Tabor City tribune. (Tabor City, N.C.) 1946-1991, 1956-06-20

Operations In 1914 and l9ls.
4 They provided air support at
Two Jima and Okinawa, launch
ed raids on the Japanese home
islands and were standing by
when the enemy surrendered.
War in The Atlantic was quite
different for that in The Pacific,
but the fleets flyboys were no
less active. Patrol aircraft work.
ed effectively to reduce the sub
marine menace. Carriers cover
ed the moroccan landings in
1912. They escorted conveys, in
an anti-submarine warfare tao
tic which reduced the Greman
undersea fleet by SO subs, and
enabled our troop and cargo
vesslS to ply their trades I'M
moleSted. Carriers covered the
landings in Southern France in
1914, while Battleships and cru
isers aircraft spotted for naval
gunfire.
But volumes have already been
written about naval aviation and
it's part in the conflict; in brief.
carriers and their compliments
played a distinguished part in
every phase of the war at sea.
They had led the victorious
campaign across the Pacific,
sweeping aside enemy aerial OPP
position, sinking warships, de-
stroying supply vessels, and as
'sisting the hard-pressed soldiers
and Marines fighting the ground
war. Pacific fleets air force. at
wars end, could balance the
loss in aerial combat of 45l car
rier planes against an enemy
loss Of some $4,000 planes. Navy
and Marine ground units &C
counted for another 5000 enemy
planes. And carrier aircraft
sank 711,256 tons of war vessels
and some 1890, 900 tons of enc
my merchant shipping. Only IL!
carriers were lost out of a total
OF ITO. Six of these were I'M
escort carriers; the TO-
900 ton Princeton was MORALLY
wounded during the Battle of
Leyte Gulf and four others werel
sunk in 1912, before carrier task
group tactics had been devised.
A brilliant was record forI
sure. The end of the war brought
with it new challenges, but the
navy was already on the way to
answering many of them. The
development of planes adapted
10 the necessities of carrier OPP
Grafton, yet the fighting equals
Of any in the world - the de-
'elopment of carriers strongI
enough and long enough to
handle these new planes-the
difficulties of carrier flying with
ct planes having slow accelera-
ion speed and high landingL
peedS - these were some of
he problems faced in post-WW
I.
AT the same time navy task
orceS, each built around one or
wo carriers, were supporting U.
). Policy in the Mediterranean
nd in the western Pacific. So
was that USS Valley Forge
CVS 45) found herself launch d
ng air strikes shortly after
unc 25, 1850. The date on c
Which communists forces laun- /
he'd their attack against South 6
.orea. Since United Nations ,
crceS already had control OIL
h" surrounding seas. the car I,
icrS concentrated on supporting b
he land campaign and taking s
art in the air offensive. From g
October 1850 until hostilities p
eased in July 1858, a task force g
nth two to four carriers re- =
lained Continuously at see off
orep1 hh planes in sup
9rr Shnd troops, cut COM
- R6ns lines and attack in
lsH1al and supply centers.
But yesterdays carriers strikes
Id bombing missions are a fad
g memory; todays' are merely
ill. Aviators of the caliber of
ustin, saufley, towers and the
tie Marc A. Mitscher have be-
me names in history. But the
avail air force they fought with
and for-is today perhaps the
ost important element of your
avy. So young men, for the
est in aviation training, Join a
am with an historic past,
lorious present and a promis-
e future, your United States
avy Air Force.