20 January saw another trip over Formosa. This time as we approached Formosa we were above cloud cover. As we approached the East Coast, we noticed anti-aircraft fire coming through the clouds and bursting at our altitude. At first this seemed fortuitous, but as we continued, so did the bursts. Not only were the bursts at our altitude, but black puffs denoting explosions were occurring close ahead, and close behind. They were tracking us through the cloud cover. Suddenly it dawned; they now had radar controlled anti-aircraft batteries. That was a bit unnerving. We found a hole in the clouds, went down and attacked some military installations and scooted home, without any losses.

 

21 January I was to participate, as a fill-in wing man with another Division, in a CAP over the Fleet's Picket Destroyer. As was typical with these clowns, three of the Division had engine trouble and aborted take off. I flew around the carrier waiting for the others. Finally the Operations Officer said they were sending up a wing man for me. As soon as he showed up we headed for the Picket and took up our position at about 15,000 feet.

 

All went well until shortly before we were to be relieved. I saw something on the surface of the water, about 5 or 6 miles away. I radioed to the Destroyer that I had sighted something, and would leave my wing man orbiting while I determined what I had seen. As I approached the sighting, I could see it was made up of two planes on the water. My first thought was that it might be a Jap ambush designed to lure one of us away from the Picket while they attacked, first the ship and then our two planes which were separated and vulnerable. As I drew closer, I was able to identify the two planes as OS2U Observation-Scout planes, which were carried aboard cruisers and battleships. One was on its back and the other showed damage, which looked like it had been made by gunfire. Four men were in a life raft. They waved to me, and I could see all were alive. I then radioed the Picket destroyer and requested them to leave their station and rescue the men. By the time the destroyer arrived at the site, our relief reported in, and we left the downed men in good hands.

 

Later I learned the two planes had been on a rescue mission to pick up a couple of downed fighter pilots. They had been returning to the Task Group when they encountered fire from some source and had been shot down. Was the fire enemy or friendly? Who knows? I have my own ideas.