Joe McPhail

Joe McPhail
Born	10 October 1921 Grand Saline, Texas

Joe McPhail was 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. After WWII ended he was called up into VMFA-214, the Black Sheep Squadron, during the Korean War.

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

https://americanwarriors.com/project/joe-mcphail/

https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.94714/

https://ww2fighters.blogspot.com/2016/04/profile-118-finishedyessir-as-flown-by.html

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1955564824516896

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeV3D-Ugi_8

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Col+Joe+McPhail

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K4SL-5P3

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4L4C-GCMM

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4LLM-YKZM

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6XGB-MGWT

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K43F-XH6

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HFX7-9PZ

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15566052/claydie-mae-phelps

Before birth

1910 - Birth of sister

In 1910 Joe's sister was born.

1917 - Second older brother born

In 1917 Joe's other future brother was born.

Childhood

10 October 1921 Birth in Grand Saline

Joe McPhail was born on 10 October 1921 in the small town of Grand Saline, Texas, which sat on Highway 80 between Dallas and Freeport, and had a population of around 1200.

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.

1930 - Younger brother born

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

1939 - Moving to Corpus Christi

In 1939, Joe and his family moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, where Joe would stay until he would graduate High School.

Adulthood

10 October 1939 - Becoming 18 years old

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

Before June 1939 - Graduating from High School

Before summer 1941, Joe graduated from High School, or Junior College, in Corpus Christi. While in Junior College Joe, because Naval Air Station Corpus Christi was nearby, he saw many different guys in uniform in and around town.

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.

June to July 1941 - Spending time in Civilian Pilot Training

The summer after Joe graduated from college, Joe decided to enroll into Civilian Pilot Training, called and abbreviated as CPT by Joe. CPT was a government program that Joe enjoyed because he got exposed to planes for the first time and got to fly for about thirty to fourty hours that summer. He would fly Piper J-3 Cubs, which were tail draggers.. During that time he really knew that he wanted to be an aviator and liked to fly.

At first decided to go into the Navy at the time to be a Navy pilot, because Naval Air Station 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. However he discovered that in 1941 the Navy required that you be 20 years of age as well as have sixty hours of college. That would require him to wait for his birthday that year of 10 October 1941.

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. 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 downtown Dallas, at Naval Air Station Dallas. There he became a Weekend Warrior. It is assumed that after some time he left Dallas and went back home.

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

Sometime before 4 December, Joe was called up to come back up to NAS Dallas.

4 December 1941 - Arriving to NAS Dallas

On Thursday 4 December 1941 Joe arrived to NAS Dallas. 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.

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 to NAS Dallas, Joe and the other people at the base heard the news about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Most people didn't even know where Pearl Harbor was. In any case, 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.

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.

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 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 twin cockpit trainer biplanes as well as tail draggers. Joe thought that they were pretty easy to fly. They had big wings, and a stick instead of a wheel for control.

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.

Going to Corpus Christi

When Joe was transferred to Corpus, he was made an Aviation Cadet from a Seaman Second Class. He started flying Stearman planes, which he thought were big and strong. 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. 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. 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 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, 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 thought that maybe going into the Marine Corps would give him a better chance of flying fighter planes since they didn't have as many scout planes as the Navy did. That is why he chose to switch over into the Marine Corps.

October 1942 - Getting his wings

In October 1942 Joe finished his training and got his wings afterwards. 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 and what the USAAF called AT-6s. He had, however, flown these in Kingsville during fighter 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. 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 was transferred to San Diego, California to wait to go overseas.

During or after December 1942 - Going overseas

Finally Joe was able to go overseas, the first destination, the town of Pago Pago, American Samoa, deep in the Pacific, where he would join Marine Fighter Squadron 441 (VMF-441), which was operating Wildcats.

December 1942 to January 1943 - Being overseas

For the next 13 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. 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, this time in the Wildcats. Joe had gone overseas with one of his friends, John Ralphus, who was also part of 441.

Eventually Joe and the squadron were transferred to the island of Funafuti. The island was 700 miles south of Tarawa which was being currently occupied by the Japan. The 441 eventually went up to Nanumea, only 500 miles from Tarawa. From either island 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.

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

There was one memorable time that Joe had in the Wildcat in 441. On one day he flew until he ran out of fuel. They knew that he was coming in, and was 20 miles close. After running out of fuel he landed in the water. The water was terrible, probably 15 ft waves, although it wasn't, cold, but was warm. He landed and 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 sank after 45 seconds of hitting the water, it flipped the raft upside down. He lost his fishhooks, paddles, and everything, but was able to ride it get it. He put dye marker in the water every time that a plane passed by (there were planes being sent out to search for him), unfortunately the big waves not helping, creating a current that would turn it into a green string 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 hours he was in the Pacific ocean. Eventually a PT boat 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.

January 1943 - End of first tour overseas

After staying with 441 for thirteen months, with around 40 combat missions, Joe went back to the mainland United States. He began instructing in a fighter training unit in El Toro, California, and then Jacksonville, Florida. Joe (who was a Captain at this time) had a friend at that time named John Ralphus, who was also a Captain, at the time who was in this fighter training unit along with him. 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 he also was able to go back home.

January 1945 - Going overseas a second time

In January 1945, Joe and John went overseas for the second time, now to a new Marine Fighter Squadron in the New Hebrides, specifically an island called Espiritu Santo. This squadron that they joined had been overseas already for six months, since around July to August 1944. They all knew that they were going to Okinawa.

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. They had to take an LST to get there. They departed from Espiritu Santo, 500 miles east of Guadalcanal, en route to Okinawa.

March to April 1945 - Trip overseas

The trip took 38 days, 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.

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.

7 April 1945 - Joe lands on Okinawa

After waiting for six days to get onto the island, on 7 April Joe was finally able to get on the beach. 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.

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

On 12 April Joe finally got to fly out of Okinawa. During this first mission he saw his first Japanese plane, a Zero, in which he shot it down.

April to June 1945 - The squadron's kills

During the April, May, and June months, the squadron shot down a total of 124 planes. In total throughout the okinawa campaign Joe had 100 combat missions, adding to his already 40 the first time. In total Joe shot down two planes during those missions.

During the time at Okinawa they had Forward Air Controllers on the ground, who were aviators directing artillery and airplanes.

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. While on Peleliu (after being on Okinawa they got transferred there, in which they got to do a lot of flying up there), Joe heard about the news and they all knew about it. Up until this point there was no kind of indication that the United States was building the atomic bomb. 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.

2 September 1945 - Surrender of Japan

On 2 September, the news spread out of that the Surrender of Japan was being signed, and so the war was ending. The people reacted by celebrating some on Peleliu. They claimed that on Okinawa that even some guys were injured celebrating firing guns, bullets going up they gotta go down.

During or after September - Getting back home

After the war was over Joe was trying to get back home in the United States. He went from Peleliu to Guam, naturally wanting to fly home but wasn't able to. Therefore they waited around for about two weeks, put the group on a ship, this time not an LST, but instead a troop transport. He felt that it was a pretty nice trip, not too bad.

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. Other than that there wasn't much of a welcome home, the people there had settled down by then.

October 1945 and after - Going back home to see family, and going Cherry Point, NC

After that Joe and the others went back home to see family. 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.

Before August 1946 - Being 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. 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

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.

September 1946 - Enrollment into SMU

After getting of Cherry Point, Joe enrolled into Southern Methodist University in September 1946. 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, 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, a guy John Young Ford. There, Joe did accounting, credit work, among other things.

May 1950 - Getting into reserve squadron in Dallas

In May 1950 Joe got into a reserve squadron in Dallas (probably NAS Dallas), and so got to fly at this time.

June 1950 - Beginning of the Korean War

In June 1950, the Korean War began.

1 August 1950 - Called up to join the conflict

On 1 August 1950 Joe and his squadron were called up.

August to October 1950 - Training for the war

For two or three weeks they stayed in Dallas and then went to El Toro, California. There they did even more training, specifically some instruments training. 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.

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. That month he reported to Wonasn, North Korea. Joe was part of VFMA-214, the Black Sheep Squadron.

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.

What gave him satisfaction was conducting CAS, as he felt it was helping the guys on the ground. Like at Okinawa, in Korea they also had Forward Air Controllers.

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.

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

During the Battle of the Chosin Resevoir, Joe and his squadron went to be stationed at Yonpo Air Base. 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.

After December 1950 - Aboard the carrier Sicily

Afterwards, 214 was assigned to being aboard the USS Sicily. Unfortunately they were told that the squadron wasn't carrier qualified, and so were sent to Japan to get carrier qualified. He was still flying a Corsair when they were flying off of the Sicily.

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, 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.

August 1951 - Coming back home

In August 1951 Joe got home. Unfortunately he wasn't able to find a job. 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, from 1952 to 1955 Joe was stationed at NAS Dallas. He was the Executive Officer of the Marine Training Detachment, where they were training Weekend Warriors like Joe was when he was called up to service originally at NAS Dallas around 11 years before. Earl Growind, a real good friend of Joe's, was stationed there as the CO, who got Joe stationed there.

During this time Joe went to work for a Trunkline Gas Company in Houston where he would fly executives, people, among others as a corporate pilot. His boss was also a Marine aviator from the war. 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.

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. That year, 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

Joe responded back enthousiaticly:

Cancel my request!

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.

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. By this time and with his service in the company, Joe had around 17,000 flight hours.

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 nwo 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.

Bibliography

• McPhail, Joe (20 January 2014). "Joe McPhail collection" (Interview). Interviewed by Alice Braud Jones, as well as Anne Smith and Hellen Stein.

15:12

- 00:45 Joe McPhail no middle name, born 10/10/1921 in in little town of Grand Saline Texas, between Dallas and Freeport Highway 80. Homer and Fally McPhail parents. He didn't fully grow up in Grand Saline, he moved to Tyler when he was in 1937, stayed there and graduated from High School in Tyler, which is in East Texas kind of between Dallas and Streetport.

- 2:11 He had a brother and a sister, Hugh McPhail and Claydmine McPhail, they were all over the isl...?

- 2:35 when he was in Grand Saline, he wasn't a very good student, always having trouble remembering things in high school, bad test taker that sort of thing. He didn't get into much trouble in school, tried to be honest and do the right thing. He wasn't personally fond of going to school.

- 3:35 Did you have any friends going to school? He did have some, can't think of any right now, Lloyd Ray was a cousin of his in Tyler, he was a little younger than Joe was.

- 4:25 his father was a grocerman, worked for a company in Grand Saline, he also ran for Taxes assessor collector, but the county of Vans Ant, was elected and spent four years as Tax collector, after that he had a grocery store and stayed with it for a while, finally he went to work for the state, and they sent him to Corpus Christi Texas, and so when he graduated from high school in 1939, they moved to Corpus Christi.

- 5:49 What was life for you like in Tyler, Joe liked to play sports, wasn't really good at it. Played Baseball. Was it because there wasn't much else to do? Yes it was there wasn't anything else to do. He was first baseman in Baseball. Did he ever really get far in Baseball competing against other teams? No he didn't. Him and his team would just play locally.

- 6:53 What kinds of other things of entertainment did they ever have. He liked to fish. The biggest thing he caught was an 11 lb Black Bass, biggest thing he caught, caught it around Tyler. Did you ever get into mischevious trouble, no he never did.

- 7:50 Do you remember anything about your neighbors and friends outside of school, he did, they had neighbors there good friends of theirs in Shepard was their name, played Baseball with them, fished and did all that.

- 8:25 Did you ever have a radio, no he doesn't think he ever did. There was the Tyler morning telegraph was the newspaper, always delivered it around the..., was one of his jobs. He wasn't paid too much since it was during the Depression times.

- 9:20 How hard did the Depression hit his family? It was pretty tough, they didn't have a lot of money, made the ends meet. What kinds of things, any other jobs, he mowed lawns. They owned a car back then, when Dad was county tax assesor, he had a Chevrolet, had wheels on the fenders, kind of extra two of them. They didn't travel that far with them, didn't go outside of Texas, pretty big state.

- 11:03 What was the decision for yall to move from Grand Saline to Tyler? Well it was because of his Dad's job, he was a county worker and so he had a cousin who was a pretty big in county politics, and so he went to work for his cousin, thats when he got into the county business.

- 11:55 Any fond memories of your dad? He was a hard worker, he remembers killing the hog in the fall, it was good to see the hog meat that you got out of it. What about your mom? She was just a home body, didn't do much else. She cooked good food. Siblings fond memoreis? They were quite a bit older than Joe was, so he always looked up to them. But they didn't bother Joe, and he didn't bother them, never in any particular kinds of fights.

- 13:35 Typically people when they move away miss friends, he did miss some friends from when they moved from Grand Saline to Tyler. He doesn't remember who they were.

- 14:10 Remember holidays from that time? Well Christmas was always a big deal for them, always got presents for the christmas tree, They would get their tree from places that would grow pine trees. He wished for guns and thing like that. stuff like fishing equipment and stuff like that

- 15:10 For 4th of July they didn't do much, some fireworks and that was about it.

- 15:45 Before you got into the service, future hopes and dreams. He graduated in 39 and he went to junior college, he was wanting to be a pilot so he enrolled what they called CPT, Civilian Pilot Training the government sponsored, flying that summer 1941, got about 40 hours, really got hooked on flying, wanted to continue and so he went to the military and they said to go to flight school, he had to be 20 years old and have 60 hours of college, he had the 60 hours of college, but wasn't 20 yet. 8 days after he was 20 he was sworn into the Navy. He wasn't called up until, that was 18 October 1941, and was called up on 4 December, 3 days before Pearl Harbor. Reported to the Naval air Station in Dallas, started flight school, took about 10 months of training, got his wings in October 1942, and so he reported to San Diego California and was at the North Island Naval Air Station and they just were kind of waiting to go overseas, and so overseas in January 1943.

- 19:02 Backtracking, what initially got interest in becoming Pilot. Joe thinks that being around Airplanes, there was an airfield nearby, Tyler pounds field Corpus.

- 19:55 What was CPT like for you? It was really good Joe enjoyed it flying Piper Cubs, it didn't have any breaks, and so we would taxi, park up on a hill. He never did, he got about 40 hours that summer of 1942, really summer 1941.

- 20:55 Remember anyone from, instructors? Frinefruk was his last name was an instructor, this was in Tyler, that summer of 41. When he was done he went to Corpus.

- 21:40 When you were in Corpus, leading up to the war, backtracking, what were some of your political opinions of the time. Joe didn't really have any. Dad was Tax censor of Vans an county for 4 years.

- 22:20 Remember the programs back then? Joe wasn't involved very much was only 9 years old. What do you remember about Geopolitics of the time before got into war. He didn't think about it, having the war like that. So leading up to, while getting into the war, there was no expectation of you that there was any sign of war? No there wasn't. Did anyone else between 4 and 7 December believe anything was happening? No.

- 23:30 What remember of hearing news of Pearl Harbor? Well thought that got myself in a mess here. Getting in in time for war. Joe enjoyed the trainign that he got the 10 months. You know Bus, Piper built were pretty built primitive airplanes, you had to spin the prop to start it, like an old automobile. Remember any incidents during training? Not too much, didn't have any accidents. Other people had accidents, there were some guys ground loop. Anyone from CPT that foloowed you into service. There were some guys, guy name Ralphus, he and Joe were together quite a bit, John Ralphus. He was at San Diego in North Island, and Joe was his roommate, so they were both good friends. They went overseas the same time, and was in the same squadron overseas, came back to the state, instructed together, and went overseas again but went into a different squadron than he did. They did keep in touch afterwards.

- 25:20 What was Dallas Naval Air station like? It was pretty much a regular you know, this was during the war in all this. And we were anxious to get overseas and do some fighting. That was a reaction to the news of Japan going across the pacific. They did have a dislike for the Japanese people, they kind of thought that they, did Pearl Harbor wrong, and part of the first war.

- 27:45 When y'all went to San Diego, that was after Pearl Harbor, the whole west coast was locked down. Joe and others would go into town, and be tourists, but it was pretty I think everybody was ready behind the war, especially over there. Never had heard about the Battle of LA. There was blackout in San Diego, there were guards posted around the city, a lot of them sure did. Joe and others had to have ID cards to get in and out of the base. It was an airfield they were staying at, North Island they called it. They were just training there just to get in time, in the airplanes.

- 30:00 What did y'all start using after you were getting in training in the service. They had what they called an N3N, which was a Naval Aircraft factory built airplane, was a lot like a steerplane fabric biplane. It was an older model, but weren't actually using it just for training. They even flew Cubs again some in North Island. Remember anything particular about N3N, was an open cockpit, two cockpit, was a good airplane, acrobatics, rolls, loops, things like that you could do. What was the most complicated maneuver you learned. 31:40 Probably, you would wheel up at the top and then you roll over at the top of the loop, pulled a lot of G's at that point. He did almost black out before form that many G's. He has blacked out before, but they were high enough to recover and didn't have any accident. Was that during training or during the war. Actually during the war, they had Grumman Wildcats, Crank the gear up and crank the gear down, charge the guns cable running out to the guns in th wings. Pretty primative airplane.

- 33:05 They were itching to fight, anxious to get into battle. Any indication during training there was no indication they were about to get into battle. First time overseas they didn't do anything, nearly a year and they didn't see any airplanes, they bombed us at night. This was in the central Pacific, to an island called Funafutti. What did it feel like to be bombed for the first time? its kind of scary, not much you could do, we had Foxholes we got in them and till it was over with, but they didn't have very good range witht eh Wildcat, it was 700 miles to Tarawa, and they couldn't go up and back. The Japanese controlled Tarawa at the time, it would have been a one way mission. They never went up there. They even moved up closer within 500 miles of Tarawa in a place called Nanamia. They weren't able to go up there and back.

- 35:15 The name of his squadron he was in? The 441 was the Wildcat squadron. Whe he was bombed, was there anyone new that got killed, no, there was no casualties. His plane did get destroyed so they had to send a replacement Wildcat. He never named his Wildcat, not a relationship with it or anything. He ran out of fuel in a Wildcat. What happened was they were towing a banner for someone to fire on, and in order to get the sleet in the air, they had to lighten the load on the Wildcat, so they took the reserve fuel out and one time we got the guys fired on it, and Joe was towing the airplane, and we missed the island, Funafutti wasn't a big island, finally were able to get in touch with radar, 80 miles passed the island, so Joe knew they weren't going to make it back, turned around headed back, got within 20 miles of Funafuti before landing in the water, pretty rough landing, big big waves, but he got out got in the raft, and was able to put down a marker in the water so they could find him. He wasn't in the water for very long, 3 hours. The water wasn't cold, it was warm.

- 38:20 Any other incidents while training? Not any incidents that he could think of right now. The second time he went overseas in 1944 I guess it was, we, I shot down a Japanese airplane first flight out of Okinawa, 12 April 1945. First tour through the pacific he never entagled up with a Jap at all.

- 39:35 Any time y'all came close to an area where you might have engaged some? Well yeah, well at Okinawa they were coming from japan, Kamikazis, we were always looking out for them.

- 40:10 Experience like on nanamia? It was a pretty primative, we didn't have any accomidations at all when we first landed there, everything was pretty open, we'd eat outside no mess hall or anything, but they finally got what they were building stuff.

- 40:45 Remember any officers from that time? Well yeah there was a guy named Schaeffer, Rared Schaeffer, he was a Texan, he was in the squadron, Joe has pictures of the squadron and can look at the picture and can remember their name but not now.

- 41:30 Did you form a kind of bond or comraderie within your squadron? Yeah we're pretty good friends, all doing the same thing, and Schaeffer was in the 441, same squadron. Do you remember any friends, comrades from time, any particular ones? Its been a long time ago, remember this guy named Bowland, California guy good friend of his, was in a training squadron in California with Joe. That was after Okinawa, came back in states and instructed in El Toro south of LA. Even lived in Lagoona Beach Hotel, was a nice Hotel. Was about 12 miles and they had a bus that would run us back and forth. They had a pool and that kind of stuff, for the time pretty nice.

- 44:05 Okinawa was first ever engagement. Really they were in combat in the 441 but you know it wasn't actual engagement, they couldn't fly far enough to get any action. They in the squadron was kind of disappointed they weren't getting into action, were wanting to get into action, meanwhile everyone else was out in action. It was in August 1943 Guadalcanal, and they were getting a lot of airplanes, 45:55 Joefalls?, and all that bunch. During that time they didn't fly anything else than the Wildcat. But next time overseas he flew Corsairs. They flew them in El Toro in training, Corsairs. The Corsair was a muchc better plane than the Wildcat, had a lot of power, and it was a good airplane, he never did break one.

- 46:55 Did you ever have any near run incidents that you almost got shot down. Yes, after the escond flight out of Okinawa, we just took off and there bunch of Jap planes were letting down from altitude were up faster than we were and, Joe got in behind and tried to shoot him down and outran him. Those were zeros. Most of the Japanese pilots were inexperienced at that time.

- 48:10 What caused you and I guess other memebers of the 441st, to get sent back to the states? Well it was just about a year overseas and you got rotated back to the states. And then Joe was in that training squadron in El Toro and he went back overseas again about a year, stayed until the war ended.

- 48:50 Did anyone during that time ever explain to you why you were never able to go into a real engagement? Well you know it was a real engagement in Okinawa. In the 441 they never did, we just realized that we couldn't fly 700 miles and couldn't come back.

- 49:45 Do you remember anything specific while training in El Toro. Well not much it was good duty right there on the coast, always plenty of action, liberty action, a lot more freedom to do some stuff. The restrictions in California had been aleviated by that time

- 50:30 Reaciton to Japanese interment? Well it wasn't much of a deal, they had them all in camps so we never did get involved with them.

- 51:00 Did you continue to fly Wildcats in, not Wildcats, when they went back to California thats where they gave them the Corsairs. There were live ordinance trainings. Napalm, rockets, .50 cal, 1000 lb bombs, all pretty destructive.

- 51:55: What was the decision to go back overseas, and did you change squadrons? Yes he was in the 323 Death Raddlers they found a raddler in a tent so thats where they got the name, it was before they got there. But 323 was a good squadron. It had 50 something pilots. When they went back to California the 441, they were all dispersed.

- 53:20 First mission in 323 was 12 April 1945, first flight out of Okinawa, climbed to 20,000 fleet and thats when they met the zeros. Using the ordinance training, they would do close air support, the guys on the ground. Generally you were talking to a guy, fighter director on the ground tellling you where to hit. Did you know for sure you scored any hits? Yeah they would tell you you did something good. That happened probably 3 times. It wasn't that easy, having to know where its going. Did they ever tried to shoot at you, yes they did, never hit him, not a single time. They probably were using 20mm. Well they were in generally in open areas.

- 55:45 DId you generally ever encounter any other fighter planes in your first experienced. Later on in May I shot down a Nate, it is a fixed geared Japanese airplane, was sure it was a Kamikazi. It was completed it was, he was only at around 1000 feet. Then he rolled over and went into the water. He didn't go up in flames, it exploded. He didn't even see Joe and so didn't try to fight back. So those were the only two victories that Joe ever had. Back then it wasn't easy to get a kill for the average person. The highest victory kill count within his squadron was probably 12. Joe remembers several with high kills, a guy named 57:25 O'Keef, was Irish, he shot down seven airplanes Joe thinks. They would always put the markings on the side of your corsair to show how many planes you shot down. That was a guarentee thing where you'd come nback to base and they would put it on there.

- 58:00 Did you do any sort of thing to celebrate a kill? No, I only had like 2 like I said. Did you ever come in with any close encounters. I did, the next day after 12 April Joe got involved with some Japanese airplanes letting down a lot faster than wer were and Joe tried to shoot em down but didn't get any hits.

- 59:00 Lose anyone in the 323rd? Yeah, well there were several guys that were lost, can't think of anything right now. Like I said we had a lot of pilots, 51 in the squadron. Were you saddened by the loss of those pilots? Yeah we always hated to see them go.

- 59:50 Ever have any correspondances back home with any family or friends? Yeah, wrote letters back home, mostly the average how were you doing that kind of thing. Average time writing and getting a response? Don't know how long it took to get the letter home.

- 1:00:35 Did you ever come into contact with any of the natives on any of these islands? Well yeah we did there was even on Funafutti there was some Natives, they were friendly, not hostile in any way. Every island we were on encountered some. Which islands were you stationed on in total in 441? THere was Funafutti, Nanmia first time, then Okinawa and Peleliu the second time.

- 1:01:55 Flying into Okinawa where were you based out of? Kadina airfield. Not flying off of a carrier. Flew off a carrier during Korea thing, only time I did, land based all the other times. Before going onto Okinawa they had to wait before they secured an airfield before they went on. The invasion of Okinawa was 1 April 1945, I rode up on an LST, Landing Shipp Tank from 02:50 Sprino Sanes to Okinawa took about two weeks. But they wouldnt let us go ashore until they had the islands airfields secure. On 7 April I went ashore on Okinawa, so seven days after initial landing.

- 1:03:30 Why not just fly in with the Corsair? Well we didn't ghave any Corsairs, you know LST the, we were based in 03:45 Sprido Sanes which is east of Okinawa and so they decided for us to go to Okinawaw, but they didn't have any airplanes for us to fly so we rode on an LST. So they first got into Corsairs in California, then went to Sprido Sanes, and then got into their Corsairs on Okinawa. Well when I first went overseas the second time, I went to Sprido Sanes, in the New Heberdies group, its way east, and we trained there for three or four months, then they decided we were going to Okinawa, so they put us on this LST, stopped on this Guadalcanal then New Lithey, and on Okinawa. But we set out there 7 days waiting to go ashore. On Sprido Sanes is when he first met his new squadron 323.

- 05:45 What was like on LST? Well it wasn't all that good the chow was kind of lousy and heavy seas pitching. We were glad to get off. What kind of chow was served? Baked potatoes, black eyed peas. Not anything particularly spectacular. Tghe yhad plenty of coffee on there. Joe did smoke at the time. Everyone else was smoking at that time too. They did drink alcohol too, beer, and alcohol yeah.

- 07:25 Get off LST and getting onto Okinawa, what is the sight you see. Joe has read E B Sledge's memoir, great memoir. The landscape on Okinawa was baren , pretty much the same as Sledge described it.

- 08:15 When did you go to Peleliu? After Okinawa, landed in Okinawa in April and probably went to Peleliu in June. 08:45 We flew Corsairs out of there, and finally went up, in the Palau group there was Babelthop was a big island and so we always had to patroll up there see they weren't trying to p[ut together an invasion of a smaller island we were on Peleliu. Despite going up the island chain towards the home islands there was still kind of a fear that the Japanese would attack from one of the still occupied islands. They were a bunch of Japanese still on Peleliu. Babelthop and several of the islands. There were still islands around that had been bypassed that still had Japanese forces on them. Angor was one of them. Island off of Peleliu that they never did go ashore and land there.

- 10:15 ever participate in any reconnaissance mission or anything like that? Oh yeah. What kinds of things looking for. We were looking for Japanese ships but heck enever did find any. In the 441 we did some, we had trips that we were looking for them, but never did see any. They didn't anything down that far 700 miles from Tarawa. Didn't have many. Wasn't their focus. The Marines did take Tarawa eventually, was while he was in 323.

- 11:35 Ever participate on any night missions? Yes we did, we lot of times they were bombing us at night and so we had put airplanes in the air just to get them off the ground, jkeeep from being destroyed. How did you see way through, didn't get night equipment, just had to know how to fly at night. Int raining ever give you advice for sort? They would tell you where to go like Funafutti was a group of islands in kind of a volcano like thing and they say go to this island and circle over there unitl the raid is over and come back home.

- 13:10 Peleliu was last island he was on until end of war. What did yall do mostly for remainder of that time. Was mostly just patrolls, fly around the big island of Babelthop and looking to see if they had any kind of invasion of ships so. Big fear they were gonna go to Babelthop and reinforce it and such. Any ships that actually tried. No neever did just left them there.

- 14:10 Joe did hear about some of the atrocities the Japanese army and navy committed. DId ever fear of getting POW, sure never did want to get captured. Never heard any stories from anyone he knew during that time. No one he knew became a POW. Joe was never a POW.

- 14:50 Obviously Atomic bomb was kept secret. Everyone including Joe was expecting in participating in the invasion of the home islands. Was there a particular fear? Knew it was gonna be tough trying to take any islands of Japan.

- 15:40 Reaction to first hearing news about the bomb? Well we were glad hear about it you know we thought maybe one drop would be enough, turned out it wasn't. How was explained? It was explained kind of a weird deal, it covered so much ground. Was there shock we could build such a big bomb? No, we were happy.

- 16:45 How did yall celebrate at the announcement war was over? Oh we just drinking. Drinking on Peleliu. So yal ldrank and partied kind of stuff? Yeah. What was expectations of what was gonna happen to yall? Well we just deidn't know what was gonna happen, didn't realize that they were gonna drop another bomba dn that would end it. What did you think when the Soviets invaded Manchuria? We were happy to see them enter the thing the russians and in any way to support us.

- 18:25 Did you ever come to like some of the generals above you like the marines admiring MacCarthur. No we never did see any generals at all. Any performers ever come in to see yall? Well bob hope on Wansan in NK, Joe liked him. What were some of the music and propaganda saw during that time? On bases they had films and some of that sort of things they did yeah. What kidns of things saw? Well music and just entertainment peopl;e telling jokes and all that. Any movies? Yeah had a lot of movies? Not a particular song he liked, Joe went to a few on Peleliu, not peleliu, but funafutti, quite a few.

- 20:35 How did return home after that? Well I was on peleliu and they moved us up to Guam, and we war was over then, and we set up there for about two weeks waiting for a ship gto go back to the states, finally they had one, so we sent back two week trip. What happened to the Corsairs? Well they stayed there, they finally brought them home on the carriers. They stayed on Peleliu when they left. Did you ever name or anything like that of your Corsair? Never did fly the same airplane hardly? Miss flying after that? Definitely sure did, liked to fly. You went to Guam, were on an LST again coming back to the states? We went to San Diego again. People were yeah celebrating when they got back. How much had it changed since then? Well it changed a lot, there wasn't any thought of any war, and so they were pretty happy Joe thinks that it ended.

- 23:00 What were you doing in San Diego when you got back? Just hanging out and I went on home got a ride with a guy in a car and drove all the way back. ALl the way from San Diego to Corpus or Tyler. His mother was in Tyler. His father had died in early part of the war. He never got to know the thing that Joe got to doing. What did your siblingsdo during that time? They neither one went into the service. My sister was born in 1910 or something like that, and my brother was born idk when. DId she ever go into the factories and stuff like that? I don't think so. What did some of other brothers do? I don't know anything. He mainly corresponded with his mom not his siblings.

- 25:15 What was it like finally returning to your mother and neighbors and whatnot. It was I enjoyed it. It was emotional yeah. Did she fear you were gonna get shot down? Yeah, I didn't tell her about being landed in the water. What was Tyler like when went back? It was just an old country town. First time been back since Corpus? Yeah. Hadn't seen his mother since years. Never got any kind of leave or anmuthign like that.

- 26:30 When did you start going back to train and stuff like that? I dont remember much after the war. Did you have any kinds of jobs picked up after that? I went to work for gas transmission company, and I stayed with them for 32 years, they were based out of Houston, and Kansas city. At that company in 55 I guess it was,

- 28:10 Reaction to FDR passing away? Well it was sad timne yeah, he was well thought of, on fourth term.

- 28:40 You were eventually colonel, did you get promoted during the war? Yeah I did, first Lt early in the war, and then made captain, then Major then Lt major then Colonel. Why were you promoted? Just clinged to the service, not any action. But you were reliable respectable pilot, yeah. DId you receive any medals, I received two distinguished flying crosses, eleven air medals.

- 29:45 Talked to me being called back up for service up to the Korean war. I was in the reserve and knew that I was subject to being called up and so they August 50 they called me up. I went to El Toro CA again. Yeah got a nice hotel again, it was the same one, was nearby the same airfield, 30:43 Guna Beach Hotel. What was reaction to being caleld up? Excited to fly again? Was kind of excited yeah. While in the reserve did you ever think of taking up flying comercially or civilian kind. He flew for the gas transmission company, 32 years. What did you specifically fly? A lot of different planes, Cesna 310, Twin Beach, Lone star, Howard 500, jet star, and a J2. What was the cargo, well carrying people for the company. Our pipeline started in the Rio Grande in Texas, and went to michigan border in Indiana, right through the heart of the country, about Memphis and that about of way. He was flying some of the high officials of the company, so personally got to know some of them. What ewre they like? THey were nice, appreciated the transportation? Some of them were from the war? yeah. remember which ones? A guy named cant hink of his name, the president of the company, what did he serve in? 33:10 He was the washerman I think the whole time? I had other guys that , I cant think of their names.

- 33:45 Joined the company and called up for the reserve, and went to El Toro, what were you being informed of the war, and what was about to be coming haead? We were gonna be sent to Wansan Korea island, and heck I was sent to wansan and its in NK, so I flew out of there and then we moved up to a place called Yanpo near up tot a reseveoir, flew out of there until we came home.

- 35:35 You were in a place now under a country that restricts mostly access to go there, whats your perspetive on that? Well I think they gave them a tough time I think, the Korean people yeah.

- 35:55 Didi you fly Corsairs during Korea? Yeah. You never got the chance to fly the F84 or F86? Yeah never did. Never flew jets at all. DId you ever want to fly jets? Well yeah I did, but I was happy to fly the Corsair again. Yall probably did CAS. yeah we did a lot of CAS. Did you almost get shot down. Well some of them did, I never was hit. Was the lucky one yeah. Did you change into a different squadron? Yeah 214, blacksheep squadron. THere was a bunch of veterans already in there? Yeah all of them yeah. Any from 323? Not there wasn't? Yeah was new to the new group. Since he never went into jets, he never went down into MiG alley. DId you ever encounter any MiG-15? No never did. What did they tell you to do if you ever encountered one? Well they wanted air force to take care of the MiGs, they had F86s and that kind of stuff. What did they tell you to do if encountered on in Corsair? They didn't tell us to do anything. You could probably outturn them.

- 38:25 Did you ever go into the North Korean South Korean citie or towns while there. Well yeah Wansan is in Nk, went into town there. It was a regular town it was like. ANy particular incidents or stories during that time. All just day job for Joe there. Did ever lose friends there? Yeah I did yeah.

- 39:20 What was mother's reaction to when she got the news she got back into service. Well I don't know, she wasn't al that happy that I was going back but it wasn't nothing she could do about it.

- 40:00 You told me you flew off of a carrier? Yeah I did. Could you tell me a little more about that experience? Wel lyeah it was neat, they did what they call field carrier practice and you know they have a landing LSO Landing Signal Officer, and he waves you in and gives you cut, land and take off and come around and do it again. I got my training and Sicily was a Jeep carrier, it was only 600 feet long. Yeah it was a little harder to learn. Story is that they taxied me onto the catapult the first time, and soon as they got me hooked up the gave me the offbreak signal, and we sat there and watched them shoot a guy off on the right side, and we saluted and pulled the cord to it and took off and came back to the ready room and there was a sign up on the wall and chalkboard said McPhail reluctant warrior,a nd I said whats wrong and they said you took off with your breaks on. And I know when I poured the cold all to it, my feet automatic went on the break, didn't intend to do it, but they did. And they could see the blue smoke, bit wasn't any damage done to the plane. SO there was smoke coming out. Why did yo uhave to land on the carrier. Wel lthey wanted the squadron to operate off the carrier. Wasn't stationed on the carrier for very long, probably about two months.

- 42:55 WHen was that you were stationed? It was 1951, the war started in 1950, that summer of 50. What was your developing opinoin about Communism and its like takeover of the world and whatnot. We were opposed to communists of all types, those Chinese and all of them. It seemed like the UN was gonna win at the time, then the Chineses were gonna win. Did you go all the way up to where the near the border where the UN forces had pushed up to. Well I don't think I went that far, you know we went up to Yongpo which is south of resevoir, as far north as wel went up to. DId you ever meet any members of the UN forces? No enever did, mostly just Americans and such. We were in Marine bases. Did ever meet SK soldiers? No enever did, you know they were pretty good fighters the SKs.

- 45:10 Take me through the ending stages of the war in Korea. Well heck I was overseas for only 10 months, flew 100 missions during that time. BUt then was stationed in Dallas for 2 years and the war ended. Why were you, were you discharged after 10 months? No I was still in the reserve, and thats how I got to make Bird Colonel. Why did they make you a colonel? Well time, length of time. When you went back, did you ever do training or anything like that? No I did not, went to another squadron, well a training squadron. Don't remember what that one was called, it was stationed out of Dallas. End of training anyone? Yeah just went home. Well went out of CA again, but I didn't ever go overseas again. And so after did you ever hope to go back, did you stay in the reserve? Yeah. DId you hope you might go back someday? Wel lI wanted to get my time in. Heck I went in probably as a captain, then I made major, then Lt Colonel, and then Colonel. I was in what they called a weekend warrior, a reserve training, and go to CA drive to CA and for two weeks active dutym, and then drive back. Did training, CAS all that kind of business, training for that.

- 49:00 Even while I was a weekend warrior I stayed in with the Oil company, you know. After that what did you do after the war? Stayed with the company, until about 19, cant even reemember, spent 32 years with the company.

- 49:45 ANything else you would like to say? No I think thats about it. How did you meet your wife? Well I was at North Carolina Marine base Cherry point NC, and I met her, she was a tower operator, was a master sergeant, and we went on a trip with her and a couple other girls, up to Washington, and we got ot be good friends, and so I got out went back to Dallas and she got out and went to Dallas too, and went to work for Delta airlines in the reservation system. She was a tower operator at Sharepoint, but anyway we finally got married starting having kids. When did you initially meet in NC? Heck lets see, these times are running together, I don't remember. No it was during the Korean thing. Her name was Naomi, the named grandchild Naomi. Seems like she had a pretty good career, yeah right.

- 52:00 Thats all you want to say? Yeah What advice to future generations? Well I wanted to fly fighters, and chose the Marine Corps, and they didn't have any patrol planes, or transports or anything like that, so I think anyone that wanted to fly fighters they should choose the Marine Corps. Do you think the Marine Air Corps was superior? Well I don't think Superior, but its his personal preference, it was good duty. DId you stay in touch with friends after the war? Well not too much. I was busy with my company.

WWII Marine Pilot Col Joe McPhail Veteran Tales

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeV3D-Ugi_8

Col Joe Mcphail, grew up in East Texas, Graduated from High school in 1939, went into service in 1941 just baout 3 day sbefore Pearl Harbor, got my wings in October 42, went overseas in Jan 43 flying Wildcats in fighter squadron, was overseas 14 months, didn't do much for that time just occupying islands so the Japanese couldn't get them. Came back and instructed and went back overseas in Jan 1945. Joined VMF 323 Death Rattlers they were called, ended up on Okinawa, stayed there until june 15 1945 then went to Peleliu, stayed there until the war ended. Was in the reserve got called back in 1 August 1950 went to Korea and flew 102 Missions, in ten months, came home and that was all my military experience. Flew 140 missions total in WWII. So had a total of 240 missions, got two airplanes got a zero and a Nate. I tell everyone I wrecked three American Airplanes and shot down two Japanese airplanes, so I consider myself a generic ace.

I was with three out of three divisions wit 12 airplanes and ventured first day out of Okinawa on that 12 April just happened to remember it. We climbed to 22,000 feet and they were some veterans sayng there was some bogeys. There were some clouds and we didn't see anything. Joe looked down real low and saw some blue airplane chasing some brown airplane, said well I'm gonna go check him out, well went down about 2.000 feet, and there were four zeros in fornt of me, 2:37 so I kind of picked over Taylor and Charlie and the pieces started coming off of them and he blew up and I passed him up and Id let down I had on full throtle. And so I think there's three Japanese airplanes behind me and I said I wanna get out of here, so I rolled over and started down and reached compressibility, an airframe could only go so fast but stayed got to jumping around and I pulled out about 9,000 feel went on back to the base.

- 3:15 Second airplane that day was you know no dogfighting or anything, never did see me, was about 1,000 feet, a Nate, a fixed geared Japanese airplane they had. He just rolled over and went into the water.

- 3:40 The corsair had much more power and the Wildcat had about a thousand horsepower had a Pratt Whitney 1830 and the Corsair had a Pratt Whitney R2800, had 2000 Horsepower, a lot lot different, it had the power. Corasir was a good flying airplane

- 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.

- 5:00 You know the Wildcat was pretty, it could be tough on the ground it really could, you know especially in a crosswind. I ground with one of my three airplanes I tore up, I grounded a wildcat on Samoa on takeoff, thats one of three yeah. Another Wildcat is still out there in the Pacific ocean at the bottom of it, I've ran out of fuel and had to land in the water and fortunately they picked me up in a PT boat. Only about three hours in the water. It was a long three hours, I was in a landing boat it was a heavy sea, the airplane kind of stalled out but I hit a wave, hit on it and kind of, boy I had that shoulder harness on so so tight I couldn't hardly breathe but my nose hit the gunsight it was right up here (at nose level). But anyway I got in the water and they knew that I was down and I saws only about 20 miles from the island and they sent out airplanes looking for me and they didn't see me for about an hour and a half. Finally I put dye marker in the water and itw as such as current that it was just a little thin line

Kingsville 2018 AIrshow interview with Michael Gibson Three news:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNTPWOltfvw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z2i4c4GBTg

Joe is a WWII fighter pilot. 96 at the time of 2018. He was a Marine Combat Pilot, in the Death Rattlers squadron, who flew the Corsair. McPhail is here for the airshow and rememebrs when he trained here and over at NAS Corpus Christi. Eventually, he was sent to the Pacific Theatre, and ended up providing CAS for troops fighting the Japanese on South Pacific Island. He shot down 2 enemy planes. Joe saw four zeros and shot down the Tail end charlie. and I went on past him and I thought "Well gosh there's three zeros behind me I better get out of here. Later he caught a Japanese pilot by surprise. He was by himself at about 1000 feet from the water. I shot him down and he just rolled over went right into the water so there wasn't any dogfighting. Joe had no doubt in his mindduring those uncertain times of who was going to win [the war]. We knew we were gonna win, we had confidence in ourselves. He even flew a Corsair during the Korean war, and he was ready to get back into the cockpit. We were honorable people, we wanted to win and protect the country. Im kind of sorry Im not still involed, Id like to help them even today.

Joe McPhail American Warriors interview Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-GaK4oryNA

https://americanwarriors.com/project/joe-mcphail/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeUmXnuDaAU

I wanted to fly fighters, they said the Marine Corps was the best place to go, figured that was the cheapest way to do it, let them pay for it. I tireid to get in, I wasn't old enough, soon as I got be 20 I was sworn in. But I wasn't called for active duty until 4 December 1941, 3 days before Pearl Harbor. Took ten months to go through flight school, got wings in October 1942. First time went overseas flew the Grumman F4F Wildcat. and it was pretty primitive airplane, didn't have a hydraulic system, cranked her to get her up and cranked her to get her down. You charged the guns with a cable tha tran out to tthe wings, I ended up on this island of Samoa, and went up to a little island in the central Pacific below about 700 miles south of Tarawa. The Japanese were bombing us at night, had to get in the foxhole, had to tolerate it, 2:05 didn't have any air to air they came down to bomb us but they always bombed us at night. We werent able to compete with them, si I really do much the first 13 months overseas. The Japanese were movinb that direction, they were in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands, so we were to keep them from moving any fyrinter south. First deployment was 13 months, that was all about 1943. And then I came back and I instructed and got in the Corsairs.

3:05 The wildcat didn't have a hydraulic system, the Corsair did, you charged the guns hydraulicly, raised the wings, even raised the gear hydraulically, where the Wildcat you cranked. They claimed that the Japanese nicknamed the Corsair the "Whistling Death". I had about 1025 hours int he corsair, never had an accident or anything, so Im pretty well impressed with it it had a lot of power. Went back overseas in January 1945, shot down two airplanes in, Japanese airplanes, first fight was 12 April 1945, we climbed to 20,000 feet, looking for airplanes, and finally the fighter director vectored us North and we didn't see any and so I looked down low and saw some airplanes, and so I decided to go down and check them out, I kind of broke through some clouds and there was four zeros right in front of me, and so I picked on the tail end Charlie and he exploded and I went on past him and thought well gosh there's three of them behind me so I rolled over and I went down and I reached compressability the stick got the jumping around, but I pulled up about 9,000 feet said I was going home. I didn't think it about me hurting abnybody in that airplane at all, but I knew he was after me and I was after him, it was pretty exiciting. I thought well this is what I have been looking for a long time.

Joe McPhail American Warriors interview Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ViTA2MnbcI

- 0:50 [On Okinawa] We carried rockets, Napalm, 500 pound bombs, 50 calibers, 650 calibers, 2400 rounds. You could do a lot of damage, and we did a lot of CAS there on Okinawa. Im happy to help the guys on the ground, but I think thats what the Marine Corps needed, some support from the air. We took off rom Kadina and I was only at about 1000 feet and I saw this Nate, a fixed geared airplane and it was a Kamikaze, down there not to go back, Joe made sure he stayed down there. Joe got behind him the Nate not ever seeing him and just rolled over went into the water. That was his second kill. Joe had a lot of friends of mine that were aces five kills, but Joe never got that chance. You know the war ended in say like October they had us flying not to do any damage not to drop any bombs or anything, we had patrols to do we weren't sure the Japanese were going to quit, after that I went back to school, got my degree at SMU in Dallas but I was called up again in 1950 for Korea.

- 3:05 January 1950 I deployed to Korea, we were stationed in Wansan NK, then we moved up to Yongpole which is there a Ham Hung near the resevoir. Wasn't any air to air for us, so. we did a lot of CAS though, especially during Chosun resevoir. It was you know pretty high altitude, was up at about 5000 feet, the airplane didn't do quite as well as on the ground. The higher you go the worse it gets. I flew 100 missions in 10 months, and went home. I flew 1025 hours in the Corsair pilot at 101 years of age. Ill be 102 in October. I have two distinguished flying crosses. The DFC highest ranked ribbon Joe had, my entire service I flew 240 missions, Im most proud of shooting down the two Japanese airplanes. I have flown 17,000 hours in airplanes, and 4000 was in the wars, rest was in civilian, feel blessed to do all of that, would do it all over again.

History of the 323

https://archive.org/details/AHistoryOfMarineFighterAttackSquadron323/mode/2up?q=McPhail

Pacific War Museum Fredricksberg plaque commemoration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RadHDs3uEk

https://www.pacificwarmuseum.org/join-give/tributes/mcphail-col-joe

https://www.fredericksburgstandard.com/2021/03/10/honoring-a-hero/

Joe's younger brother was there, the golden raisin story.

His brother followed in his footsteps and joined in the Marine Corps as a pilot, was an admirer of Joe: 11:50

His wife was a Marine at Cherrypoint, she was actually from Cherrypoint NC.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gbtAhzwtB0

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/vintage-aircraft-101-year-old-marine-corps-hero-invite-you-next-east-texas-air-show/287-afb0f9f2-90a4-43a6-8bed-005a7d1a10eb

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/vintage-aircraft-and-a-101-year-old-marine-corps-hero-invite-you-to-the-next-east-texas-air-show/ar-AA1cEVPP

https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/vintage-aircraft-101-year-old-marine-corps-hero-invite-you-next-east-texas-air-show/287-afb0f9f2-90a4-43a6-8bed-005a7d1a10eb

https://headtopics.com/us/less-boo-for-your-buck-for-the-second-halloween-in-a-row-47972420

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1620639128344507

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/vintage-aircraft-and-a-101-year-old-marine-corps-hero-invite-you-to-the-next-east-texas-air-show/ar-AA1cEVPP

Joe doesn't believe he's a hero. I like to fly and thats all that counts. This interview was conducted by Kevin Reese from Dallas at the Cavanaugh Flight Museum in Addison in front of a WIldcat, one of the planes he used to fly, WWII Korea, Are you really 101, yessir, really, I'm nearly 102 on 10 October. He will be the guest of honor at the Rose City Airfest in Tyler on 30 June, and thunder over Cedar Creek Lake Air Show on July 1st. The Colonel says he's too old to fly himself now.

Joe doesn't consider himself to be a celebrity.

25th Anual Wings Over Houston Airshow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njwlL_WDmTQ

Captain A.J. High and Joe McPhail were interviewed. High was in a B25, B17, and B29 in the Aleutian Islands for 6 months. High hs a book "Meant to Fly" of his total carrer.

Colonel McPhail, He was in the Marine Corps, didn't have Air forces, went to Flight school in Corpus, went overseas in January 1943, joined Fighter squadron on Samoa. Went back overseas in January 1945, joined Fighter squadron, went to Okinawa, then went to Peleliu and stayed there until the war ended. Was called back in to the Korean thing August 1st 1950, ended up in NK in October 1950. Flew 102 missions in Korea and came home and went to work for a corporation from flying for a gas company in houston for 33 years, that was it.

Death Rattlers Article

https://www.pressreader.com/usa/flight-journal/20190601/281685436253407

News Articles and such:

https://www.thenorthwestern.com/story/money/2023/05/18/eaa-airventure-oshkosh-commemorative-beer-offered-for-70th-anniversary/70229106007/

https://www.kltv.com/2021/07/01/webxtra-east-texas-world-war-ii-veterans-be-honored-air-show/

https://tylerpaper.com/news/feel_good_features/history-made-world-war-ii-veterans-cap-off-rose-city-airfest/article_7e259956-dc5c-11eb-a20c-739df82a025b.html

https://tylerpaper.com/news/campv-recognizes-three-veteran-honorees-during-third-annual-rose-city-airfest/article_01992d00-1533-11ee-b851-5762b9f7e473.html

https://www.chron.com/houston/article/Choir-sings-Battle-Hymn-of-the-Republic-for-8520939.php

https://tylerpaper.com/news/feel_good_features/east-texas-world-war-ii-veterans-share-their-stories-of-service-ahead-of-rose-city/article_ba9f2998-da8a-11eb-aa4b-f744893cc1c7.html

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2019/11/10/photos-saluting-texans-of-the-greatest-generation/

https://tylerpaper.com/news/campv-hosts-special-reception-to-recognize-pilots-honorees-of-rose-city-airfest/article_bb4cba1a-1762-11ee-a54e-570a33fb9419.html

https://wingsoverhouston.com/legends/col-joe-mcphail/

https://www.cbs19.tv/article/news/local/vintage-aircraft-101-year-old-marine-corps-hero-invite-you-next-east-texas-air-show/287-afb0f9f2-90a4-43a6-8bed-005a7d1a10eb

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/slideshow/WW-II-vets-witness-historic-flight-from-Houston-105386.php

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1637309666367589

https://airshowstuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4175&start=50

https://wingsoverdallas.org/veteran-voices/

https://www.startiger.com/l?i=590349

https://www.eaa.org/eaa/about-eaa/eaa-media-room/airventure-news-releases/warbirds-in-review-2023

https://www.khou.com/video/news/local/world-war-ii-veteran-turns-102/285-830e0b49-201c-4016-abfa-8d3ca0e38342

https://www.11alive.com/video/news/local/world-war-ii-veteran-turns-102/285-830e0b49-201c-4016-abfa-8d3ca0e38342

https://www.mylife.com/joe-mcphail/e527149862112

https://the110club.com/oldest-living-men-in-the-usa-by-state-t29884-s90.html

https://wingsoverhouston.com/show-info/legends-heroes/

https://www.tiktok.com/@kiplinggg92/video/7299848741333306670

Houston Veterans Day ceremony held after parade canceled

https://news.yahoo.com/live-houston-veterans-day-ceremony-155341162.html

The Mayor’s Office announced two special honorees at this year’s ceremony:

Colonel Joe McPhail, United States Marine Corps Retired, World War II and Korea – Corsair Fighter: Colonel McPhail, 102, has lived in Houston for more than six and a half decades. He is the oldest surviving Fighter Pilot in the United States and served in over 240 combat missions and two Air to Air victories. His awards include a Distinguished Flying Crosses – 2nd Award and Air Medal – 11th Award.

US Marines:

https://www.keeping-history-alive.com/WWII-Preservation/Marines-1/

Flying legend Colonel Joe McPhail joined the US Marines in 1941 immediately before the attack on Pearl Harbor. McPhail served in the Marine Fighter Squadron VMF441 flying the Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat. He would later be assigned to the "Death Rattlers" VMF-323 as a F-4U Corsair pilot. The Death Rattlers were the most successful Marine Fighting Squadron in 1945 with 124 victories. During WWII Joe would fly 140 combat missions and is credited for shooting down a Nate and a Zero. He would later serve in the VMFA-214 "Black Sheep" fighter squadron during the Korean conflict. He would fly a total of 102 combat missions with two air-to-air victories later being awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses and 11 air medals and the Navy Commendation medal.

2015 - WWII vets witness historic flight from Houston in their honor

https://www.chron.com/life/article/WW-II-vets-witness-historic-flight-from-Houston-6135410.php