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Against the Sun (2014) VT-6 USS ENTERPRISE Full Movie on YouTube


Salvage Sailor
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Salvage Sailor

True Story

 

A WWII pilot, bombardier, and radioman find themselves adrift on a lifeboat without food or water after being forced to ditch their plane during a scouting mission.

 

On January 16, 1942, aviation chief machinist's mate and pilot Harold Dixon (aged 42, from La Mesa, California), radioman Gene Aldrich (aged 22 from Sikeston, Missouri) and bombardier Anthony Pastula (aged 24 of Youngstown, Ohio) took off from the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise in a Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bomber. As part of Torpedo Squadron (VT) 6 they were to undertake an anti-submarine sweep over the Pacific Ocean. Once airborne they were to maintain radio silence to safeguard the carrier being detected by the Japanese.
Their aircraft lost position and was unable to return to the carrier. Running low on fuel Dixon ditched the aircraft in the sea. The aircraft sank quickly taking most of the crew's survival equipment with it. The men inflated the small rubber life raft and climbed inside. Surviving on rainwater and meager rations the men drifted for 34 days and travelled over 1,000 miles, before landing on the Pukapuka atoll, a friendly island. The crew were picked up a week later by a seaplane from the USS Swan.
Medals
For his endeavors to keep his crew alive Dixon was awarded the Navy Cross. The citation read "...for extreme heroism, exceptional determination, resourcefulness, skilled seamanship, excellent judgment and highest quality of leadership". Pastula and Aldrich both received presidential commendations for their "extraordinary courage, fortitude, strength of character and exceptional endurance".
The life raft the men used is on display at the National Naval Aviation Museum.

 

Official Trailer

 

 

Against the Sun full movie - Reduced screen but in full resolution

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLx9Bzx7vGA

 

 

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