On the road

On the road

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Profiles Honor Flight DFW Spring-Summer 2013


 

Thomas enlisted into the U.S.Navy on August 23, 1943. He was 18 years old and had recently graduated from Amherst High School in Amherst, New York in May, 1945..

After basic training at Sampson Naval Base in Geneva, New York Thomas was assigned to naval aviation and began further training as an aviation radioman gunner on a TBF Avenger torpedo bomber. This training happened at USNATTC in Millington, Tennessee. He joined Torpedo Squadron 80 at San Diego, California and then it was on to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Thomas sailed and flew off of the U.S.S. Ticonderoga with the 3rd and 5th fleets. He participated in action beginning with pre-invasion strikes on the Philippine Islands. Later in the spring of 1945, the Ticonderoga was hit by two Japanese kamikaze aircraft off the island of Iwo Jima. Thomas’ squadron was transferred to the nearby carrier U.S.S. Hancock for some of the first low level strikes on Tokyo and other Japanese cities.

Once, returning from a strike on the island of Formosa (now Taiwan)Thomas noticed on the Avenger’s radar screen a shape that looked like a cruiser that was camouflaged and hidden on the coastline. Thomas’s aircraft and others destroyed the Japanese cruiser later that day. Thomas received the American Theater Ribbon, six battle stars; three for air to air combat, air to sea, and air to ground combat. He also received the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Ribbon, the Philippine Liberation Ribbon, the Air Medal and the WWII Victory medal.

Thomas was discharged on June 18, 1946 with the rank of Aviation Radioman 2nd Class.

 

No comments:

Post a Comment