again. He hadn't even flown between 1946 to 1950, being in the reserve, so wasn't expecting to fly. There was a piece of paper that he had with him that showed that he lacked 8 days out of being 40 years in the reserve, those 8 days were the first 8 days that he signed up on 10 October 1941 to 18 October. The rest he was on active duty or in the reserve. Joe and nearly everyone else in the United States at the time were opposed to Communism, especially those of the Chinese, and opposed to its expansion.

1 August 1950 - Called up to join the conflict

On 1 August 1950 Joe and his squadron were called up. At the outbreak of the war the squadron was told to get ready for it, as the 214th would be the first one in seeing action in Korea. He had already begun working for a Gas transmission company as a corporate pilot. He then after was called up for service to El Toro. He first went to NAS Dallas, staying there for 2 to 3 weeks, then went to El Toro. His wife, who was in the Marines, was understandable of his situation. Joe know that he was subject to being called up and was excited and ready to finally get back into the cockpit. His mother on the other hand would have been or probably wasn't all that happy that he was going back but there wasn't anything she could do about it.

Him and other people, in Joe's mind, were honorable people. They wanted to win and protect the country.

August to October 1950 - Training for the war

For two or three weeks they stayed in Dallas and then went to El Toro, California. At first his wife went out there to El Toro where he was, being pregnant with their second baby, so she had to drive out there with another wife, together carpooling. They put him and his wife in a Quonset hut on the base at El Toro, half a quonset, it wasn't very clean or anything, and so his wife didn't like it. Finally they ended up getting them rented a house at Laguna Beach Hotel, which he thought was a nice place. There they did even more training, specifically some instruments training. They were still going to fly Corsairs, however, this Corsair was a little more advanced than the one that they had at Okinawa. It had a four-blade prop and a little more horsepower and some other things but was still the Corsair Joe knew and loved. At El Toro he became friends with a guy named Bowland, who was from California, and who was training with him. They even went down to El Centro, which was kind of in the Imperial Valley of California. There they did some training in some Wildcats. They didn't have any Corsairs as they were overseas, the thing that they were really going to fly for the war.

Apparently Joe had also even been to NAS Miramar which was in California as well.

Throughout the time that they were training, they were informed that they were going to Wonsan in North Korea.

This whole time Joe's wife went along with him to these places. She was also expecting to deliver a child, so went back and stayed with Joe's mother, assumingly in Tyler, driving back by herself.

October 1950 - Going to Korea

In October 1950 Joe and his squadron went overseas to Korea. Unfortunately again for Joe he wasn't able to fly on over to Korea. That month (or in November) he reported to Wonsan, North Korea. Joe was part of VFMA-214, the Black Sheep Squadron, which already had a bunch of veterans in it, not any from 323 squadron. During the month of August the Corsairs of 214 had been aboard the carrier USS Sicily. At first when he was there he flew some missions. He flew 9 missions int he group in operations when he was in operations. But then he started to fly regularly when he was in 214. When he was in Wonsan Joe visited the town. To him it was just a regular town. This whole time in Korea they were to fly Corsairs, not getting the chance to fly F84s or F86s. Although Joe did want to fly jets, he was content with flying the Corsair again. Since they weren't going into jets Joe never went down into MiG Alley.A typical flying there was about two and a half to three hours, sometimes longer. During these missions they were bombers, taking ordinance and bombing something. They would go on what was called an Armored Reconnaissance Mission, flying up over roads looking for anything they had. Him and the members of his squadron were told that everything north is free game. Joe was fired upon, not many times hit though, as he was too fast. He could see the orange balls coming up at him. The goal, at least for Joe, was to have 100 missions. During those missions not once was he ever shot down, felt blessed about it.

While in Wonsan there wasn't any particular incidents it was just all day job work for him there.

What gave him satisfaction was when they conducted CAS, as he felt it was helping the guys on the ground. Like at Okinawa, in Korea they also had Forward Air Controllers. Some of the members of his squadron did get shot down while providing CAS, but Joe never did. He never even encountered a MiG-15. They wanted the Air Force to take care of the MiGs, as they had F86s and other planes that could counter it. They didn't tell Joe and others in the Corsair what to do if they encountered one, but he thinks that they could probably outturn them.

During his time there Bob Hope, part of the USO, flew into Wonsan, and the Marines landed at Incheon on the West Coast of the Korean Penninsula and had to come around to land at Wonsan. They hadn't cleared the harbor of the mines and so they set out there for about two weeks. Bob Hope flew in and so kids the Marines saying:

I had to get Wonsan ready for them.

Joe had never actually gotten to see Bob Hope during his time in Korea. Despite this Joe did like Bob Hope.

Most memorable day in Korea, 150 planes attacking Sinuiju North Korea

Joe's most memorable day in Korea was when he was involved on a mission with 150 planes going up to attack Sinuiju, North Korea. Sinuiju was on the Yalu River, and it was thought that the enemy was building an airstrip there. The Airforce, Marines, and Navy were all involed in different altitudes. Joe and others went up to 15,000 feet with a 1000 lb bomb which had a Variable Time Fuse (VT fuse), in which anything would set it off. Once it was armed it would arm, fall 1000 feet for example, and anything such as an airplane would set it off.

They went in at 15,000 feet and dropped the bomb. Joe thought it was pretty exciting, as he could also see the MiGs take off at Anton Airport in Manchuria at the Yalu River coming after Joe and the other planes. There was no concussion from the bomb as it exploded too far away. Seeing all the MiGs take off that day along with the 150 planes, a lot of manpower he thought, he was among made it a memorable day.

November to December 1950 - At Yonpo

The UN forces were still pushing North and winning against the North Koreans, and it seemed that they were going to win. He never did meet any other members of the UN forces (other than the Americans). He didn't even meet South Korean soldiers either, but thought that they were pretty good fighters. After coming off the carrier and Joe joining them, 214 joined in the Battle of the Chosin Resevoir, Joe and his squadron went to be stationed at Yonpo Air Base, nearby Hamhung, which was as far North as Joe was going to go. They were there to support the 1st Marine Division at the resevoir. He remembers about Lt Col Murray who was in charge of a group that went up to Yudam-ni, northwest of the resevoir, in which he would say:

Yudam-ni, you damn right.

This was while supporting the 1st Marine Divison. It was a big deal for Joe and the other members of his squadron. Because of where they were at at Yonpo, which was at 5,000 ft in altitude the planes didn't do quite as well on the ground, the higher you went the worse it got. The guys had it a tough time at the Resevoir, all disabled in some way, just mauled from the weather and freeze. They didn't have the right equipment either.

Joe and his squadron didn't have air to air, but they did a lot of Close Air Support.

Eventually when they were ran out of the resevoir they had to go back aboard the carrier.

December 1950 to January 1951 - Aboard the carrier Sicily

Afterwards for about two months, someone or some people wanted the 214 to operate off a carrier, and so assigned them aboard the USS Sicily, a jeep carrier, only 600ft long. Unfortunately there were many reservists who weren't carrier qualified yet and they said that the squadron wasn't carrier qualified, and so were sent to Japan to get carrier qualified. They conducted Field Carrier Landing Practice in which they had a landing LSO (Landing Signal Officer) at Atami, near Osaka, Japan, who would wave you in and gives you cut, land and take off and come around and do it again. The LSO was the first Marine to be a LSO in WWII, a guy named Duncan, Joe thought that he was real good and got the squadron qualified real quick, and Joe even thought that it was interesting, feeling that he could handle most of what the Corsair could give him. They started to fly off of the USS Sicily in January. Because the CVE-118 Sicily was an escort carrier being only 600ft long, it was a little more hard to learn it. He was still flying a Corsair when they were flying off of the Sicily. This was the only time that Joe had ever been assigned onto a carrier throughout his career, every other time he had been land based. As such he found it interesting the first time that he actually landed on a carrier. They went up and joined the rest of the group off the west coast of Korea. In fact, they had to get what were called Breeches Buoy, and go from the transport over to the carrier. While they were doing this they were loading some supplies up front, and the cable snapped and the supplies fell into the ocean. Joe and the others were worried about it. But in reality it wasn't a big deal. So the next day they had either all the airplanes on the hanger deck or all the airplanes in the air so they were letting them qualify. Joe and the others did what they were calling Deck Launch, just to get all the way back at the back and despite the short distance of the carrier, there wasn't any problems making the deck launches, so they got their 6 landings. The next day Joe went to, and then they come around and say, the first time:

You know, you're a little apprehensive

The next day there was one particular incident that Joe made a memory of. That day he was going on a mission and so had to go on the catapults with the other airplanes on the deck, on the flight deck with all the ordnances you were carrying. This plane couldn't get near, so they had to do catapults. So they or he taxied (him) and his Corsair onto the catapult the first time, and as soon as they hooked his plane they gave him the "offbreak" signal. Him and the other people sat there and watched them shoot the guy on his right side off the carrier. Then the guy tells him to run up to 30 inches and check your bags, then go full power, to which then Joe and the other man saluted and pulled the cord to it and he took off. When he got back from the missions, he came back to the ready room to find that there was a sign up on the chalkboard on the wall with written in big letters:

McPhail a reluctant warrior

Joe then asked someone:

What's wrong?

Or he said:

What's this?

Someone replied:

You took off with your breaks on

Joe knew then exactly what he did, that he poured the cold all to it, his feet automatically unintentionally went on the pedals for the break. When he pushed the throttle up, he didn't want his airplane to roll down that deck, and so did that purely unconsciously. Therefore they could see the blue smoke coming out, but it went away and thankfully there wasn't any damage to the plane.

For a while they flew out of Japan when they got run out of North Korea. When he was in Japan on R and R, and he would go withdraw my money and they had taken that flight pay out of my pay.

July 1951 - Ten months over

After ten months, and 102 missions being completed (the 100 missions required), Joe got out of 214. He was put into what was called a Group and Joe was a Briefing Officer briefing flights before they went. He did that until it was time for him to go back home.

In total, Joe had around 242 (or 240) missions with Korea/Japan and WWII combined, got two planes shot down, a zero and a Nate. He had a total of 1025 hours of flight in the Corsair, never had an accident or anything. He also had flown a total of 4000 hours during the wars, with the majority in the Wildcat, Corsair, and other single seater planes. As such Joe was pretty well impressed with it and its power. He at some point before or after got wind of the fact that the Japanese called the Corsair "the Whistling Death".

Out of all that experience he was most proud of the two planes that he had shot down.

By this time Joe had a total of 9 years of active duty.

It was also at this time that he probably had his two Distinguished Flying Crosses. He had the highest ribbon of the Distinguished Flying Cross. He also had 11 Air Medals. He also got the Navy Commendation Medal.

Although he damaged or destroyed some of his Wildcats, he never broke a Corsair throughout his time in them.

Post war Joe didn't stay much in touch with his companions during the war, he was busy with the company that he worked at.

August 1951 - Coming back home

In August 1951 Joe got home. Fortunately for him this time Joe was able to fly himself home from Korea, something that he hadn't been able to do before on other missions.

At the time he was still a Captain, now in the reserve. He didn't do much to get recognition at the time, but finally was able to make major at some point during the year 1951.

1952 to 1955 - Stationed at NAS Dallas

After Korea, for two years from 1952 to 1955 Joe was stationed at NAS Dallas. Despite this he was still in the reserve being a weekend warrior in order to get his 20 or 22 years of satisfactory service to reap the benefits from that.

They went up to San Antonio right up about at the Airforce Base. Joe got to go out there and kick tires on airplanes.

Unfortunately he wasn't able to find a job, was having a heck of at it during this time . So he went back to El Toro when he got back. In 1952, the Operations Officer in Korea that Joe knew was a guy from Texas named Earl Crow , who was a real good friend of his, and was CO of the Marine Air Reserve Training detachment in Dallas there at NAS Dallas. He told Joe:

Well, heck, you know the exec up here is a guy named Shelto. He's got to go to Korea. Why don't you come up here and be my exec?

Joe said to him:

I'd like to

May 1952 - Joining up in NAS Dallas

In May 1952, thanks to Earl, Joe went up to NAS Dallas to be the Executive Officer of the Marine Training Detachment in a training squadron, where they were training Weekend Warriors like Joe was when he was called up to service originally at NAS Dallas around 11 years before, got stationed there with Earl. At some point Joe went out of California again but never went overseas. In a way he hoped to go in again to get his time in. As a Weekend Warrior he sometimes had to drive to California for two weeks active duty and then drive back. Did training for CAS and all that kind of stuff.

May 1955 - Leaving the Marine Air Reserve Training detachment

In May 1955 Joe left the Marine Air Reserve Training detachment, after being in the unit for 3 years, coming off as a Lt Colonel. Despite this he stayed in the reserve and so the guys would want him to fly on the weekends.

1 August 1955 - Working at the Gas Transmission Company

On 1 August 1955 Joe went to work for a Trunkline Gas Company/Gas Transmission Company based out of Houston as well as Kansas City where he would fly executives, people, among others as a corporate/executive pilot at William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, flying some of the high officials of the company, and personally got to know some of them. Joe thought that they were nice, appreciating his transportation. The president of the company served as a Washerman during the war. His boss was also a Marine aviator from the war. Some other people that he flew were in the war as well. The company's pipeline started in the Rio Grande in Texas, and went to the Michigan border in Indiana, right through the heart of the country, about Memphis and around that way. Since Joe was still in the reserve, he had to go to NAS Dallas on the weekends. His boss didn't like it when Joe went on the weekends because it meant that he had to fly in his place. Throughout his career there he flew Cesna 310, Twin Beach, Lone Star, Howard 500, Jet Star, and a J2, in which for his whole time at the company he got more than 13,000 (or 17,000 in total) flight hours. The fact that he loved flying was what got him through the job.

With his daughters, whenever they would see a commercial plane, they would ask him where it was going. Joe would look up, without actually knowing, and say something such as:

Oh, that’s the 4:15 flight to Chicago.

The girls bought it every single time.

After he had gotten out, Joe decided to stay in the reserve until he was able to receive 20 years satisfactory service to get paid. He already had 9 years of active duty under his belt, and so did the rest as a weekend warrior type. He had to get 50 points per year to get satisfactory service. Since his boss didn't like him being out, he got out but stayed in what was called a volunteer training unit until he got his 20 years.

1955 - Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and then Colonel

In 1955 Joe was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, at the time at NAS Dallas. He had been getting promoted throughout his career due to having clinged to the service, not particularly due to any action, but was a respectable pilot.

1958 - Joining Volunteer Training Unit in Houston

While in the reserve and still doing Weekend Warrior activity, Joe was eventually told (in Dallas):

Well, we got so many lieutenant colonels that, you know, you're gonna have to get out

Joe said:

Well, okay

Therefore Joe went down to Houston into what was called a Volunteer Training Unit, or VTU for short. This unit would come and meet once a month or so. There he was able to get some correspondence courses among other things. It was in here where he was able to get his 20 years satisfactory service. That year or after 1958, Joe wrote a letter to Marine Corps Headquarters. A guy who was called up to serve in Korea alongside Joe, named , wrote Joe back a letter saying:

You know, if its not imperative you get out, you're in a zone for bird colonel

Or:

Well, stick around. You're in a zone for bird colonel

Joe responded back enthousiastically:

Well, cancel my request!

Therefore Joe was able to make bird colonel. They partially made him colonel due to his time of service. He stayed in the VTU for active duty where he'd go on two weeks active duty. A lot of times he went down to El Toro, nearly every time. It didn't bother him as he enjoyed going there.

Joining the Chosin Few

Some time maybe even decades after the Korean War, the men at the Chosin Few organization's chapter in Houston allowed Joe to join the organization because him and the rest of his squadron had supported the men in the pocket at Chosin. The Chosin few's chapter in Houston had a guy named Jesse Harper as president. He was a veteran of Okinawa and also at the Resevoir. The chapter met once a month, with around 30 to 40 guys attending. They had a tough time there, every one of them having a disability of some kind.

Ba Ba Black Sheep TV Show

When the Ba Ba Black Sheep TV show aired, which everyone knew about, it was about Joe's 214 squadron that he was in. People ask Joe when they hear he was in 214 if he knew Gregory Boyington, which of course Joe did not as he joined too late.

1955 to 1975 - Vietnam War

During the Vietnam War, Joe remained Houston. He had no activity during that time. Joe was glad to miss that war, really was, really felt for those men that had to go through it, as it was tough.

10 October 1981 - Officially out of the USMC

On 10 October 1981 Joe was officially out of the United States Marine Corps. He got out at this time because he was 60, and that was when you get your pay 20 years satisfactory service, still as a colonel. By this time and with his service in the company, Joe had around 17,000 flight hours (4000 of which was from the wars).

Around 1983 to 1984 - Retiring from the gas company

After being employed at the gas company in Houston for 32 or 33 years, Joe finally retired.

With all of his flight experience, despite some personally scary moments, his passion is what drove him to stick to flying throughout his flying career, as he thought it was a fun thing to do.

1987 - Publication of A History Of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 323

In 1987, the History and Museums Division, United States Marine Corps wrote a history of VMF-323. In it on page 6 includes the testimony of the 12 April flight out of Okinawa which includes the testimonies given by Joe, Bestwick, and others that were noted in the April 1945 war diary (used earlier within this article).

1990 - Last time flying

In the year 1990 Joe flew for the last time himself before he would retire.

October 2009 - 25th Annual Wings Over Houston Airshow

In October 2009 Joe was attended the 25th annual Wings Over Houston Airshow. He interviewed along with A.J. High, a WWII veteran who wrote "Meant to Fly".

3 June 2011 - Interview with James Crabtree from Voices of Veterans

On 3 June 2011 Joe McPhail did an interview. At the time of the interview, Larry, his younger brother, was living in Austin. He also noted that he knew that at the Battle of Midway there were some Brewster Buffalos, about 20 to 30 of them that fought, except they weren't good against zeros.

Joe McPhail: Yeah, Yamamoto. Yamamoto, that’s right. Joe McPhail: That was really an interesting, I read a lot about it. You know, they used the P-38s and they were flying out of Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. But, you know, heck, the Wildcats they had down there and what we had just didn’t have the range. We, heck, you couldn’t go 300 miles and then come back. So they had those belly tanks on the P-38s and they were able to go up there. And that was really a feat, I think. The timing and everything. I think they had gotten some codes too where I think they kind of knew. They knew where he was going to be in general, what his plan was going to look like and were able to take him out. Joe McPhail: And they knew that he was pretty punctual too. He was an on-time guy, so it really worked out good for ’em.

20 January 2014 - Interview in Dickinson, Texas

On 20 January 2014, Joe conducted an approximately 50 minute long interview with Alice Braud Jones who was from the Sam Houston chapter of the DAR and the Fort Virginia Point Chapter of the UDC, as well as Anne Smith and Hellen Stein who were also from both chapters. Joe talked about his early life and experiences during WWII and the Korean War.

During the interview he explained that not a lot of people know what the Piper Cubs are.

He tells everybody that the war was fun for Joe.

At the moment of this interview he is reading a book called "Aviators", and its about Rickenbacher, Doolittle, and Lindberg, and Rickenbacher, they wanted him to go overseas as a kind of consultant and they shipped and got lost in the Atlantic, was int he raft for 26 days, well the little Island called Funafutti, they found him from OS2Us, found him in the rafts, they hada tough time, no food no water, they called a seagull and ate it, and used the insides for baits, they had some fishhooks. He finds it interesting to read about those guys. He thinks they were tough.

They heard that they dropped the atomic bomb, they were all happy that it happened, maybe this would end it. He was in peleliu when he heard the war was ending. The people reacted by celebrating some on the island. They claimed that on Okinawa that even some guys were injured celebrating firing guns, bullets going up they gotta go down. Alice Jones the interviewer had talked to one of the Navajo Code talkers doing an interview and he was on Iwo Jima, and he said when they heard the news, the Americans started jumping up and down, but the Japanese hadn't heard the news, and so they were still firing at that point. And so it took some time for the Japanese to stop firing, and some of them that did were so embarrassed that they just hid out for a long time. Joe says that in the Phillippines there was a Japanese guy in 1948 taht resisted for three years.

The book that Joe is currently reading tells about Richenbacher and him in that raft and he felt for him because he said it was a five man raft but I want to see the man who designed it for five men aint no way five men could stand in it. It reminds Joe of the one man raft he was in while he was in 441.

- 22:35 Did he have any indications at all of the atomic weapons that the united states was building at that time? No, it was a well kept secret, probably a good thing too since the Germans were working on it, trying to develop a bomb as well, and so they needed to keep a secret.

Joe stayed overseas for 13 months didn't really do anything. They moved up to another island called Nanamia, and they were, Funafuti was about 700 miles below Tarawa, Nanamia was about 500 miles, no way for a Wildcat to fly there and back, but they were just there to keep the Japanese from getting it. it was the same reason to take Iwo Jima start flying the planes, they started flying the P-51s to escort the B29s to Japan. But now the Japanese had already that was home land for them and they had two airfields on Iwo, they had thousands of miles of trenches dug under the volcanic soil, one of the bloodiest battles of the war, so was Guadalcanal. A battle that nobody had heard about was Peleliu, they told the marines, the marine general said it would only take them two or three days, but took a month, and then they went some place else and the army came in and took over and heck they lost people too. Those tunnels and stuff, bloody nose ridge they talked about, they just couldn't get them out, burn them out mostly. The airfield was real close to the bloodynose ridge, the guys would come in, drop their bombs, go back, rearm, it wouldn't take them fifteen minutes. It was that close. It was tough at Peleliu.

Joe says that if the Marines had one squadron it was the 214

Joe doesn't trust himself to fly anymore. Joe believes that all kids should have mandatory military service. How did service affect rest of your life, lessons, etc? I think its puntual, dependable, never did feel that I was patriotic. I am nowadays.

15 March 2015 - Texas Flying Legends Museum flying event

On 15 March Joe attended an event hosted by the Texas Flying Legends Museum for the launch of 5 historic planes to land in Anguilla to perform during the 2015 St. Barth's Bucket Regatta. There Joe recounted some of his experiences during his service. He told them about shooting down a zero, saying:

I started firing at this thing and pieces started coming off of it and all of a sudden it just blew up!

Afterwards he talked about his carrier qualifications in Korea and his error during takeoff:

We had to qualify one day and there weren’t any airplanes on the carrier. You’d do six take offs and six landings. So the next day, I had a mission and so they taxied me onto the port cat and they give you the ‘off break’ signal once you’re hooked up to the catapult.

The port cat was in reference to the catapult. He continued:

So we watched them shoot a guy off the starboard cat and they give you a run up of 30 inches and you check your mag and then go to full throttle. Then you salute him and then away you go.

Then he reported:

So I came back and there was a big sign on the board in the Ready Room that said ‘McPhail: Reluctant Warrior.’ I said, ‘What’s this?’ and he said, ‘You took off with your brakes on!’ I blew smoke the whole way! This was in January of 1951

Here he concluded with a laugh. Many other people had attended the event of the freedom flight. Joe's favorite plane to see that day was the FG-1D Corsair nicknamed "Whistling Death." Apparently at the time Joe lived 3 miles from Ellington Field, and claims that he visits at least twice a week to watch the planes land and take off, and likes to criticize the pilots for their landing skills in a joking manner saying:

I'm just poking fun; they know that

The FG-1D Whistling Death was one of the planes that was to launch that day. This launch apparently marks that largest fleet of Warbirds to travel across the ocean since 1945. Joe commented that:

It's fun to see them fly again. Most of the people my age remember these airplanes, and it's neat to see them.

Joe was one of the veterans who were there on that launch day. Another was Bob Butler of 82 years from Alvin, who served as an air crew member during the Korean War, in which he developed his passion for airplanes, who also loved seeing the planes going up up close. On this day Joe and Bob met for the first time, in which both talked about their times and the planes they flew during the Korean War. It was the first time that Butler had actually seen, saying to Joe:

This is the only real 'zero' I've ever seen; all the rest of them are replicas

4 July 2015 - 4th of July BBQ stand Theta Masters of Beta Sigma Phi event

On the 4th of July Joe attended a BBQ standing.

31 October 2017 - Seabrook event scheduling

On 31 October 2017, the 98 year old Joe McPhail was reported that he would be attending the party of Celebration Seabrook Feast & Wine By the Bay in Seabrook, Texas on 11 November. Since it was going to be veterans day that day, Joe was invited to attend giving out WWII memorabilia and model planes. An organizer for the event said that McPhail, who was awarded 11 service medals, was assigned to the VMF-323 squadron in 1945, widely known as the "Death Rattlers." The unit flew over Okinawa, Japan during the last days of the war.

23 March 2018 - Interview with KIII 3 News at Kingsville Airshow in Texas

At the time that he was 96, Joe went to the Kingsville Airshow in Kingsville, Texas, the same place where he had trained the one time before. He did a short interview in which he described his service with KIII 3 News.

Near the end of the news segment interview he commented that:

We were honorable people, we wanted to win and protect the country. Im kind of sorry Im not still involved, I'd like to help them even today.

24 May 2018 - Helping planting flags at Sagemont Chruch

For memorial day 2018 Joe was invited to go help plant American flags for the buried dead at the Sagemont Chruch in Houston. An article was written about it and some of Joe's actions as a veteran of WWII and the Korean War.

27 June 2018 - Interview with Erik Johnston at airshow

On 27 June 2018 a video was posted onto YouTube of an interview with Erik Johnston of Colonel Joe McPhail and his experiences during the war.

" I tell everyone I wrecked three American Airplanes and shot down two Japanese airplanes, so I consider myself a generic ace. "

10 October 2019 - 98th birthday and Pacific War Museum Fredericksburg plaque

Plaque commemorating the service of Joe McPhail at the National Museum of the Pacific War

On Joe's 98th birthday his family presented him with a 10x7 plaque that was going in the National Museum of the Pacific War. It is located on the Plaza West Wall on row 2, section 5. It states that he served between 4 December 1941 to 15 September 1946 in VMF-323, training in the F2A, flying in the Wildcat and Corsair in combat. In Korea he served between June 1950 and July 1951 in VMA-124, flying off the carrier Sicily. He was awarded Numerous medals including two Distinguished Flying Crosses and 11 Air Medals, as well as the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal.

Late October 2019 - Wings Over Dallas photo shoot with other veterans

In late October during Wings Over Dallas Joe did a photo shoot with other WWII veterans to take portraits of themselves.

15 February 2020 - Joe and James Krodel honored at SMU Basketball game

On 15 February 2020, Joe and James Krodel, a veteran of Iwo Jima, were to be honored at an SMU Men's Basketball game in Houston. It was noted that Joe was a proud SMU graduate from the Class of 1948, residing currently in Houston with his wife Norma. It was also noted that he was a native of Grand Saline, joining the marines in summer 1941, and on active duty 3 days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He flew with the "Death Rattlers" in the Pacific and the "Black Sheep" squadron during the Korean War, and credited with a total 240 combat missions and 2 air-to-air victories. He received 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses and 11 Air Medals.

This was all done in part of recognition of Military Appreciation Night.

6 March 2021 - Honoring Joe McPhail at Pacific War Museum in Fredericksburg

On 6 March Joe was honored at a plaque dedication at the National Museum of the Pacific War. Joe attended along with his 3 daughters, Mary McCauley, Terry Weinberger, and Karen Gardner, and his brother Larry McPhail in which they told stories and Larry Wertz led the presentation at the beginning and throughout. Wertz talked about the museum's history and its mission and how heroes like Joe are what they try to tell their stories of sacrifice with to the youth to teach them. Then Terry started telling about Joe's Golden Raisin story. The story starts many years back, in which Joe's medical record was exceptional for his age not having any replacements or anything, the doctor telling him that his bloodwork made him like a 65 year old when he was 99. The family attributes it to him eating 9 golden raisins every day soaked in gin. His family members ask him:

Dad, why do you do that?

He responds with:

I don't know but I'm too afraid to stop!

They laugh. Joe's younger brother Larry then gets up to the podium and starts speaking. Larry explains that he has been with Joe his whole life, and that he's their "family rock star." Joe has been to dedications at football games, baseball games, etc. While Larry was growing up he admired Joe and was inspired by his service in the Marine Corps, and so Larry decided to join the Marine Corps, following behind him for several years as a pilot as well. Then one of the daughters gets up and starts telling about the plane story. Being a pilot out of Hobby Airport, the family would be driving around and the girls they would see a plane up in the sky around Houston and one of them would say:

Dad where's that plane goin?

Joe would look up and say:

You know, that's a 4:15 to Chicago

For years the girls or the whole family believed him. They believed that their dad knew where every plane was going. However Joe could identify the plane.

Joe was 99 at the time, having a big birthday party for that birthday, and by the museum staff was invited to have his 100th birthday in the museum hall that was being renovated.

Then Roger Spencer, of the other museum staff, came on and shared his experience that he eats California golden raisins soaked in gin as well, and how much of an honor it is that someone like Joe was able to be there for the ceremony due to the fact that usually the person being celebrated is not there. He explained how he served for 31 years and was partially in Cherry Point, NC. Terry came in saying that she was born there and that their mother was a marine, both her and Joe were stationed at Cherry Point.

Then everyone prayed.

Apparently Joe had been at the museum several times and a lot has changed since he first came. He told his story at some point.

27 June 2021 - First Rose City Airfest

On 27 June Joe attended the first Rose City Airfest in Tyler. Here Joe attended with another veteran Ralph Coleman Graham. This time the pilots and crew taking up people on rides in B-17s had a specific task today. Both Joe and Ralph got into the B-17 without help and fastened their seatbelts, Ralph in the radio operator seat and Joe in the pilot seat. The Tyler Morning Telegraph was invited onto the flight with them. Joe admitted afterward that:

It was a little different than he fighters I am used to.

Then:

The flying I did in the military, I was the only one in there.

Finally adding:

It was great, it was a little bit rough. We had a little trouble getting up during the warm-up procedure but we had a good flight, you betcha, I really enjoyed it

He later commented to Garrett Bragg, who was part of the flying event:

It was great, a terrific flight. I was glad I could be involved

It seems that Joe told Tyler Morning Telegraph about his history as well.

1 July 2021 - Interview posted by KLTV and trip to Tyler Rose City Airfest

On 1 July 2021 an interview with KLTV was posted of Joe talking about his service. It was noted that Ralph Graham was there as well. There Joe also talked about his experiences to Tyler Morning Telegraph. Joe commented:

I really wanted to fly and figured the other services had transport and patrol planes that I didn’t want to fly,” he said. “I wanted to fly fighters and so I kind of centered in on the Marine Corp.

Commenting on his first engagement at Okinawa:

I looked down and saw a blue airplane chasing a brown airplane down below. I was going to go check it out and was probably at 22,000 feet and saw four Japanese zeros in front of me. I picked on the tail end and shooting him and he blew up.

He then said:

Shooting down that first Jap was interesting for me. I did shoot down one other airplane. Neither airplane ever saw me. I came behind them and there was no dog fight like that.

Reflecting on his 33 year flying career he stated:

It was interesting for me. I really enjoyed it. That all I’ve done was fly.

And:

I never did have a regular job.

He finally finished off talking about taking the flight that him and the other veterans were supposed to take the next day:

It’s an honor it really is. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal but not many people have done it. I feel blessed.

The article states that he spent his retirement attending airshows with his "son", but he never had a son and so it is assumed that it is his daughter, who organizes the trips.

3 July 2021 - Tyler Morning Telegraph story on his trip to Rose City Airfest

3 days later a story was posted to the Tyler Morning Telegraph about Joe being at the Rose City Airfest, specifically about his flight with Graham.

Auction for Joe McPhail signed pilot's cap

An auction was held for the James H. Doolittle Scholarship Fund for a pilot's cap that was signed by Joe McPhail.

16 June 2023 - Vintage aircraft and a 101-year-old Marine Corps 'hero' invite you to the next East Texas air show

On 16 June a video and articles of an interview between Kevin Reece and Joe McPhail were posted. Joe claimed that he wasn't a hero despite being called one. Interviewed at the Cavanaugh Flight Museum in Addison, Joe sat in front of either a Hellcat or a Wildcat. At the time he was 101 years old and to be 102 on 10 October of that year. Joe was reported that he was going to be a guest of honor at the Rose City Airfest on 30 June, and then to Cedar Creek Lake Air Show on 1 July. Joe, who still is called by his rank colonel, says he is too old to fly himself now.

29 June 2023 - CampV in Tyler recognizing Joe and two other veterans for Rose City Airfest

On 29 June, the Tyler Morning Telegraph wrote that 3 local veterans, Joe included, were recognized to be honorees for the 3rd annual Rose City Airfest for benefitting CampV in Tyler. That day Joe and another veteran, Elmer Vernon Hetzel were presented with Certificates of Congressional Recognition as well as quilts of valor that were handsewn to each veteran.

Interestingly, the article states that during his first tour overseas Joe supported battles in Guadalcanal and Palau, which is contrary to all of his prior statements and the records of the 441. It is possible that he told them that where he was flying was around the area that those places were around.

27 July 2023 - American Warriors Project documentary interview and EAA AirVenture Oshkosh

On 27 July 2023 a documentary interview of Joe McPhail was posted to the American Warriors YouTube Channel and their website.

At the time he was 101 years old, and that October would be 102.

Joe at the end of the interview said that he felt blessed to have done all of it, and would do it all over again.

On the same day at 10 am Joe was scheduled at the EEA AirVenture Oshkosh to be in review with Lt. JG Sam Clauzel and Adam Makos with Vought F4U-7 Corsair “Devotion”.

29 September 2023 - Surprise birthday party for Joe McPhail at Honor Flight Houston

On 29 September Honor Flight Houston hosted a surprise party for Joe before his 102nd birthday which was coming up in which they sang happy birthday.

On the Honor Flight Houston website Joe was also listed among the other honorees for Honor Flight Houston.

9 October 2023 - Wings Over Houston Airshow scheduled for Meet Legends and Heroes tent

On 9 October Joe was shown to be scheduled for a meeting Legends and Heroes tent at the Wings Over Houston airshow between 29 to 30 October.

10 October 2023 - Joe McPhail turns 102 years old, birthday celebration in Cypress

On 10 October Joe turned 102 years old and celebrated his birthday in Cypress in which VFW Post 8905 hosted the party for him. Other veterans and people attended the event, and one of the things shown was a book called "The Book of Joe", which seems to have detailed his life and show many photos.

14 October 2023 - Wings Over Houston Airshow

Paul Sidle and Joe McPhail shaking hands

On 14 October 2023 Joe rode around to and was at a tent signing at the Wings Over Houston Airshow.

Joe signs his signature with:

Col Joe M^cPhail

19 October 2023 - Interview in his own home by Paul Sidle of the WWII Archives

On 19 October 2023 Joe conducted an interview with Paul Sidle from the WWII Archives.

At the end of the interview Paul asked Joe:

What advice would you give to future generations?

Joe responded:

Well I wanted to fly fighters, and I chose the Marine Corps, and they didn't have any patrol planes or transports or anything like that. And I think that anybody that wanted to fly fighters, they should choose the Marine Corps.

Joe didn't think that the Marine Corps Air Force was in any particular way superior to that of the Air Force. It was just his personal preference.

11 November 2023 - Houston honors Joe and others for Veterans Day

Joe McPhail was one of the veterans honored by Houston City for veterans day. It was claimed that he was the oldest surviving fighter pilot in the United States.

22 November 2023 - Texas Lottery Veteran Recognition article

On 22 November 2023 Joe did an interview which was turned into an article for the Longhorn Foundation.

Bibliography

• McPhail, Joe (20 January 2014). "Joe McPhail collection" (Interview). Interviewed by Alice Braud Jones, as well as Anne Smith and Hellen Stein.
• McPhail, Joe (27 June 2018). "WWII Marine Pilot Col Joe McPhail Veteran Tales" (Interview). Interviewed by Erik Johnston.
• McPhail, Joe (23 March 2018). "98-year-old WWII veteran attending air show" (Interview). Interviewed by Michael Gibson.
• "Joe McPhail | WWII Corsair Pilot and USMC Veteran - American Warriors". American Warriors. 27 July 2023. Archived from the original on 15 November 2023. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
• McPhail, Joe (27 July 2023). "Joe McPhail | Part 1 | WWII Corsair Pilot and USMC Veteran" (Interview). Interviewed by Cody Rheault.
• McPhail, Joe (3 August 2023). "Joe McPhail | PART 2 | Oldest Living F4U Corsair Pilot" (Interview). Interviewed by Cody Rheault.
• McPhail, Joe (19 October 2023). "Joe McPhail Interview 19 October 2023" (Interview). Interviewed by Paul Sidle.
• McPhail, Joe (3 June 2011). "McPhail, Joe Interview" (Interview). Interviewed by James Crabtree. Archived from the original on 4 December 2023.
• https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/tylerpaper.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/cb/4cb46f5c-1533-11ee-bf40-7b3d29f5310a/649b5768e7dd4.pdf.pdf