Marine Saving Lives: Semper Fi

The autobiography of a Marine pilot, now retired, who served in WW II and the Korean War. His change of orders from flying a B-25 twin-engine bomber to a C-46 twin-engine Marine transport in 1944 was a huge disappointment that turned out to be a special blessing for Bud McDonnell.

Kamikaze suicide raids on American forces in teh Pacific prompted the call-up of the land-based Marine Corsair fighter aircraft with innovative bent wings, from the Marshall Islands, two time zones west of Hawaii. Escorting them safely to the islands to counteract the Japanese kamikaze planes and saving both many Navy ships and sailors' lives was Bud's job. Nevertheless, all the Marine transports on that mission were destroyed before it was done.