VF-17 | Jolly Rogers | Fighting Squadron Seventeen

[walika]

VF-17 | Jolly Rogers | Fighting Squadron Seventeen

Established as VF-17 | 1 Jan 1943
Redesignated VF-5B | 15 Nov 1946

 

Deployments
1st Tour | Solomons | Oct 43-Mar 44 | F-4U-1 "Corsair", -1A | Lt. Cdr. John T. "Tommy" Blackburn, CO (1 Jan 1943)
2nd Tour | Hornet (CV-12) Feb-Jun 45 | F6F-5 "Hellcat", -5P | Lt. Cdr. Marshall U. "Marsh" Beebe, CO (18 Apr 1944)

 

 

Fighting Squadron 17 was formed in Norfolk, VA on 1 January 1943 under the command of LCdr John Thomas Blackburn (1913-1994). One of the great ones, whether shooting down Zeros, motivating a bunch of cast-offs, smuggling cases of beer in the squadron's Corsairs, or strafing a Japanese officers' cat house, Tommy Blackburn epitomized the hard-driving, hard-playing fighter pilot of times past. He was the heart and soul of VF-17 - the famous Jolly Rogers. Blackburn wanted a squadron insignia that had a piratical theme to it to match the F4U's Corsair designation; hence the skull and crossbones was chosen. The original design was developed by Harry Hollmeyer who became an ace pilot.

 

VF-17 Commanding Officer, LCdr John Thomas Blackburn (1913-1994)

 

 

 

 

Theater-made. Shipboard, hand-painted on leather.

 

 

 

 

Embroidered on wool.

 

 

 

Embroidered on twill.

 

 

 

 

Embroidered on twill. Squadron's second tour of the Solomons.

 

 

 

 

 

Fighting Squadron 17 was selected to fly the new Vought F4U-1 Corsair, a gull-winged fighter built around a powerful Pratt-Witney 18 cylinder radial engine on the new Essex-class carrier Bunker Hill. It was the second Navy fighter squadron to receive the F4U-1 Corsair and the most successful of them all.

Reporting to Norfolk, Virginia on Jan. 1, 1943, he began to organize his new command. From the Miami training school, he secured Roger Hedrick as his exec and Lt.(jg) Timmy Gile. He also had two veterans of the early fighting at Guadalcanal - Lts. Halford and Kleinman. These five were the only ones with any experience flying combat-type aircraft. The rest of his 42 pilots were new ensigns, right out of advanced flying school at Corpus Christi, where they hadn't flown anything more advanced than SNJ trainers.

Since the new Corsairs were not due until February, Blackburn started training and evaluating his fresh pilots on SNJs and F4Fs. By the end of January, all the fliers had soloed in the Wildcats.

Lt.Cdr. Tom Blackburn established VF-17 as the Navy's second F4U squadron on New Year's Day 1943. The squadron helped during the development of the F4U Corsair which led to some some design changes, resulting in the F4U-1A. After turning the Corsair into a suitable carrier aircraft, the Jolly Rogers sailed for the Pacific aboard Bunker Hill (CV-17) with the rest of air group 17, arriving in Hawaii that fall. However, insufficient Corsair parts in the carrier supply system forced "Blackburn's Irregulars "off the ship, to be replaced by the hellcats of VF 18.

Sent to the Solomon Islands in October, Fighting 17 operated from Ondonga, New Georgia until year-end, then from the Piva Yoke strip on Bougainville. On 8 November 1943 the squadron Executive Officer, Roger Hedrick, led a flight which intercepted 39 Japanese fighters over Empress Augusta Bay, Bougainville. As the Japanese fighters fled back to their base, VF-17 was responsible for downing 3 fighters and damaging 4 others. Though outnumbered, the squadron survived the encounter with no losses. This action was typical of the squadron's land-based service in the Solomon Islands in 1943 and 1944, when it went up against the cream of Imperial Japanese Navy pilots then based at Rabaul. A brief reunion with Bunker Hill occurred during the carrier strike on Rabaul 11 November, when the F4Us landed aboard to refuel and rearm after helping repel a land-based air attack.

 

The 18.5 kills credited that day remained a high for the duration of the first deployment. Blackburn himself emerged as one of VF-17's leading aces with eleven aerial combat victories to his credit, not to mention one of their last missions, a nuisance bombing (on purpose, very near misses) of a Japanese army officers' "comfort station" (The House of Flowers) on Rabaul -- the "climax" of their very successful tour of duty. At the end of the tour, Blackburn's pilots included 11 aces, and the 152 victories remained the Navy's top Corsair score.

Reforming on the West Coast with all new personnel, Lt.Cdr. Marsh Beebe (like Blackburn a former CVE pilot) trained a new VF-17 in the F6F, but still sporting the pirate flag. They entered combat from Hornet (CV-12) during the spectacular Tokyo strikes, when the Jolly Rogers resumed scoring on 16 February 1945 -- three days less than one year after their last Corsair victory. However their biggest day came over Kanoya on 18 March and near Okinawa on 16 April, with 31 kills on both occasions. The skipper and Lieut. Bob Coates became aces in a day on 18 March, with Lts. Bill Hardy and Ted Crosby "making five the hard way" on 6 and 26 April, respectively.

Credited with 161 victories and 12 aces from hornet, BBs addition of the VF 17 boosted the squadron's to tour total to 313 narrowly edging out VF-15's single deployment record of 310.

 

 

VF-17 pilots at Torokina, Bougainville, New Guinea | December, 1943

 

Top Row (L-R): Lt. Dirty Eddie March (Ace), Ens. Carl Gilbert, Lt.jg Wally Schub. Bottom Row (L-R): Ens. Whit Wharton, Ens. Tom Killefer, Ens. Hal Bitzegaio.

 

 

 

VF-17 F6F-3 Hellcat - 1943

 

 

 

VF-17 F4U-1A Corsair - 1944

 

VF-17 Grumman F6F - 1945

 

 

 

Promotion for the film "Fighting 17: The Jolly Rogers"

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWc9fLPzeMI

 

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

 

History of the skull-and-cross-bones and Jolly Roger

The "original" skull-and-crossed-bones was credited to a French buccaneer, Bartholomew Roberts, in the mid 1600s. Various other emblems, such as crossed cutlasses, were used by later pirates. Pirates hanged at Newport, Rhode Island in 1723 called their flag 'Old Roger', an early 18th century nickname for the Devil. In thieves slang, rogues were called "rogers".

Bartholomew Roberts was nicknamed "Le Jolie Rouge", and in English this was used to refer to the flag, not the man. Another origin may have been that the Jolly Roger was a corruption of Jolie Rougere, a red pennant flown by French buccaneers to show no quarter would be taken. In many parts of the Caribbean, the "Jolly Roger" was the equivalent of a happy face: it meant the pirate ship was willing to take prisoners. The appearance of a red flag, however, signified no prisoners; the pirates would slaughter crew and passengers to a man.

 

 

 

Sources:
Blackburn, Tom. The Jolly Rogers. 1997.
Sherman, Stephen. Acepilots.
Tillman, Barrett. U. S. Navy Fighter Squadrons in World War II. 1997.

 

[walika]

USS Bunker Hill (CV-17)

 

 

 

 

USS Hornet (CV-12)

 

 

 

F6F Hellcats of VF-17 and VBF-17 on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-12) March 16, 1945

 

 

 

CV 12 USS Hornet | F6F-5 VF-17 22

 

 

 

 

View of the island of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-12) April 1945.

Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters from Fighting Squadron VF-17 Jolly Rogers are visible on deck.

 

[The Iron Brigade]

[Stony]

I met VF-17 ace Willis Hardy a few times when I worked at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. He was an "ace in a day" in the battle for Okinawa.