Evening star., 1942-06-21
Air Hero McCuskey
Brands His Squadron
'Fightingest' in Fleet
Group Shot Down A Jop
Planes, Lost Only a Men,
GO Get EN- Discloses
By WALTER B. CLAUSEN,

Associated Press war Correspondent
PEARL HARBOR, June 20.-"Go
Get En-" McCuskey wanted to be
a lawyer and still plans to be one.
Meanwhile, he has acquired the
Navy's Distinguished Flying Cross
for saving his aircraft carrier from
attack by shooting down a Jap
bomber
He also shares credit with three
other fighter pilots for having
strafed and probably sunk Japan
ese destroyer by machine-gun fire.
and in evidence of still further
achievements, seven painted rising
sun flags decorate the sides of his
combat plane.
The would-be attorney is 1t. E.
Scott McCuskey, 81, son of Mrs.
Rosamond Jane McCuskey of Stutt-
CART, Ark. Today he was permitted
to tell part of his story.
I'D rather talk about my squad
ron," he said. It's the fightingest
fighting squadron of the feet. Our
score of Jap planes shot down is A,
and we have lost only four pilots.
Il can't give the names of all our
squadron. because that would be
supplying their identification to the
enemy But I can say that my
wingman. Johnny G. Adams of Hia-
watha, Kan, got three planes; 1t.
Art j. BrasSfield, Browning, Mo,
school teacher, got seven: 1t. Wal
ter Hass, Collingswood, N. j., drug
gist. got six; 1t. William Woollen
of Chapel Hill, N. c., got four; 1t.
Richard Cromwellin, Montgomery,
Ala. four. and Ensign Harry Bona
parte Gibbs of Wheeling, w. Va,
two"
Got Name in Raid on Japs.
McCuskey came into the name
GO Get EN-" at the time of the
Navy's devastating raid on the jap
anese-mandated Gilbert and Mar
shall Islands in January.
He was in the air standing guard
over his carrier when a radioed
order rang through his earphones:
There's a four-motored job up
there making a run. Go get EN-,
McCuskey."
The lieutenant and his wingman,
Adams, went for the Jap bomber,
and after a fight in the clouds, NC
Cuskey came out with his first VIC
tim blown to pieces. For this, he
was presented the Distinguished
FLYING Cross last Wednesday.
Then. in the South Pacific, he
notched his first Zero fighter and
took part in the spectacular assault
on the destroyer. AS he tells 1t:
1--WE were attacking a Japanese
base. Seaplanes were harassing our
carrier. Four United States fighters
were sent up and shot down three
Jap seaplanes.
Then, after no more enemy
planes were around. we saw the
destroyer escorting a crippled Jap
cruiser. We made three straflng
attacks, the first of which silenced
her guns.
Exhausted Ammunition.
The destroyer started to run
away, cutting loose the cruiser, but
we kept after it, and heard ex-
plosions. Finally, our ammunition
exhausted, we gave up the chase.
Three hours later a second group
we sent out after the cruiser re-
ported the destroyer was nowhere
around"
Did you sink the destroyer"
asked.
We'll, our machine gun ammuni-
ton is armor- piercing, and the de-
stroyer disappeared" McCuskey
said. Then he went on to other
things.
Il got my first Zero fighter later"
he related. I'VE saw a Jap fleet.
Our torpedo bombers went in. with
us protecting them and anti-aircraft
fire breaking all around.
I'VE spotted three or four Zeros.
They started pumping it at us.
The boys below me picked out the
first. The second Zero tried to fire
on me from the rear and I scissored
and got him. Another fighter
knocked down a third of the enemy
planes.
The Zeros are faster than our
ships. but they refuse to trade licks
that means shooting at each
other headon.
"On our way back tc the carrier
afterwards, this Wingman Adams
and I got lost, and my radio went
out. We came down on a small
island, crash-landing on the beach.
Natives Waved Back.
I'VE saw 20 extremely black is
landers coming out of the jungle.
We waved at them while we were
still at running distance, but they
waved back and 1 figured they
were friendly and didn't want to
eat us.
They gave us water, oranges and