Jump to content

WW2 USMC Purple Heart. 1LT Roy C. Pratt, VMF-223, FG-1D Corsair Pilot RTB MIA / KIA Philippines, 3/24/45.


aerialbridge
 Share

Recommended Posts

aerialbridge

I acquired this Purple Heart from one of the Marine’s relatives, who’s been my friend for years. My friend wanted this symbol of their relative’s service to be researched and shared with those that appreciate the history and sacrifice. Out of the wood and into the world. It’s now an honored and adopted part of my family. And so it goes.

 

Roy Chester Pratt was born in Brockton, MA on 10/29/21, the second son of Charles H. Pratt, a journeyman machinist and his wife, Bertha May (Simpson) Pratt. Named after his father’s younger brother, Roy was the middle child of three boys and two girls. The family matriarch was Roy’s maternal grandmother, Eva Simpson. She and her carpenter husband, Henry, legally immigrated to Brockton from New Brunswick, Canada with seven children in 1900. They went on to have seven more and raised them in a huge, New England clapboard house at 535 Pleasant St. that was the family homestead for more than fifty years.

 

Eva Simpson and her fourteen children. Roy’s mother is second from right.

 

post-18406-0-29894400-1491029925_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

aerialbridge

The Pratts lived next door to “Nana Simpson” in a smaller house she owned at 537 Pleasant St. The Pratts went to public schools in Brockton and later at Newport, RI when the family moved to neighboring Jamestown around 1935 for their dad to take a machinist job at the Naval Torpedo Station. Roy played softball and basketball, and considered himself tough competition at both. After graduating high school in 1939, he got a job delivering ice while his older brother Ed worked driving a lumber truck. In October ‘41, Roy got a job as a groundman with the New England Power Assn., helping to erect poles for power lines, testing and repairing cables and assisting linemen. By then, Ed had landed a job as a journeyman machinist at the naval torpedo factory.

 

post-18406-0-83461700-1491030034_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

aerialbridge

Roy enlisted in the USNR, Class V-5, as Seaman 2c on 7/20/42 and was released to inactive duty. He applied for flight training and his rating was changed to Aviation Cadet on 8/7/42. He quit his job at New England Power in September ‘42 and reported for duty, receiving training at MIT, Claremont, NH and Colby College, Waterville, ME, which was turned into a military training center during the war. He took the intensive 11-week, pre-flight training at Chapel Hill, NC. Successfully completing this, he reported 12/15/42 for three-month primary flight training at the Naval Air Station, Peru, IN.

post-18406-0-24510300-1491030194_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

aerialbridge

The Naval Aviation Cadet on leave at the Simpson homestead, 535 Pleasant St., Brockton, MA.

post-18406-0-19982900-1491030259_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

aerialbridge

Upon completion of flight-training, Roy was honorably discharged from the USNR on 2/10/44 and the next day accepted a commission as a Second Lieutenant USMCR and received the Naval Aviator's "Wings of Gold." He was under instruction in the Air Operational Training Command (AOTC) through April.

post-18406-0-74878000-1491030316_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

aerialbridge

On 4/26/44, Roy was detached to Service Squadron, Ninth Marine Aircraft Wing, at MCAS Cherry Point, NC. He was attached to another training squadron at Cherry Point, VMF-924 on 7/11, detached to VMF-922 on 9/2 and on 9/23 he detached and joined Marine Fleet Air West Coast, Headquarters Squadron, Personnel Group, Marine Corps Air Depot, Miramar, San Diego, CA. On 10/12 he joined VMF-471, MBDAG-46, at the Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro, at Santa Ana, CA. On 11/6 he was detached to. HqSq, MCAD, Miramar.

post-18406-0-44354600-1491030410_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

aerialbridge

On 11/23/44, 2LT Roy Pratt shipped out from San Diego on board the USS ADMIRAL WL CAPPS (AP-121) to join Aircraft, Fleet Marine Forces Pacific, assigned to 1st Marine Air Wing, 14th Marine Air Group, Marine Fighter Squadron VMF-223, the “Flying Bulldogs”. The squadron had been in the thick of it since its days as part of the “Cactus Air Force” on Guadalcanal, producing aces Marion Carl, John L. Smith, Richard Mangrum and others. Roy and his group of replacement pilots arrived at Bougainville, British Solomon Islands on 12/17/44 and reported to their squadron the next day. On 1/8/45, Roy and other pilots and ground crew of VMF-223 departed Bougainville by air transport, arriving at Samar Island in the Philippines four days later. The Bulldogs’ Corsairs arrived on 1/8/45 to an unfinished airstrip and dispersal space. Much of the squadron ground echelon didn’t arrive until February.

 

Living and operating conditions at Guiuan airstrip were primitive, even by Western Pacific standards. The 93rd and 61st Seabee Battalions had first arrived on 12/1/44 and broke ground on the 6th despite almost constant rain (averaging .66 inches per day that December). Constructed over swampland, massive landfill was required. Those who said the area could not sustain runways were proven wrong by the Bees, and on 12/18/44 a Fairchild L-3 Cub successfully made the first landing. By the 22nd, heavy planes began landing. Four transport planes loaded with cargo arrived on the 28th, and on New Year's Day fighters and medium bombers flew in en masse. The Guiuan strip was in operation. On 1/15/45, the first Army B-24s landed, to begin bombing runs on Formosa.

 

Combat operations from Guiuan were a challenge. Besides inadequate space for dispersal of aircraft, inadequate taxiing strips, and inadequate field lighting, there was an inordinate number of ground accidents, perhaps attributable to strong cross-winds. During January, MAG-14 lost 19 aircraft from these operational deficiencies. There were ground collisions. In one horrendous incident, on 1/24/45, a Corsair from another squadron blew a tire on takeoff, and careened out of control into the revetment area shared by VMF 212 and 222. As aviation personnel rushed to save the pilot from the burning wreck, it exploded in a fireball, killing the pilot, eleven Marines and injuring fifty more.

 

By January ‘45, Japanese air resistance in the Southern Philippines was virtually non-existent and the only enemy planes to destroy were a few on the ground at airfields that were continually pummeled. There was no longer a need for camouflage. Finding suitable targets outside of populated civilian areas was a challenge and the missions often were directed north rather than south.

VMF-223 flew combat sweeps over Southern Luzon, Lingayen, Cebu, Mindanao, Negros, and other islands in the Philippines.

 

From February through April 1945, the squadron flew missions in support of the Army's Operation VICTOR, a series of hard-fought battles aimed at driving the well-fortified Japanese out of the Philippines. Roy flew an FG-1D Corsair, identical to the more widely known Chance Vought F4U Corsair but built by Goodyear because Vought could not keep up with production demands for the Flying Leathernecks’ standard fighter.

post-18406-0-13106500-1491030770_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

aerialbridge

From 2/3 - 2/28/45, 2LT Pratt was Assistant Construction and Maintenance Officer. On 1 March, his assignment was switched to Assistant Utilities Officer. He flew combat missions, bombing and strafing runs, air cover for convoys and fighter escort.

 

Loading 50 cal. machine guns on an F4U Corsair.

post-18406-0-01761300-1491031036_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

aerialbridge

Roy Pratt’s leader on the day he was lost, 24 March 1945, was MAJ Robert Warren Teller (1920-2006), a year older but a veteran of the “Cactus Air Force” and the Solomons. He was named CO of VMF-223 a week later and led the squadron from 3/30 – 4/16/45. He would have authorized the March ’45 monthly “combat diary” summary reproduced below. It seems like Roy was liked and respected by the Bulldogs of MarFightRon 223 and the circumstances of his loss did not go unnoticed at higher echelons. A man left behind does not sit well for Marines.

post-18406-0-89941700-1491031420_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...