TURN THE ON LIGHTS...OUR PILOTS WILL LIVE!
By Ruben P. Kitchen, Jr. USS Yorktown Veteran Pacific Carrier ©1988
The planes from the Yorktown attacked the Japanese Navy. Finally darkness was starting to fall, and the Yorktown planes, as well as the others, headed back toward the Fifth Fleet. Below them was the Japanese Fleet, damaged and burning. Each pilot watched his gas gauge.
Back aboard Yorktown, Captain Jennings sat looking out into the darkness in front of the bow. He wanted to help the pilots but knew of no way. Quietly he sat thinking, looking for a way.. Dick Tripp was now on duty as the LSO (Landing Safety Officer), and he knew that,; in this darkness, a disaster might occur.
First one plane and then another dropped into the sea from lack of fuel. At last the planes approached the carriers. But in the darkness, the pilots could not make out which ships were carriers and which were not. Unless something was done many good men were going to be killed trying to landing the darkness. Slowly Admiral Mitscher got up from his seat and gave the order, "Turn on the lights." These four words were as deadly in meaning as Admiral Farragut's 1863 "Damn the torpedoes (mines), Full Speed Ahead!"
Lighting up the fleet would enable the American pilots to find their way home, but it would also help Japanese pilots and submarines to find the US Fleet. Still, the Admiral believed that it was worth the risk. He had promised he would get the pilots home safe, and he was going to keep his word.
The Yorktown quickly turned on all her lights. As she did so, a lump came to each man's throat as he thought "To Hell with the Japs! Our pilots are not expendable. If there is a chance, they will be saved!"
High in the air the pilots could not believe their eyes. Here below them were dozens of ships with thousands of men aboard endangering their lives to save slightly over two hundred men and planes. Incredulous, but grateful for the lights, the pilots looked for the carriers, but it was confusing. This time Admiral Mitscher broke another rule. He sent the message, "Land on any carrier."
Quickly, pilots jockeyed for landing positions. Dick Tripp was landing planes quicker than it was possible do do so. Still planes had to ditch into the sea for lack of fuel. Pilot Smoke approached the Yorktown and was given the OK by Dick. As his plane caught the arresting wire and came to a stop, it died from lack of fuel. Quickly, the airdales pushed the plane forward and out of the way.
A few minutes later, Lt. M. M. Tomme landed on the Yorktown. He made a good landing, and taxied his plane forward. When he was preparing to get out of the plane, another plane came in for a landing. This plane bounced over the barrier and hit the top of Tomme's plane. Tomme was killed instantly by the whirling propeller. After the plane hit Tomme and killed him, the crash started a fire on the Yorktown flight deck. The Airdales scattered out of the way of the fire, but not before a few had been killed. Quickly the fire control gang put out the fire. The damaged planes were shoved overboard to make room for more landings.
Dick brought in more planes, and when he was through he had landed 14 Yorktown planes and 14 planes from other carriers.
While spotting (putting planes into spots on the flight deck) planes the Airdales saw a sight which horrified them. Near the bow was the blackened body of a man. Apparently, he had been in the fire just a few minutes ago. He had been badly burned, yet he had managed to crawl through the parked planes to within a few feet of the forward edge of the flight deck. He must have lived for several minutes since he had managed to crawl that far, but in the confusion and fog of war no one had seen him. He died on the flight deck...alone.
13 of the Yorktown's planes landed on other carriers, while eleven made water landings. the crews were picked up safely. Of the 40 planes the Yorktown had sent out on June 20th to attack the Japanese fleet, 38 had made it back to the ship. Two avengers were lost. That night after all the pilots were aboard, the lights were turned off. Admiral Mitscher had gambled and won. Japanese Admiral Ozawa was the disheartened loser.
The next morning funeral services were held aboard the Yorktown for the two Avenger crews and the men killed on the flight deck in the crash. Within a few days, things were back to normal on the Yorktown.
Funeral and burial at sea taking place on the wooden flight deck of the USS Yorktown. Chaplain Bob Alexander and VF1 bury Lt. M.M. "Mad Dog" Tomme. After Tomme landed on the Yorktown, a plane behind Tomme ignored the LSO's wave off and crashed on top of Tomme.